By Andi McDaniel, Twin Cities Public Television

Public television– and the broadcast business in general– is in the midst of a major, dramatic transformation. So we’re more eager than ever before for big, weird, game-changing ideas– and today we’re officially announcing a project that’s full of them: TV Takeover.

Call us crazy, but we wanted to find out what would happen if we asked five of the Twin Cities most daring and inventive creative organizations to take control of tpt’s broadcast air for an hour each. Will they make amazing television? Will they cause us all to break out in a cold sweat? Will they change the way we think about the entire business of content creation? Probably all of the above.

We’re very excited to share with you the formal announcement of TV Takeover, a five-part live TV and event series that will air Fridays at 9PM starting May 30 on tpt2 and will be streamed on the web.

Essentially, we’ve partnered with five of the most inventive Twin Cities arts organizations to bring you eclectic, fresh, exciting episodes of television like you’ve never experienced it before. The TV Takeover “curators” have shared their eclectic combinations of stories, skits, poems, short films, explorations and animations—and will be taking turns co-hosting a live audience at the tpt studios. Want to attend one or several of the events? Subscribe to Rewire and you’ll be the first to know when we announce them!

We couldn’t be more proud of our TV Takeover partners:

• Springboard for the Arts is an economic and community development organization for artists and by artists.
• Northern Lights.mn, producer of the annual Northern Spark festival, is a non-profit arts organization whose mission is to transform our sense of what’s possible in public space.
• MPLS.TV is a Minneapolis-centric video network featuring both original and curated local content.
• Works Progress Studio is an artist-led design studio whose projects catalyze new possibilities for artistic expression, civic engagement and participation in public life.
• Saint Paul Almanac is a literary organization that creates opportunities for understanding, learning, and building relationships through sharing people’s stories.

TV Takeover is a project of Rewire, a tpt initiative focused on bringing public media to life for a new generation. TV Takeover is supported in part by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as well as through an Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Join in the TV and art-making by following @tptRewire and using the hashtag #tvtakeover.