Levi Weinhagen’s Mobile Comedy Suitcase from Knight Foundation on Vimeo. Images courtesy Levi Weinhagen, Mobile Comedy Suitcase project. Art making is the process of making something out of nothing. For an improviser and theater maker like myself, it’s rare that the something I make isn’t temporary and experiential. I love the idea that most of […]
Article · May 25, 2016 by Levi Weinhagen
Earlier this month, a few blocks off of University Avenue in St. Paul were transformed into an Asian-inspired night market. It’s called the Little Mekong Night Market. It’s a Knight Green Line Challenge winner and it’s part of the Asian Economic Development Association’s strategy to harness the creative power of the community to grow the […]
Article · August 14, 2015 by Levi Weinhagen
Imagine a stage of Indonesian shadow puppets. Now throw in Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, Jesse Ventura and Paul Bunyan. “Shadow Visitors” promises to be a true Minnesota adventure, when Sumunar, the Indonesian cultural group, and Green T Productions debut the production in September. Sumunar was looking for a way to draw Minnesota audiences into the […]
Article · August 11, 2015 by Levi Weinhagen
The Twin Cities-based American Composer’s Forum holds a Knight Arts-funded annual competition to find the best high school composers, offer them mentoring and a scholarship, as well as the chance to perform their work onstage. Here, St. Paul arts blogger Levi Weinhagen writes about the 2015 winners’ performance. Because the term “songwriter” has been so […]
Article · July 9, 2015 by Levi Weinhagen
What started as the next iteration of Grammy Camp St. Paul, an ongoing program focused on teaching music-making to young people, has morphed into a new program called Women in Music and Audio weekend Targeting teenage girls ages 13-18, this 2014 Knight Arts Challenge Award-winning project is a collaboration between McNally Smith College of Music […]
Article · May 17, 2015 by Levi Weinhagen
Video projection on a steam cloud. Four St. Paul artists are coming together to create public art with organizations that have a positive environmental impact. Their 2014 Knight Arts Challenge award winning Plume Project is made up of three distinctive components conceived of individually but created with shared resources, connections and equipment. And all area created for […]
Article · May 8, 2015 by Levi Weinhagen
One of the Asparagus Compositions. Photo by Melissa Rivard. In 2006, composer and audio designer Ben Houge was living in Shanghai and working on audio for a video game project for Ubisoft when he had dinner at a restaurant called Jade on 36. The dining experience, coupled with how immersed Houge was in his audio […]
Article · April 30, 2015 by Levi Weinhagen
Courtesy of Mu Performing Arts. Mu Performing Arts has become a national leader in developing and supporting the work of Asian-American playwrights, actors and musicians. Mu has also become a hub of education, community outreach, and a strong voice advocating for social justice. As Mu gets ready to start work on its Knight Arts Challenge-winning […]
Article · April 28, 2015 by Levi Weinhagen
The door is (officially) wide open St. Paul: Starting today, you can send in your best ideas for the arts for a chance at funding through the Knight Arts Challenge. The deadline is May 18th, the application available here at KnightArts.org, and there are just three rules to follow: The project must be about […]
Article · April 20, 2015 by Levi Weinhagen
Michael Bahl at work. Not many artists are called unique and actually deserve it. But sculptor and Paleo-osteological interpreter Michael Bahl makes work that is truly unlike anything else in the art world. Bahl’s newest project, thanks in part to a Knight Arts Challenge grant, will be a bronze skeleton of a large imaginary mammal with […]
Article · April 1, 2015 by Levi Weinhagen
Of Scars project. There’s enough storytelling being performed in the Twin Cities that just the fact that a new show is happening has become unremarkable. However, the people behind Culture Casts are producing something new that promises to be much more than just another storytelling show. “Off Our Chests: Women Talk Breasts” is an evening […]
Article · March 11, 2015 by Levi Weinhagen