Campuses:
The Bell Museum Resident Artist Research Project offers artists an exclusive opportunity to engage with University researchers and scientific collections while exploring the application of art as a medium for interpreting science in the public realm.
Laurie Allmann is an environmental writer and poet whose professional focus for the past 3+ decades has been to illuminate the complexities of science and nature through writing and other forms of creative expression. Allmann draws on her background in field biology and experience as a naturalist to explore the idea of “local knowledge” – ways of knowing that people develop through their interactions with the physical environment and their intimate experiences of place.
Through poetry readings, public radio commentary, and television documentaries, as well as published literature, monologues and plays, Allmann seeks to convey both the insights offered by research and her own enduring passion for the natural world. Visit Laurie Allmann online.
Sonja Peterson employs motifs of common agricultural plants and animals, underground roots, spider webs, and vine-like growths to examine the global matrix of agricultural, financial, and environmental systems. Using traditional paper cutting, collage, and stencils, Peterson creates elaborate large-scale hanging papercuts that illustrate how the structural integrity of global systems lies in their interconnectivity: if elements disconnect, the entire system comes under threat of collapse.
Inspired by the writings of Michael Pollan, Richard Holmes, and many others, Peterson is currently interested in how the collection and trade of natural commodities like precious metals, plant-based dyes, spices, fruits, and animal furs have linked nature to the global banking system and interwoven cultures, economies, and ecological systems around the world. Visit Sonja Peterson online.
No Man is an Island, an installation by resident artist Sonja Peterson
Currently on display!
This installation is the creation of Bell Museum Spring 2013 Resident Artist Research Program artist Sonja Peterson. The installation includes Peterson's signature large-scale paper cut works as well as glass etchings and captivating small sculptures.
The MAW Collective, also known as Minneapolis Art on Wheels, is a group of artists activating public spaces with mobile, large-scale projections of sound and video. Members of the collective include artists, engineers, scientists, architects, students and professionals, working together to leverage the power of digital technology to create opportunities for community engagement with art, science, and urban public space. MAW’s signature approach uses bike-transported projection and sound systems along with real-time, interactive drawing software that allows experienced and novice artists alike to illuminate building façades with original artistic creations. Visit the MAW Collective online.
Andy DuCett’s work surveys the various ways we humans subjectively interpret and internalize events, objects and places in a world that is becoming ever more connected. DuCett’s recent artistic pursuits have joined his established interests in objects, collecting, and shared cultural experiences with concepts of place, memory, taxonomy, and audience participation to investigate why we remember some life experiences more vividly than others.
With his RARP artist residency, DuCett expresses a desire to “play” with traditional ideas of the museum-going experience, challenging the audience to question their own expectations for what objects are collected and how they are displayed. Visit Andy DuCett online.
Saturday, April 27, Cost: $12 Regular, $10/Members and UMN Students w/ID
Details and ticketing info to come - mark your calendars today!
The always-popular Bell Social combines art, science and live performance with great eats, door prizes and a cash bar. This year's Bell Social premieres new works by the Bell Museum's Resident Artist Research Project spring 2013 artists in residence, Laurie Allmann and Sonja Peterson and a live performance from musical guest, The Chastity Brown Trio!