CUT/PASTE: News from MCAD Issue #2

CUT /PASTE News From MCAD: Spring 202 1

2 Issue

2 Issue

CUT/PASTE is designed by Hannah Taylor ’19 Poster art by Tom Bierlein ’19, an artist based in Minneapolis; tombierlein.com Tom Bierlein Variations on Becoming, 2020. Cedar, 12x10x8.

Peter Williams. Birdland, 2020 Black Exodus Series Oil and graphite on canvas 60 x 72 in (152.4 x 182.9 cm) PW10745

CUT/PASTE: News From MCAD is an annual publication that celebrates the creative achievements and cultural leadership of alumni. Inside, you will discover innovative work being done by peers as well as current students, the latest developments at the college, and ways to engage with the MCAD community.

Collection of Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University Courtesy of the artist and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles

Thank You Supporters MCAD’s commitment to creating an environment where all students can succeed is supported in no small part by the generosity of our community. Thanks to a generous contribution from the Shavlik Family Foundation, we will be building out a “HyFlex” learning space in the large auditorium on the MCAD campus. This space will allow instructors to combine the best aspects of in-person, hybrid, and flexible learning to meet the needs of students. In addition, 251 donors have contributed nearly $250,000 to the Emergency Student Assistance Fund, helping keep students on track to graduation.

2021 Alumni Achievement Award Peter Williams ’75 is being honored with the 2021 MCAD Alumni Achievement Award, which is given each year to an alum who has made lasting and significant contributions to the world of art and design. A lifelong and widely-lauded educator and painter, Williams's work unflinchingly chronicles the historic, current, and future experiences of Black Americans with boldness and humor.

CUT /PASTE Featured artwork used in MCAD logo counterforms throughout this issue are from the 2020 MCAD Auction. In order of appearance, pieces include: Sanjit Sethi Untitled Handmade ceramic bowl (Pg. 03) Hend Al-Mansour ’02, MFA The Secret, 2013 Screenprint on paper (Pg. 05) Hazel Belvo, Faculty Emeritus Water, Earth, Air, 2015-2018 Gouache on archival paper (Pg. 07) David Bierk Eastern Townships Streams/Reflective Sky, 1992 Oil on photomontage (Pg. 09) David Eberhardt ’93 Untitled, 1993 Photography giclée print (Pg. 09)

Nirmal Raja Bela’s Vase, 2019 Cast hydrocal plaster and fabric (Pg. 09) Betsy Byers ’08, MFA Omission, 2013 Acrylic on canvas (Pg. 09) Bobby Rogers ’14 To be so bright, 2019 Archival pigment print (Pg. 09) Rita Dungey In the Beginning, 2018 Acrylic on canvas (Pg. 09) Betty Hahn LR, 1974-1979 Black silkscreen on paper (Pg. 09)

Liz Banfield Thunderhead, Harbour Island, 2019 Photography, giclée print (Pg. 09)

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The Essential Catalyst

Much of the world of art and design focuses on the spheres of creativity and innovation. And for good reason.

Creativity and innovation are the essential building blocks or DNA of what we do at MCAD. It is through these two defining forces that we fuel how we engage with the world, whether through our studio practices, our conceptual development, our work ethic, or our individual philosophies and vantage points. However, no matter how well-informed we are, no matter how astute we are, no matter how dedicated and hard-working we are, the practices of creativity and innovation are meaningless without the catalyst of empathy. Empathy is what makes creativity come alive, sparking connection, pliancy, and meaning.

The same is true with innovation.

Without empathy, innovation is a cold, heartless principle of progress that serves systems, but does little to serve others (or ourselves). Empathy makes innovation warm.

Empathy makes our creative practice lean in and become a practice of understanding, and not simply an exercise in making for making’s sake.

The MCAD alumni featured here, like so many other alumni of our remarkable community, offer clear examples of practices where creativity and innovation are activated and transformed by empathy.

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At some point, long ago, creativity and innovation became separated from each other, like oil and water. Creativity became the purview of studio artists and performers, while innovation was the territory of designers and scientists.

This fracturing of creativity from innovation has been tremendously counterproductive. My job as president is to seize every opportunity I can to bring creativity and innovation closer together at MCAD, so that they are constantly interlocking and informing one another. The way to do this is through empathy. Empathy is that essential binder, that catalyst, that glue, which allows the forces of creativity and innovation to fuse and create a culture of generosity.

Sanjit Sethi, 2021

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Opportunities for Engagement

CONTINUING EDUCATION

MCAD alumni never stop learning! MCAD alumni can take one adult Continuing Education class every semester at a 75% discount, on a space-available basis, and always receive 10% off through regular registration.

Summer 2021 classes will include engaging online offerings including drawing, painting, illustration, web design, and more! Some in-person classes will aslo be offered this summer.

Learn more and register at mcad.edu/ce.

“This course was inspiring and covered a wide range of necessary topics. Awesome guest speakers, great visuals, super honest, and clear examples from the instructor’s own freelancing work.”

–Freelancing Fundamentals Student

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SOCIAL JUSTICE

Save the D ate

This spring, thanks to generous support from Mark B. Abeln ’81, Monica L. Little ’78, and Boriana Strzok ’08, MCAD alumni had the opportunity to participate in one of three online social justice workshops.

At each workshop, Kenneth Bailey and Lori Lobenstine of the Design Studio for Social Intervention (DS4SI) led the group through real-world case studies and small group discussions grounded in the "Ideas - Arrangements - Effects" framework.

Participants learned to identify where humans have created artificial structures that create and reinforce inequity. Then, the groups took time to imagine how we can create new structures that would help us create a new, more just and joyful world.

“The challenges we face don’ t seem less difficult, but they do seem less hopeless.”

–Workshop Participant

The MCAD Auction tradition continues July 15–19 with a hybrid inperson and virtual event experience. In its eighth year, this exclusive gathering is a beloved opportunity to bid, buy, and collect works by established alumni, friends, and faculty of the college. Our top fundraising event, the MCAD Auction has raised more than a million dollars for student scholarships.

01 Registration is now open for the summer 2021 lineup, which includes both online and in-person classes.

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MCAD: Forming & Transforming

How do you define MCAD? Where is MCAD headed in the future? What matters most to our students, faculty and community?

Over the last year, a team of creative minds across disciplines and departments have been exploring those questions as the college embarked on building a new brand that MCAD will unveil this summer.

“This process was about much more than updating a logo, although that’s definitely one of the more visible signs of our work,” says Annie Gillette Cleveland, Vice President, Communications and Marketing Strategy. “Instead it was a very rigorous exploration of our aspirations as a college and the values we believe matter most to our community, students, faculty, staff, and alumni. It is a reflection of our institution’s path forward.”

Following stakeholder interviews, competitive reviews, and internal group soul searching, the Brand Strategy Team reviewed and redefined MCAD’s mission, vision, and values, articulating a new emphasis on teaching and nurturing not only artists and designers, but also innovative thinkers, creative leaders, and engaged global citizens. To learn more about these updates, visit: mcad.edu/about-mcad/missionvision-and-values.

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MCAD: Forming & Transforming

“The new branding is now a true representation of the MCAD we choose to be– bold, transformative, and accessible,” says President Sanjit Sethi. “The living mark of MCAD is more inclusive and adaptable, and holds up an institution that’s positioned to take on new ambitions and opportunities.”

Starting with this publication, the MCAD community will begin to see this new brand and identity come to life in a redesigned MCAD website, corresponding signage across campus, and many other materials. “This project represents a pivotal moment in MCAD history,” Sethi says. “I will be forever grateful for the generous time and expertise offered by Board Trustee Todd Paulson, co-founder of KNOCK, inc. and his extremely talented team in collaboration with our MCAD team.

They’ve helped us to create a truly transformative brand that reflects the dynamic and engaged community we have at MCAD.” A special thanks to those people who have made this new branding come to life: Kobby Appiah ’11, Kayla Campbell ’16, Board Trustee Greg Hoffman ’92, Hannah Taylor ’19, Angela Vogt ’11; MCAD faculty Erik Brandt, Jan Jancourt, and Kindra Murphy; KNOCK, inc.’s Gene Valek and Diana Ross-Gotta; and DesignWorks student staff.

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Where questions inspire creativity, creativity informs solutions, solutions engage leaders, leaders inf luence cultures, cultures ignite change, change invites questions

Meet the Designer Angela Vogt received her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago for Fine Arts and Post-Baccalaureate in Graphic Design from MCAD in 2011. Now working as freelance creative director and designer in California, she has worked for over 11 years creating branding for various small businesses and local agencies such as KNOCK. “I love that MCAD is a fixture for creative opportunity and community in Minneapolis, so I was honored to be part of the future of MCAD through this re-branding, in collaboration with the teams from KNOCK and DesignWorks,” Vogt said.

Accesibility First: PMS Reflex Blue, PMS Bright Red, and PMS 7548 make up the primary color palette of the brand. These colors were tested and chosen with careful consideration given to ensure accessibility for all users.

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MCAD: Forming & Transforming

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Primary Typeface: Akkurat Light, Italic Regular, Italic Bold, Italic

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Our identity is relatable: it looks like it sounds.

The pronunciation of MCAD as “M-CAD” has been part of our vernacular for decades. In our chosen logotype territory, we have considered this important aural interpretation in our design.

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MINNEAPOLIS C OLLEGE of A R T and DESIGN

02 To the Letter.

For more experimental applications, the new identity system allows for the use of the lettermark in both its counter form as well as a frame for student art and a variety of original visual textures.

Secondary Typeface: Pyros Regular Italic

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Introductions

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Robert Ransick

An artist, designer, and educator, Robert Ransick most recently served as a member of the visual arts faculty, founding director of the MFA in Public Action, and director of the art and entrepreneurship programs at Bennington College’s Center for the Advancement of Public Action before joining MCAD in July as Vice President of Academic Affairs.

01 The sequined bottle is from Haiti, a gift from the friend who introduced Ransick to his husband, architect Blake Goble. 02 A watercolor painted by his mother-in-law of the view from the family house in southern Arizona. 03 Binoculars for viewing the wildlife over the Minneapolis skyline. “I wouldn’t call myself a birder, but there's a bald eagle that likes to fly high above the Mississippi outside my window.” 04 Required reading: Writing in Space by the conceptual artist Lorraine O’Grady, a former teacher, collaborator, mentor and friend of Ransick’s whose work is now in retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum. 05 Original sculpture by Yoko Inoue, a former colleague at Bennington College and friend of Ransick’s. “It’s a mini basketball with a doe-head on top.

It’s always present in my life, like a wise overseer.”

Marin Byrne

Director of Annual Giving and Alumni Relations Marin Byrne came to MCAD after a career spent raising community support for good causes, from closing the achievement gap, to building wind farms, to getting kids of color to discover the great outdoors.

01 Mug made by a friend, filled with Components of Authentic Speaking cards: “I am a Midwesterner by birth and upbringing, but a New Yorker in innate conflict style. This little card helps me stay closer to the productive middle point between my tendency to be either too passive or too aggressive.” 02 Low wooden foot stool. 03 Notebook for taking notes, preferably with a Uniball Vision pen. 04 Dog bone for keeping her dog Milo occupied during Zoom calls.

05 “The Costco 30-pack of Spindrift is my thing. I go through a box a week.

I swear I think better with a beverage at hand. Experimentation reveals that lemon is the best flavor for concentration; raspberry lime is best for creativity.”

06 Box of resilience cards: “It's like a classy version of one of those kitten posters that says ‘hang in there’.” 07 Print of a bicycle painting by U.K. artist Gosia Black, with a quote from one of Byrne’s bikepacking idols: “It’s a reminder that the journey doesn't have to be linear.”

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An annual all-student juried exhibition held March 26–May 9, 2021

Despite the challenges of a global pandemic, more than 80 undergraduate and graduate students submitted artwork to this year’s Made at MCAD exhibition. Five alumni jurors selected work by 41 different students to showcase in the main gallery. The following students received one of five $200 Jurors’ Choice Awards.

Made at MCAD

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01 Alondra M. Garza, MFA Invisible 3, 2020 Screenprint on fabric

02 Nat Ollila Melded, 2020 Film photographs printed on inkjet and glued to foam core painted black with acrylic paint

03 Yao Jian, MFA Loneliness is a Friend of Mine, 2020 Digital inkjet prints

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04 Jocelyn Suzuka, MFA Kakumau: to shelter; to shield; to hide, 2020 Animals sewn by hand using wool and silk fibers

05 Sophia Hansen Semiotic Desktop, 2020 Video. 2 min., 27 sec.

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Quarantine and Creativity

Has a year of staying close to home altered our creative lives? How are MCAD artists answering this moment? To start the conversation, we talked to Craig Rice ’76, a filmmaker, musician, and MCAD adjunct faculty member, and his son, Connor Rice ’14, a public artist who’s been creating new works for the city of Minneapolis and the Green Line transit system under the name CRICE.

Craig, you’ ve been teaching remotely since the start of the pandemic. What’s it been like?

Craig: I have a very hands-on teaching style and I like working the room and seeing how students respond. Teaching online can sometimes become like TV viewing, where students are watching me perform. But the toughest part, I think, is students not being in the room with other students, and learning from each other.

CRICE: I feel bad that a lot of kids are missing out on that. For me, 90 percent of what I got out of MCAD was after classes, in the hallways, or talking to teachers in their studio hours. Having conversations between friends asking, ‘what do you think?,’ or ‘how’d you do that?’ It fuels your fire being in that environment.

Speaking of fuel, this year started with a global pandemic and growing demands for racial justice, and ended with a presidential election and an insurrection. As artists, do you feel pressure to respond to it all?

CRICE: There’s a narrative that all creators should be creating the Sistine Chapel at this moment, because society always leans on artists. Our capitalist brainwashing makes us feel like we have to work, work, work.

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But during the early part of Covid, when the uprising happened, I wasn’t even able to sit down and focus—there were helicopters all around my neighborhood by the memorial site. It was crazy. So for me, I felt like it was important to reflect, look inward, and get my mind right. I take being an artist very seriously, like it’s a brotherhood or a sacred order, and it’s our role to be leaders. I feel blessed that I was an artist in this moment and had an outlet for processing and creating things, but I didn’t feel like I had to be constantly producing things.

Craig Rice ’76 and son, Connor Rice (CRICE) ’14

Craig: I would agree. I have done a lot more introspective study and reading. I took online drawing lessons this summer because I needed to be creative, but more personally creative. I’ve also been trying to reprogram myself, letting go of paying too much attention to the political process, and bringing my attention back to the personal level, being more attuned to what’s going on inside me, and what I still need to create at this chapter in my life. With my students, I also worked hard to keep them positive, redirecting their attention to what’s really important, which is themselves and their work.

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How do you foster positivity in the classroom or in the studio during a time that’s been so challenging?

Craig: I recently had the chance to interview Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter Bernice for a film, and she was saying that the world right now is going through a big time-out.

We’ve been acting up, and now we need to sit in the corner and figure out what we’ve been doing wrong personally and collectively.

We’re not going to be the same people when we come out of this moment as when we went into it. I think artists have to think of themselves as leaders, because their work is a mirror to what’s going on. They’re interpreters and enlighteners, and so in a tribal scenario, the artist’s role is to describe, discuss, and depict situations that can lead people to a better way of thinking and living.

CRICE: It’s all about imagining an alternative future. That to me is art.

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CRICE, 0LM3C. silkscreen on fabric 57" x 57.5"

CRICE, FORZA! silkscreen on fabric 39" x 57"

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L eave No Trace

The artist known as HOTTEA looks for new ways to build on the beauty of impermanence

Since graduating from MCAD with a degree in graphic design, HOTTEA (a.k.a. Eric Rieger ’07) has built an impressive body of work designed to disintegrate. Whether it’s stringing miles of yarn into sky bridges of color across Brooklyn’s Williamsburg Bridge, applying oversized magnets to the facade of the Guthrie Theater, or casting light and color across Minneapolis’s flour mills, very little of the artist’s meticulous, multicolored work is ever meant to last.

“But I do want to make a lasting impact on the viewer, so you have an epiphany about the space and materials being used,” he says. “My goal isn’ t to get into permanent collections or the most prestigious walls of whatever gallery, but to make the viewer think differently.”

Inspired in part by his late grandmother, who taught him to knit, HOTTEA began experimenting with yarn and fencing to create typefaces that started popping up around the Twin Cities more than a decade ago. Since then, the scale and ambition of his yarn installations have transcended the simple materials, with private and corporate commissions that have taken him from the Sydney Opera House to São Paulo’s MADE festival, and multi-story installations like

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HOT LUNCH, a piece built in 2017 over the course of two months at the Mall of America with more than 13,000 strands of color unraveled from more than 700 pounds of yarn. Though his recent work has expanded to include installations of wood, magnets, and other media, one common denominator is a delight in bringing art to where it’s least expected—on a cyclone fence, over a weedcracked tennis court, in the fissures of a crumbling stone facade, or on the underbelly of a bridge.

A former graffiti writer who got arrested and tazed for adding typeface to public property, HOTTEA has learned to be careful about the words he applies to his work. “I used to try to describe what I’m doing with words like ‘non-destructive,’ but then other graffiti artists might take offense to that,” he says.

“Let’s just say I’m trying to adhere or build or install art without what the police would consider damage to property. I think if I didn’t know what it was like to see my family in

HOTTEA’s pixelated portrait of George Floyd, made of magnets and acrylic, is featured in America, I Sing You Back an exhibition at MCAD that was on view January 19–May 9, 2021. “When you hang a painting on the wall you’re using nails and some kind of anchor.

I’m trying to do the same thing in public spaces without the nails or the hanger,” says HOTTEA, who credits Piotr Szyhalski’s course How Ideas Are Made “for having an impact on everything I do now.”

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such pain over the consequences of me doing graffiti, I might not be so passionate about installing things temporarily and not altering the surface in any way. That’s kind of how my graffiti roots are impacting my current work.”

Last spring, HOTTEA was about to unveil a large-scale, color-field work made of magnets when Minneapolis erupted in protests over police violence. Instead, he put the project on hold, and created a large-scale pixelated portrait of George Floyd, which he got permission to apply to the facade of the Guthrie Theater—a first for both the artist and the institution. “I’d been out scouting for locations, looking for metal surfaces or large metal warehouses when I passed by the Guthrie and realized, ‘Wait a minute, this whole building is metal. The entire facade could be a canvas for me.’”

Epiphanies like that are what keep him inspired, and convinced he’s found the right platform for his vision. “It’s important to have an original idea, or something no one’s thought of before, but consistency also matters, and continuing to find innovation within that same idea,” he says, as he considers the advice he’d offer current MCAD students. “I do believe that not everyone is meant to be a full-time artist. But if you’re obsessed, it’s possible.”

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HOTTEA’s installation, ROMANCE, was on view at the Joondalup Festival in Perth, March 23–25, 2018.

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HOTTEA ODD NUMBERS Tulsa, Oklahoma

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Spread your visions out like seeds

Walker Art Center acquires Ta-coumba T. Aiken’s latest paintings After nearly 50 years as a public artist, Ta-coumba T. Aiken ’74 has put his unmistakable stamp on every compass point in the Twin Cities, from the pointillist portraits of Black music heroes he first created for the legendary Flyte Time studios in 1989, to the Walker Art Center, which just acquired his most recent painting series, NO WORDS, created in response to George Floyd’s murder.

A studio artist who has also transformed transit hubs, painted grain elevators, and even built a Guinness recordsetting installation out of 596,000 Lite Brite pegs, Aiken says the real key to staying creative over a long career is collaboration. “I say follow your heart and if it’s not going anywhere at that time, follow your friend’s heart, follow someone you trust, help them out, use your skills to help them have a voice.

When you do, you’ll probably find your voice within that,” says Aiken.

“If you have an idea or a dream and you don’ t know how to go for it, research it, study it, share the idea lightly with someone else.

Keeping it right here, close to your chest, doesn’ t get you anywhere. You have to spread your visions out like seeds, scatter them, and then see where they grow.”

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It’s a lesson Aiken says he first learned from one-time MCAD faculty member Siah Armajani, the Iranian-American sculptor architect, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 81. “Anytime he’d come by to tell you how to make something better he’d say, ‘That’s just 1 percent—now go and make the other 99 percent.”

Ta-Coumba T. Aiken, NO WORDS, 2020.

Acrylic on canvas, 78 x 96" each, unframed.

Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

Anonymous gift, in memory of George Floyd (10/14/1973-5/25/2020).

May the wrongs Committed against the Communities of Color and Indigenous peoples of Minnesota never be lost to history, 2020.

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L earning in Place

MCAD’s Master of Arts in Sustainable Design program allows students to stay in their communities to build more sustainable futures

While most of MCAD’s classes moved to virtual platforms during the pandemic, the Master of Arts in Sustainable Design program was already there. Created as an exclusively online learning experience, the program has been a big draw for working professionals like Dawn Keene ’13, who continued running her own graphic design firm while she was enrolled. “I did the whole program from Atlanta, with classmates from around the world,” she says. “In fact, the first time I flew to Minneapolis was for my graduation.”

Keene first got interested in sustainability as she began learning more about what the inks, plastics, paper, and other products she used in her designs were doing to the environment.

“I had to face a tough truth—my work was contributing to the problem,” she says. But enrolling at MCAD, and working on a project with Minneapolis’s Little Earth community, taught her that sustainability is about far more than promoting earth-friendly products or low-waste systems.

“Sustainability is also about reimagining how our human systems work, and making people more connected and healthier,” she says. “I’m a people person, so that was life-changing for me because I love working in the community.”

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The owner of Studio Change, a sustainability consulting firm, and now an adjunct faculty member who teaches creative leadership in MCAD’s Master of Arts in Sustainable Design program, Keene works with clients in local government and education, helping them to think differently about how they do business. “Sustainability is a moving target, so it’s changing all the time,” says Keene, who believes its principles can be applied to everything from criminal justice reform to boosting democracy, “as Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight just showed everyone by getting out the vote in Georgia.”

Going to graduate school in mid-career can be daunting, Keene admits, “but it’s worth the risk to reinvent your work and feel like you’re giving back in some way. If you’re thinking about going back to school, I say, ‘Don’t be afraid to make a change.’ It could make all the difference.”

Dawn Keene ’13, MA, Sustainable Design

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Breaking Bread, From a Distance

MCAD grads are finding fresh new ways to bring comfort food to communities in need

Bar Luchador, the beloved wrestling-themed restaurant in Minneapolis’s Stadium Village, was an early casualty of COVID-19, going down for the count last May. “What made our restaurant really special was that it was driven by regulars, and genuine face-to-face interaction,” says owner and chef Angelo Pennacchio ’05. “One thing I didn’t value as much as I should have is how much running a restaurant is really about building a community.”

Finding new ways to serve up that connection has been part of the inspiration behind his new Twin Cities Community Food Project, a charityminded pop-up Pennachio launched during the pandemic with his Luchador kitchen-mates that’s been offering restaurant quality take-out to free pick-up sites around the Twin Cities.

The project has also helped raise money for the YWCA’s hats and socks drive with to-go-burgerand-malt nights at local restaurants.

“For restaurants this year there have been a lot of new rules, and none of them any fun.

But we’re hoping that the Community Food Project could be a bridge to the next restaurant idea, which we want to have a charity model built into it,” he says. “It sounds cheesy, but the food tastes better when you know it’s going somewhere good.”

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When the pandemic hit, MCAD grads Hannah Hendrix ’20 and Malakai Greiner ’19 struck back with Flour Power Delivery, a home-based bakery that’s been delivering pretzels, bop-tarts, and pesto kolaches all over the Twin Cities since COVID-19 forced the couple to hunker down at home. Using a cottage food producer registration, Flour Power Delivery does business on a sliding scale, asking customers to pay what they can afford for items like fresh-made oly bollen, a traditional Dutch recipe from Hendrix’s grandmother. “We both have a vested interest in developing a more equitable food system in our region,” says Greiner.

“For us, having a sliding scale and donating unsold product and accepting trade are all ways we think food can be more equitable.

It shouldn’ t be a luxury to eat yummy food.”

Working as a professional baker while studying at MCAD, Hendrix has come to see plenty of parallels between food and art.

01 Owners of Flour Power Delivery, Hannah Hendrix ’20 and Malakai Greiner ’19.

02 Freshly baked soft pretzels from Flour Power Delivery.

Check out more sweet and savory treats at flourpowerdelivery.com

“Breadmaking is a craft, and I don’ t distinguish between being a furniture maker or a bread maker—it’s the same fluency that gets developed, if you want to think of it in a fine arts context.

But I like that it feeds people at the end of the day.”

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Brewing a B etter Brand

From Bill Stein ’48, to Sarah Hedlund ’08, generations of MCAD alumi have made their mark on the nation’s beer scene

MCAD alumni are behind many of the Midwest’s best known brands, but few have achieved the iconic status of the Hamm’s Brewing Company Bear. Originally designed

by Minnesota Ojibwe artist Patrick DesJarlait for a campaign created by the Campbell Mithun agency, the Hamm’s Bear went on to become a life-long companion to Bill Stein ’48, an MCAD-trained illustrator who created more than thirty years worth of playful promos of the Minnesota black bear diving into the sportsman’s life in the Land of Sky Blue Waters. “I drew him so many times that I’m almost a bear myself,” Stein once said.

An air force veteran who came to MCAD on the G.I. Bill, Stein passed away in November 2020 at the age of 97. But his pioneering and playful work is still an inspiration to the next generation of MCAD alums like Sarah Hedlund ’08, creative director at Toppling Goliath, a craft brewery based in Decorah, Iowa.

“When I graduated from MCAD, working for a brewery was definitely high on my list of dream jobs,” says Hedlund. “Beer packaging is so weird–there’s freedom to do what you want, with all the wacky illustrations that I’m partial to.” Hired in 2016, just as the college-town brewery was expanding into a destination taproom, Hedlund quickly rebranded the whole operation with bold typefaces and new brew names, from Dragon Fandango Kettle Sour to Dolphin Sparkles Double India Pale Ale. Toppling Goliath’s eyecatching cans, now available in 30 states, feature her vivid illustrations, from the roaring T-rex on the Psuedo Sue Pale Ale to the sweating super-sized wrestler on Supa’ Sumo.

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“With a brand name like Toppling Goliath, you kind of have to lean into it,” says Hedlund, who says that a diverse freelance portfolio that ranged from rock band and roller derby posters to hospital health-care reports helped her land the job.

“I tell people to make sure you have a creative outlet and interesting side gigs, so even if you have to take a job that’s not super flashy, you’ll have a portfolio that’s really worth looking at.”

Design Property of Toppling Goliath Brewing Co. MoZee, 2019. Illustration by Sarah Hedlund (left).

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Impossible to Repeat

In 1966, the artists Christo and JeanneClaude taught MCAD students how art can take flight

The artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude were still building the brand name behind their monumental, ephemeral installations when they arrived in Minneapolis in October 1966 to complete 42,390 Cubic Feet Empaquetage with the help of 147 students from the former Minneapolis School of Art. The idea was to deliver a 500-pound air package made of U.S. Army-issue research balloons filled with 2,804 birthday party balloons by helicopter to the lawn of Walker Art Center, where Christo’s work was being shown as part of a sculpture showcase. But on the fateful day, gusty autumn weather forced the helicopter to abandon the special delivery, and to hover over campus for a half hour, lifting the air package just twenty feet into the air.

To cover the costs of the project, Christo created a limited edition of 100 Wrapped Boxes for members of the Contemporary Arts Group, who sponsored their stay. Those who mistook it for an ordinary parcel unwrapped it to find a signed and numbered certificate that announced, “You have just destroyed a work of art.”

In one of the last interviews before his death in May 2020, Christo tried to describe the common thread connecting the couple’s seven decades of grand-scale outdoor art, from wrapping Berlin’s Reichstag to building curtains across a Colorado mountain range:

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“All our projects are totally irrational, totally useless.…They exist in their own time, impossible to repeat. That is their power because they cannot be bought, they cannot be possessed…They cannot be seen again.”

01 From the Archives: Art students assisting with Christo’s construction of his work 14130 Cubic Feet Empaquetage (1966), Minneapolis School of Art, 200 East 25th Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota

02 From the Archives: Art students assisting with Christo’s work 14130 Cubic Feet Empaquetage (1966) as it is being lifted by a helicopter, Minneapolis School of Art, 200 East 25th Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota

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CUT / PASTE

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