The NAMAC Party Planner: Shindigs, Soirées & Shenanigans @ Conference 2012

As part of Leading Creatively, NAMAC's 2012 Conference, we're teaming up with our Twin Cities host committee to set up a variety of "orbital" parties to introduce our visiting conference attendees to the active media and visual arts communities in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Here's a quick overview of some of the shindigs we have on tap for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, September 6-8.

Thursday Evening, Sept. 6
OPENING RECEPTION @ THE WALKER ART CENTER

Leading Creatively kicks off on Thursday night at the Walker Art Center, one of the foremost contemporary art institutions in the United States. Conference attendees will have free access to the Walker's multi-floor galleries, and the adjoining 11-acre sculpture garden. The reception will feature hosted bars, complementary gourmet hors d'ouerves, and a special screening curated from the Walker's Ruben/Bentson Film and Video Study Collection.

Friday Evening, Sept. 7
Jonathan Bruce Williams — Artist Opening @ FRANKLIN ART WORKS
Occupying a former silent-film era movie palace, Franklin Art Works is a nationally leading alternative space for solo exhibitions by emerging and mid-career artists from around the world. On Friday, young Minneapolis artist Jonathan Bruce Williams premiers a major sculptural installation at Franklin: a giant wooden lighthouse incorporating two 16mm projections -- one showing inside the base of the structure, and another serving as the lighthouse beacon, sweeping around the gallery interior.
 

Saturday Evening, Sept. 8
"Why We Do This" — Artist Opening @ THE SOAP FACTORY

Saturday night caps off Leading Creatively with an epic, site-specific installation at The Soap Factory by Minnesota artist Andy DuCett. "Why We Do This" stitches together fragments of pop culture, workaday symbols and collective memory to create a single, 12,000-square-foot installation of interlocking, interactive vignettes. Join a giant game of Battleship, peruse a thrift store, watch the clouds roll by from the seat of an airplane, or catch a glimpse of a sasquatch through the window of a log cabin — all within The Soap Factory's sprawling, post-industrial interiors along the banks of the Mississippi River.