We Work Here

Works Progress creates collaborative projects that inspire, inform and connect; catalyzing relationships across creative and cultural boundaries; and providing new platforms for public engagement. Say hello! var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-15093573-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}

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We demand cultural spaces run by the people who use them. We create the space to remix categories, experiment, and learn what we do not already know. Mess Hall explodes the myth of scarcity. Everyone is capable of sharing something. The surplus of our societies should be creatively redistributed at every level of production and consumption. Social interaction generates culture! We embrace the creativity as an action without thought of profit. We demand spaces that promote generosity. Mess Hall insists on a climate of mutual trust and respect - for ourselves and those who enter our space. No money is exchanged inside Mess Hall. Surfing on surplus, we do not charge admission or ask for donations. Mess Hall functions without hierarchy or forced unity.

Mess Hall's 10 Points, 2007

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WE STRIVE TO BUILD AN ART PRACTICE THAT: Makes the distinction between art and other forms of creativity irrelevant Builds and depends upon mutually supportive relationships Tests ideas without waiting for permission or invitation Champions the work of those who are frequently excluded, under-recognized, marginal, non-commercial, experimental, and/or socially and politically provocative Puts money and cultural capital back into the work of other artists and self-publishers Makes opportunities from large museums and institutions more inclusive by bringing lesser-known artists in through collaborations or advocacy Insists that artists who achieve success or renown devote more time and energy toward creating supportive social and economic infrastructures for others

Half Letter Press (source)

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Read Ippississim.

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IPPISSISSIM: Sunrise Detour of the Upside Down River

Come one, come all, come Sun! Together we’ll travel the upside down river. Let’s dip our toes into the waters that thrill and sustain us and turn past, present and future on end!

Par of this year's Northern Spark festival, Ippississim is a sunrise cruise aboard the Jonathan Padelford riverboat, one of the last authentic sternwheelers on the Upper River. Shanai Matteson, Colin Kloecker and Ady Olson will present passengers with a limited edition collection of stories, inspired by Eduardo Galeano's Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire) trilogy, about the 6 miles stretch of Mississippi between downtown St. Paul and the Confluence.

After the spectacle of the night, this will be a contemplative morning cruise. We invite you to spend time with the stories we've gathered, and with the river itself. The morning sun will greet us as we pull back into Saint Paul just in time for Ananya Dance Theatre's Dance of a Thousand Water Dreams sunrise ceremony.

Meet us at Lambert's Landing at 3:30AM for boarding, we set off at 4AM sharp. Boarding is on a first come, first serve basis and there's only room for 150 on this cruise, so arrive early to reserve your spot. There will be coffee and snacks available onboard. We'll be back by 5:30AM.

More details on the Northern Spark website.

We're Project #7 in the Northern Spark Guidebook. Use the Twitter hashtag #nspk07 to follow along or add to the "meta-conversation."

Presented by Works Progress and sponsored by Padelford Riverboats.

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We are excited to announce “Everyday Ways” - a we made with artist/organizer Mankwe Ndosi.

“For the first time, the full scope of Mankwe Ndosi’s artistic life is captured in a single video—her activism, her art, her unique and beautiful outlook on life.” - Andrea Swensson

Four months in the making so that you can spend eight minutes with her today. Please share!

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Join us for our Give & Take event this Thursday February 21st @ 7:00 PM at the University Enterprise Laboratories in Saint Paul! Free and open to the public!

Here is the link to the event on Facebook

Link to Give & Take event

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Hi everyone! Its Mai the new HECUA intern at Works Progress.  

Today I got to tag along with Shanai and went out to meet Ariah Fine, a community organizer from the Cleveland Neighborhood Association to test out video and recording for the upcoming project: Street Forum.

Street Forum is a project that is still in the works in collaboration with the Cleveland Neighorhood Association. We are going to be outside in North Minneapolis in the Cleveland neighborhood by the bus stops presenting a short video about some information and thoughts on the new light rail being built through that area. We will be asking how the current transit system is affecting them and their opinions on the new transit system through video recording. With this, we will be able to capture the voices and visions of the community and present it to official public meetings about transportation. Since these meetings often take place at times and places that are inconvenient or inaccessible to the community residents, this project will be a great way to make voices heard. 

Stay tuned for more updates! I am excited to see how this will all unfold. 

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We’re excited to introduce Mai Vang, our new HECUA intern this semester. Mai will be helping out on a couple of projects, including a series of short documentaries about the 2012 Corridors of Opportunity grantees. She’ll also be posting updates here, on Twitter and in our Facebook group.

Get to know Mai:

Mai Vang is a student at Augsburg College majoring in Sociology. This semester she is enrolled in HECUA’s Inequality In America: Policy, Community, and the Politics of Empowerment program. This led her to an internship at Works Progress. She is passionate about social justice and equality and wants to change the world someday.

Mai was born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota and has a huge passion for photography. She loves helping people and hopes to incorporate her photography into her social justice work so that others can see the stories that aren’t always visible.

After college, Mai would like to find a job in helping the community around her and the people who live in it. In the meantime, she is focused on HECUA and this internship so that she can be inspired and gain the necessary skills to be able to serve others around her.

Check out Mai’s photography, including pics from some field work today, on her photo blog.

The HECUA program that Mai is a part of is similar to the one that Shanai took in her last year of school at the University of Minnesota in 2005. The experience was highly influential for her so we’re happy to be able and give back to the program by hosting a student.

Welcome to the studio, Mai!

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So this is happening! [More information here](http://humanities.wisc.edu/public-projects/public-humanities-conference/).

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Happy New Year from Works Progress Studio! As 2013 kicks off, we find ourselves reflecting on all of the amazing collaborators, new friends, big ideas and hard work that made 2012 such a great year here at Works Progress Studio. **Rather than write it all down in a long (probably boring) newsletter, we thought we'd share a few highlights in a short (hopefully entertaining) video newsletter.** Thanks to all of you for sharing your creative energy with us over the past 12 months. We're looking forward to another great year!

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A short video about playwright, director & actor [Aditi Brennan Kapil](http://www.aditikapil.com/) that [we](http://www.worksprogress.org/) made for the McKnight Foundation's [State of the Artist project](http://www.stateoftheartist.org/2012/12/13/works-progress-skewing-the-lens/).

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If you think your future rides solely on the information superhighway, try sending a million tons of grain on it.

Some words of wisdom from the [Saint Paul Port Authority](http://www.sppa.com/harbor-in-saint-paul/). You never know where project research is going to lead.

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Currently available on sale in our webstore: Collective Actions: Audience Recollections from the First Five Years, 1976-1981

An artist group that even our long-running group Temporary Services knew absolutely nothing about! We are happy to carry this new book from Soberscove that unearths some interesting Soviet group work in a well-designed and beautifully printed book, as is typical for this Chicago-based press. “Active in Moscow since 1976, the Collective Actions group played a key role in the development of conceptual and performance art in the Soviet Union. Inspired by the work of John Cage, the organizers invited audiences to take part in minimal, outdoor actions in fields and forests on the edges of the city that explored the nature of the aesthetic event. These spatio-temporal events directed viewers’ attention to the pure contemplation of their own perceptions, and over time, the actions produced masses of documentary material. Collective Actions: Audience Recollections from the First Five Years, 1976-1981 concentrates on the early period of field actions when the problems of documentation—-how to capture and convey ephemeral action to non-participants—-were just beginning to be considered.”

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As we mentioned earlier this year, we’re partnering with Northside Residents Redevelopment Council (NRRC) on neighborhood engagement project funded by CURA and their Neighborhood Partnership Initiative. The project involves the design and build of a neighborhood engagement cart, which we’ve imagined as an open source platform for face-to-face interaction among neighborhood organizers, artists and residents living in NRRC’s program area and residents of North Minneapolis.

Once the cart is built it’ll be deployed at neighborhood events, in city parks, at bus stops and on street corners. Neighborhood organizers, artists and residents will use the cart and its materials - everything from art supplies to a PA system and projector - to create interactive programs that encourage conversation and connection among neighbors, and which help to spread the word about resources and opportunities available through NRRC as a neighborhood organization.

After a slow start we’re finally beginning to design and build the cart. Today Colin and our project collaborator Brandon Brown, a northside builder and engineer, went to Discount Steel to research options for materials that we’ll use to build a frame for the cart. Brandon is a welder and inventor of his own motorized and bicycle-powered vehicles. He’ll be working with Colin and designer Patrick McKennen to create the cart.

We’ll post updates here as the project progresses. We plan to unveil the cart and its related programs with NRRC this spring.

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To speed the rate of municipal innovation and to increase its scope, the Mayor, in 2010, created the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics. Part of Boston’s municipal government, this office serves as the City’s innovation incubator, building partnerships between City agencies and outside institutions and entrepreneurs to pilot projects in Boston that address resident and business needs. The office focuses on a broad range of areas from increasing civic participation, to improving City streets, to boosting educational outcomes. The specific projects are diverse as well – from better designed trash cans to high tech apps for smart phones. Across all these projects, the office strives to engage constituents and institutions in developing and piloting projects that will re-shape City government and improve the services we provide.

The [Office of New Urban Mechanics](http://www.newurbanmechanics.org/) in Boston #CityCrush

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The real opportunity, I think, is in trying to build longer arcs. Now that the cycle of new is eating itself in a race to ever-faster, there's a bigger chance to make long term change by consistently focusing on what works (and what's important), not what's new and merely shiny.

**Seth Godin**, [The decline of fascination and the rise in ennui](http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/11/the-decline-of-fascination-and-the-rise-in-ennui.html) Which leads us to ask: what works? What is really important? What longer arcs are we building?

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Book proofs for the A Mile In Our Shoes book that Colin has been working on! Here's whats up: >**A Mile In Our Shoes: Stories About Transportation and Equity** > >In the summer of 2012 EquityNow Twin Cities put out a call for stories and shoes from people who live or work near the intersection of Lake Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota. What was it like to walk, drive, bike or bus in their shoes? Excerpts from their stories were displayed alongside their shoes as part of a storefront window exhibition titled _A Mile in Our Shoes_. These shoes and stories illuminate the personal dimensions of transportation and equity in the Twin Cities region. This book documents _A Mile in Our Shoes_, and provides additional resources and information for transportation equity advocates. > >EquityNow Twin Cities is a diverse group of passionate people working together to achieve equity in the Twin Cities region. There's a [book release party](http://bit.ly/TOGSAs) on November 29th. If you're in the Twin Cities you should come.