WEST BANK SOCIAL CENTER

hereby announcing ~ the DIRTY TUB project…

Daylight abounds in the WBSC. To tap this amenity, we’ll pipe the variable sunshine supply to this clawfooted tub using salvaged materials.

What does this mean?

Stay tuned for updates that’ll clamber along these interwebs!

~ sw

We’re in the thick of the Minneapolis Art on Wheels Artist Residency Program, which will transform WBSC into a laboratory and studio until sometime in mid-June. Check out their website or stop by if you’re curious what this visiting group of artists is up to!

There will still be occasional events at WBSC, so keep your eyes on our calendar for details.

-S.H.M.

thursday, april 22nd, is the fourth installment of diskurs, a night of talk and film. the feature: ulrike ottinger’s freak orlando the discussion: freaks

7pm (film starts promptly at 705p)

(BYOB or drinks downstairs // small donations appreciated for the wbsc)

Shanai and I were excited to make Sarah Wolbert a set of keys yesterday so that she can come and go as necessary in her new role as WBSC Resident Detritivore Systems Analyst & Designer (title subject to change!). It’s no secret that we’re huge fans of her work - she’s presented her thesis at both Cafe Scientifique and Give & Take (seen above).

We’ve given Sarah carte blanche access to the West Bank Social Center and all the (admittedly not so sustainable) systems within. Our hope is that, over time, WBSC can become a living working laboratory for Sarah’s ideas on urban acupuncture, food supply systems, and detritivore infrastructures. We can’t wait to see what kind of trouble she stirs up in the process!

Read more about her work on the designer UNDIs blog.

C.H.K.

Those of you who have followed our activities since roughly a year ago, when we opened, will have noticed that in the past couple of months things have been a bit quieter in our corner of the West Bank.

This is because we’ve been busy. Boy, have we ever!

Our friends from MAW will be using the West Bank Social Center for the next two months as headquarters for their Artist Residency Program, which will bring media artists from around the world here to Minneapolis to create new projects. You can read about the projects here, and stay tuned, because there will almost certainly be some prototyping.

To prepare for the residents, MAW has been making some improvements to the space, including installing a gigantic projection screen made from an old vinyl billboard (they’re a resourceful bunch - just look at the photo).

In the meantime, the WBSC crew has been busy getting set for a few new projects of our own that will get us out of the space and into the surrounding city.

Our first curated exhibition, We Work Here: A Conversation on Art, Economics and Community, will open on June 3rd at Intermedia Arts with programming happening there, and here, and in a number of places in between. Want to participate? Here’s how.

There are still a number of artists and groups using WBSC for their various shows and gatherings - check out the calendar to see more, and let us know if you are interested.

We’re in conversation with other businesses and groups in the neighborhood, and trying to encourage and participate in some creative collaborations over the summer. More on that soon!

One of our cohort will be leaving in August for big things in New York, and we will be looking for more people with various skills and interests to work with us here in the space, so if you are interested, drop us a line!

And don’t forget to stop by tomorrow night to help us celebrate the end of short, but weary winter. Rent party details here.

S.H.M.

THIS IS EXCITING!

You know the empty lot on Cedar Avenue, across from Palmers? We can see it right now from our windows. For those of you who don’t know the history of the neighborhood, it used to be Dania Hall, a Danish community center that was home to a number of creative & community activities. It burned down in 2000.

Eventually, someone will redevelop the site, but this summer it will still be empty.

So…some folks from the neighborhood business community, WBBA, will be helping to organize a Saturday flea market, perhaps not as large as the one pictured here, but hopefully just as populated.

If anyone is interested in selling their crafts, artwork, books, collections of random oddities…let us know! We’ll lend you one of WBSC tables and we’ll put you in touch with the organizers.

We’ve got some ideas of our own - so stay tuned!

S.H.M.

Our spring rent party is this Saturday at WBSC. We’ll be bobbing for apples, shadow dancing, sippin’ from a bottomless punch bowl, and engaging in the usual chatter.

This is a party to help pay the rent, so it’ll be a suggested $5 at the door, but no one will be turned away.

Minneapolis Art on Wheels media artist Andrea Steudel + DJ Luke will be there to help you shake your apple bottom!

Activities begin at 9PM!

|||||||| $5 at the Door | BYOPC (Bring Your Own Punch Cup) ||||||||