WEST BANK SOCIAL CENTER

Just in case anybody would ever want to look at such a thing,...

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:44:51 -0500

Just in case anybody would ever want to look at such a thing, Troy found this super high-res image (click here) of our mixer/amp. Enjoy! - Colin

(it was one of those nights)

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 03:09:35 -0500

(it was one of those nights)

Hey, everyone: This Saturday, December 5, 9pm-?, bring the...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:16:00 -0500

Hey, everyone:

This Saturday, December 5, 9pm-?, bring the noise— audio and visual— to WBSC as part of “Communal Mixtape,” an event hosted by Sergio Vucci, co-curator of Common Room. We’re creating, and projecting, a YouTube mixtape playlist you can access anywhere with the interwebs. By we, we mean you. Show up and add a song to the playlist, mingle, have a beverage, watch, dance, repeat.

Rules:
1.    Find the perfect, or near perfect, YouTube song video to share
2.    Arrive
3.    Plug in your YouTube song
4.    Bask in the glory

Check out a possible WBSC entry up above. A local favorite!

Very much! —Miranda

MNKINO #5: CUT / COPY / PASTE [ RSVP on Facebook ]Tuesday,...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0500

MNKINO #5: CUT / COPY / PASTE [ RSVP on Facebook ]
Tuesday, November 24th; 8pm
at the West Bank Social Center, of course!

More info at MNKINO’s website — and don’t forget to check out last month’s entries!

(photos, from top to bottom: J E Theriot, ~mary, Allen)

The fantastic 3 Minute Egg stopped by to shoot some video at...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:47:00 -0500

The fantastic 3 Minute Egg stopped by to shoot some video at last week’s Wednesday Night Social where MAW teamed up with Karen Haselmann and Janaki Ranpura for a performance about health care.

Check out the video for a little taste of what to expect here on Wednesday nights from 7 to 11pm.

-Colin

The kind of stuff we think about.

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:29:00 -0500

I was recently asked about event planning.

I don’t necessarily think of what I do as event planning. I was trained as an architect so I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about where people come together. What I’m more and more interested in lately is why people come together. The programs I work on, which often manifest as events of one type or another, are a response to this. My hope is that things like Solutions Twin Cities, Give & Take, Salon Saloon, and of course, the West Bank Social Center are giving people meaningful reasons to come together and be social.

More and more, I’m finding that doing this successfully means finding new ways to draw inherent creativity and passion out of people. When you give people a good reason to leave the house, you’re giving them an opportunity to build community. Often times this involves dancing and drinking (parties are fun!), but it can also involve making something (art, food, experiences), or sharing something (a skill, a passion, an idea). Something else that’s great about this is that it necessitates collaboration. None of the projects above could have happened without help from others.

Also, it’s addictive. It activates every part of my brain in ways nothing else does. Once you realize that when you work together anything is possible, you want to keep pushing and pushing. It’s great.

-Colin

It’s Wednesday, which means that tonight is Wednesday...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:18:00 -0500

It’s Wednesday, which means that tonight is Wednesday Night Social and you are invited. We’ll be joined once again by our friends MAW, who will be working with artists Janaki Ranpura and Karen Haselmann to present a special interactive performance about health.

You can read more about it and RSVP here. We hope to see you at or after 8pm!

-Shanai

Tonight!

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:59:08 -0500

Tonight!

Crystal Liepa took these wonderful photos at our Halloween rent...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:02:00 -0500

Crystal Liepa took these wonderful photos at our Halloween rent party. In the mix are Colin & Miranda experimenting with ectoplasm. What fun!

Machine Project in Los Angeles, California. “Machine Project is...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:28:17 -0500

Machine Project in Los Angeles, California.

“Machine Project is a non-profit community space in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles investigating art, technology, natural history, science, music, literature, and food. In our storefront on North Alvarado street we produce events, workshops, and site-specific installations using hands-on engagement to make rarefied knowledge accessible.”

"West Bank Social Center. Just another reason Minneapolis is climbing up the “places I’d consider..."

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:20:11 -0500

“West Bank Social Center. Just another reason Minneapolis is climbing up the “places I’d consider living” list.”

- Books Are Better Then Boys.

Aww, thanks!

Come ghost hunting at the West Bank Social Center! This...

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:00:00 -0400

Come ghost hunting at the West Bank Social Center! This month’s rent party just happens to fall on All Hallows’ Eve, so we’re exploring the space and exposing its supernatural elements. We’ll be presenting results from a smaller, all-night paranormal inquiry that took place last Saturday. Also on tap: Max Balhorn returns to WBSC with Ben Holt for a spirited one night sound and video installation

You can participate by swapping real-life ghost stories, practicing divination techniques, making ectoplasm, and snapping spirit photos with photographer Crystal Liepa.

And because hunting ghosts is hard work, there will also be music. Tunes from DJ Jonathan Ackerman, videos by Lindsey Borgerson, and ritualistic dancing to commence at 11:30pm.

That’s next Saturday, October 31st, 9pm-2am at the WBSC. There will be a $5 cover at the door, costumes are not required.

RSVP to the Facebook event!

(photo: “A Seance” by spirit photographer William Hope)

Some Thoughts on Eating Together

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:19:00 -0400

Last night we welcomed a small group of new and old friends to West Bank Social Center for dinner. The menu was simple: we ate soup that had been made the day before by five of our friends, and leftover focaccia that Miranda had brought from work. The soup-makers had designed an activity to place us at the table next to people we didn’t know, and as you might expect, the conversations meandered.

I was seated across from a woman named Amanda who works for KFAI Radio and produces a podcast about local food issues. By the end of our conversation we were sharing thoughts about the future of agriculture, and the worldchanging possibilities of cookbooks. Next to me were two professors from the University who teach a course about art spaces and community engagement. We talked about food and politics, food and art, about the simple pleasures of cooking together, and strange fruits from faraway places.

At one point, I was asked why we decided to do this project, to have this soup dinner in this space?

I didn’t have a definitive answer, in part because I’ve had no time to think of one. I realized as I meandered my own way through the idea that we’d never really thought about soup as a project so much as an anti-project, that one day each month when we would simply share the company of interesting people.

“Because we’re hungry.” I told her. “And because we like to spend time with other people.”

In some ways, West Bank Social Center is the same story. We never really talk about it as a project so much as a space for things to happen. Since we began last summer it’s been a laboratory and a retreat, a noisy mess and a conversation. We struggle to pay the rent, we swap a lot of big and small ideas, but at the end of the day, it’s really about being hungry and being together.

-Shanai

This Friday night WBSC is excited to host Women’s Work, an...

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:46:35 -0400

This Friday night WBSC is excited to host Women’s Work, an evening of performance art presented by Pegasus and you beast, you gem.

There will be limited space at this event, so if you are planning to come, RSVP here. This will be a really great night and we hope to see some of you there!

Shanai

We at WBSC like big thinkers— people whose visions resist...

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:19:00 -0400

We at WBSC like big thinkers— people whose visions resist tidy categories and easy summations. But damn if it isn’t hard to do these people justice in a quick event blurb.

I’m feeling this way about Joni Tevis, who’s stopping by WBSC this Thursday, October 22 at 7pm to share some of her work. Tevis crafts lovely, thoughtful essays that I also want to call travelogues, and prose poems, and memoirs, and natural histories. Her subject matter is similarly wide-ranging, though they all seem to be investigating some of the same big questions about place and culture and memory.

She’ll read pieces from her 2007 book, The Wet Collection (including a fascinating reflection on a stint spent selling funeral services in Texas), an essay on visiting a demolition derby with her mother, and excerpts from an upcoming book about ghost towns and atomic frontiers.

Check out this recent Orion article to get a feel for her work. Hope to see you Thursday!

Very much! —Miranda

We’ve said it before, but seriously: We love the folks...

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:15:00 -0400

We’ve said it before, but seriously: We love the folks over at Art Review and Preview. For the past two and a half years, they’ve busted their butts putting together issue after issue of thoughtful, engaged arts criticism. These are people who care about art and healthy creative communities!

We’re fantastically excited to bring in ARP! founders/editors Tiff Hockin and Ariel Pate for our October Praxis, this Sunday from 4-6pm. Tiff and Ariel told me that we’ll be making newspapers, though they’re mum on details. Come make some papers and pick their brains about the tough business of running an independent arts journal!

Very much! —Miranda

Hey kids, it’s that time again. Next Tuesday is the 4th...

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:00:00 -0400

Hey kids, it’s that time again. Next Tuesday is the 4th installment of MNKINO, and this time the theme is Repeat. Here are the details:

MNKINO #4: REPEAT
Tuesday, October 20th; 8pm
at the WBSC (of course!)

You can also RSVP on Facebook and fill out our handy submission form to let us know you’re coming, and if you’re bringing a film.

Hope to see you there!

—Andy

TASK PARTY! It’s a party. Where you do tasks. But not just...

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:00:00 -0400

TASK PARTY! It’s a party. Where you do tasks. But not just any tasks, eachother’s tasks. There are two basic rules for participants:

1) Write down a task on a piece of paper and add it to a designated “TASK pool.”
2) Pull a task from that pool and interpret it any which way you want, using whatever materials are available. When a task is completed, a write a new task, pull a new task, and so on.

West Bank Task Party
Saturday, October 17th
8pm to Midnight
RSVP on Facebook
website: www.westbanktaskparty.wordpress.com
email: westbanktaskparty [at] gmail [dot] com

We couldn’t be more excited about this! —Colin

WBSC + MAW + You = ? As you may have heard,...

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:38:36 -0400

WBSC + MAW + You = ?

As you may have heard, somethin’s been a-happenin’ Wednesday nights at the WBSC. We’ve teamed up with Minneapolis Art on Wheels, who’ll be setting up their lab in the space every hump day and projecting onto the building across the way.

This video is from our first official Wednesday Night Social, when Miranda & I discovered a pitcher of moldy lemonade in the (unplugged) mini-fridge in the kitchen. We handed it off to the MAWs, and this is what happened.

What’s in store for tonight? I have no clue, really. Swing by and find out for yourself.

—Andy

A quick dispatch from today’s Coffee Klatch… After...

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:48:00 -0400

A quick dispatch from today’s Coffee Klatch…

After declaring an anti-theme theme to the afternoon, here’s what ensued:

We conducted a sing-along to Francoise Hardy’s Le Temps de L’Amour (check the video above and these lyrics to recreate the moment).
RaDon, a WBSC first-timer, shared a CD full of Polish, Russian, and Bulgarian hip-hop.
Cara taught us dance moves from a piece she’s choreographing for Zenon’s adult scholarship program. Next time you’re in, ask someone to teach you the wavy crane.
We drank copious amounts of tea and ate cookies and dates.

Ah, the delights that await you at Coffee Klatch! Which happens— ahem— every Tuesday from 1-5pm. Come see us on one of them!

Very much! —Miranda