Works Progress

08/29/2017

Water Bar is going to the Minnesota State Fair! This year, we will be serving water from 14 communities across Minnesota at a Water Bar co-designed and facilitated by our partners at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), along with local water utilities...

02/28/2017

Congrats to Mississippi Park Connection and Mississippi National River and Recreation Area for this award recognizing outstanding public engagement at their new National Park visitor center! Works Progress artists Colin Kloecker, Zoe Prinds-Flash & Crystal Ann Liepa designed one of the exhibits in this visitor center, which features stories and portraits of people and their connections to the Mississippi River. Check it out next time you're at the Science Museum of Minnesota! Good work everyone!

We are so excited to be honored by the Public Lands Alliance with their Outstanding Public Engagement Award! The Mississippi River Visitor Center project was a great example of how our partnerships help us accomplish amazing things. Shoutout to the Science Museum of Minnesota and Works Progress for helping us pull it off!

02/10/2017

Interested in models for cross-discipline collaboration, decolonization, and slow relationship-building to change the culture of institutions and systems; or to heal place and environment?

We've been fortunate to be part of the Healing Place Collaborative, an indigenous artist-led group started by media artist Mona M Smith and others. This article explains a bit about how HPC works, and the impact it has had on participants. Works Progress & Water Bar & Public Studio have changed and deepened our work through conversations with others in HPC, and recommend that those developing collaborative models for art-making and activism look to indigenous frameworks like this one, and to indigenous leadership!

"Place-anything should really start with place-knowing, and place-honoring. This place-making sounds an awful lot like place-taking, and THAT has been tried before. It doesn't work. If you want to heal a place or its people, start by listening to the people who have had a relationship with that place the longest." - Mona Smith

http://editions.lib.umn.edu/openrivers/article/healing-place-collaborative/

11/18/2016

Throwback to a post by Works Progress / Water Bar co-director Shanai Matteson about the importance of understanding place through story. Water Bar & Public Studio is raising funds for a new sink and some other improvements. Check out our GiveMN page for details: https://www.givemn.org/fundraiser/water-bar-public-studio581cddace5737

Shanai Matteson is an artist and co-director of Works Progress Studio , a public art and design studio whose collaborative projects catal...

11/17/2016

Help us serve water and community at Water Bar & Public Studio by supporting our year-end fundraiser for a new sink! Donations in any amount made today put us in the running for additional support in the form of a $1000 "golden ticket" - pretty great!

With our network of partners, we launched Water Bar in 2016 as a social hub and incubator for art-science-community collaborations. Now more than ever we need spaces where we can connect across silos, learn about issues that matter to all of us, and create together. When we do, we build trust and empathy, and can find better ways to serve water and life in our communities.

Join us on December 3rd for our Winter Social at Water Bar, where we will be thanking everyone who has supported this project and sharing plans for 2017! More here ---> http://www.water-bar.org/calendar-2/2016/12/3/winter-social

Click the link below to make a tax-deductible contribution!

WE SERVE WATER Water Bar & Public Studio is a social space and incubator for creative collaborations that serve water and community: water-bar.org are a social impact collaborative that is financially supported through partnership projects with other nonprofit and community organ...

11/02/2016

This is the final week for Minneapolis residents to vote early at Water Bar & Public Studio & other early vote centers across the city! Visit the City's website for days and hours: http://vote.minneapolismn.gov/voters/absentee

Our Co-Director Colin took a few minutes yesterday to capture a little of the magic of early voting on his phone.

06/27/2016

We're crowdfunding Minnesota's first art-sustainability incubator! We've got 15K left to our goal. Our next milestone? Storefront signage! We've been offered a 50% match from our local chamber of commerce. Help us raise the other half & grow our project on Central Avenue in Northeast Minneapolis: https://www.gofundme.com/waterbarsipfund

Fun Fact: The signage we've designed incorporates a hand-painted aluminum sign found on the building during recent renovation. Waste not!

05/10/2016

Water Bar & Public Studio is looking to expand the network of awesome volunteers we've already got hosting pop-up events and programs in the new storefront space. If you're interested in joining us and sharing what you know about water, place and environment, join us for one of the upcoming "Volunteer Meet-ups" at the new space! You can sign-up to receive volunteer emails here: http://www.water-bar.org/volunteer

05/06/2016

Thanks to long-time pal of Works Progress Zoe Prinds-Flash for snapping some pictures of last night's show with P.O.S at the new Water Bar & Public Studio. It was fun, and helped to support this ongoing project, which we hope you'll come check out in person soon: water-bar.org

05/02/2016

A project by Works Progress & Healing Place Collaborative was selected for the Riverfront Balcony Prototyping Festival this September. We'll be working together to create a mobile that centers indigenous water and place stories, offers opportunities to learn Dakota language, and is tended by indigenous scholars, artists, and activists. Thank you Saint Paul Riverfront Corporation for the opportunity!



https://riverbalconyprototyping.wordpress.com/winning-prototypes/

We are pleased to announce that the following people and organizations will present their prototypes at the River Balcony Prototyping Festival on September 10th! Patrick McKennan – Water Sour…

05/02/2016

Curious about upcoming events and updates at the new Water Bar & Public Studio in ? Check out our newsletter for more: http://eepurl.com/bZMo9f

04/27/2016

Thank you to everyone who has supported the Water Bar project - opening soon! We are just $30 away from 9K -- Will you share and help us to get to $10,000 before the end of April? Your support helps this all-volunteer effort get off the ground in Northeast Minneapolis!



https://www.gofundme.com/waterbarsipfund

A taproom for tap water and art-sustainability incubator. Help make it happen in Minneapolis! Give to the Water Bar & Public Studio 'SIP' fund and help us open our doors this spring. What is Water Bar? Water Bar began in 2014 as a public art project,...