Spring 2021 Updates
Recognizing that art is a tool for facilitating understanding across difference, the M is dedicated to amplifying the power of art and artists who represent diverse perspectives, identities, and lived experiences.
May 12, 2021—St. Paul, MN—The M is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition and program schedule, which reflects the power of art to be a catalyst for important conversations during difficult times. Working in collaboration with a number of organizational partners, the M is bringing stories about the American experience from perspectives often underrepresented in art museums to the streets of downtown St. Paul.
Currently on view is Outer Experiences: Black Life in Rural and Suburban Minnesota, which is presented in partnership with the African American Interpretive Center of Minnesota (AAICM). The show brings visibility to Black life outside the Twin Cities and creates a bridge between urban and rural communities through photographs of Black Minnesotans from rural and suburban parts of the state. The photographs—on display through June 20, 2021—are brought to life by accompanying excerpts from their oral histories conducted by AAICM. “I think that it’s really important to introduce folks that are in the city to people that aren’t here, who are coming from rural and suburban areas,” says exhibition photographer Chris McDuffie.”
“It’s just really timely. I hear and read a lot about division, nation-wide, and finding a way to bridge the experiences of Black people in urban and rural spaces, it’s important to really have that conversation now,” McDuffie adds.
An Outer Experiences coloring book, illustrated by artist Leeya Rosa Jackson, is inspired by McDuffie’s photographs as well as the lives of notable Black historical figures from Greater Minnesota and will be available for pick up on Sunday, May 16. Make sure you swing down to 4th Street and Robert Street North to view the exhibition, meet curator JoJo Bell and photographer Chris McDuffie, as well as nab this limited-edition coloring book.
First introduced as an innovative way to present engaging exhibitions while remaining closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the M will continue to present work in its window galleries as well as in the skyway, virtually, and at partner facilities, in anticipation of commencing construction work on the final phase of the M’s facility later this year.
Emerging Curators Institute (ECI) fellow Michael Khuth—who will present his culminating exhibition, Sutures, for the program in the M’s window galleries this fall—says of the opportunities these alternative spaces provide, “The new street-window mode of displaying works makes the art viewing experience less daunting and in turn more comfortable to the passerby. This aligns directly with my curatorial values of shaping experiences that feel welcoming to communities that have perhaps remained long excluded from art spaces.”
These exhibitions and programs highlight the M’s ongoing efforts to take a collaborative approach to storytelling through art.
“We are grateful to work side-by-side with partners who bring alternative frameworks, new questions, and innovative ideas to the process. We are developing more and better tools, and different vocabulary along the way. As we work to expand access to the creative and curatorial processes, we continue to learn and shape the M’s future,” says the M’s Curator of Exhibitions Laura Joseph.
Upcoming Programs
The M’s upcoming programs focus on expanding and complicating perceptions of place, identity, art making, and museum practices and are the result of creative partnerships with several local organizations—African American Interpretive Center, Emerging Curators Institute, Hallie Q. Brown Community Center, NewStudio Gallery, and Saint Paul Public Schools.
Outer Experiences: Black Life in Rural and Suburban Minnesota
Now through June 20, 2021
Window galleries, Robert Street North and 4th Street, and Skyway Ecolab Entrance, St. Paul
Coloring Book Pick-Up, Meet the Curator and the Photographer
In conjunction with Outer Experiences: Black Life in Rural and Suburban Minnesota
Sunday, May 16, 1:00–3:00 p.m.
Outside the M’s entrance at 350 Robert Street North, St. Paul
Wise, Gifted, and Black: Art by the Magnificent Golden Agers
June 27–July 17, 2021
Window gallery, Robert Street North, St. Paul
Art Kit Pick-Up
In conjunction with Wise, Gifted, and Black: Art by the Magnificent Golden Agers
Sunday, July 11, 1:00–3:00 p.m.
Outside the M’s entrance at 350 Robert Street North, St. Paul
Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) 2021 Honors Visual Art Exhibition
June 27–July 17, 2021
Window gallery, 4th Street, St. Paul
Many Waters: A Minnesota Biennial
July 24–October 2, 2021
Window galleries, Robert Street North and 4th Street, and Skyway Ecolab Entrance, St. Paul, and NewStudio Gallery, St. Paul
Sutures
October 30, 2021–January 29, 2022
Window gallery, Robert Street North, St. Paul
