Midway Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the six grant recipients for the 2024 Visual Arts Fund (VAF). Established as part of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ Regional Regranting Program, the VAF is aimed at supporting the development of artist organized projects and initiatives that engage the public with visual art happening outside of established arts programming in the Twin Cities metro region.
2024 Visual Arts Fund Grant Recipients
Art Prints 4 Mutual Aid
Lead Organizer: Gabby Coll
Awarded: $10,000
Art Prints 4 Mutual Aid is an initiative led by Burn Something Collective (BSC) to uplift BIPOC femme, trans, and gender nonconforming artists by providing a platform to showcase and workshop their work. In an open call for submissions, six artists will be selected to participate in workshops led by BSC members to integrate political education into their creative practices. Final works will be transformed into high-quality, sellable art prints where proceeds will directly benefit local and global mutual aid organizations chosen by each artist, and will also be wheat-pasted in select publicly accessible areas of the Twin Cities. Wheat-pasted works will host a QR code through which viewers can learn more about the artists, this project, and ways to contribute. This initiative bridges art, activism, and creative collaboration to contribute to mutual aid efforts rooted in transnational solidarity while helping to sustain local artists.
Metrodome
Lead Organizer: Nick Chatfield-Taylor
Awarded: $10,000
Metrodome is a sculpture built out of speakers and home stereo components. Resembling the vernacular igloo, the sculpture is a venue for musicians and sound artists to create sound baths, DJ sets, and durational live performances. It is a visual and sonic art piece that is intended to provide a stage for sound art in the Twin Cities.
With support from the Visual Arts Fund grant, Nick seeks to further develop the sonic capabilities of the sculpture, and make the space available to a wider audience of musicians, sound artists, spectators, and listeners.
Night Club 2025 Programming
Lead Organizer: Lee Noble
Awarded: $10,000
Night Club is an artist-run contemporary visual arts exhibition series taking place in a former convenience store in Lowertown St. Paul. Founded in 2019 by artists Emma Beatrez and Lee Noble as a conceptual arts club and study group, Night Club transformed into a gallery in response to the many closures and cancelations during the pandemic. Night Club’s 2025 iteration will host a series of shows of new and emerging local and international artists, which are free and open to the public. The VAF will allow us to subsidize rental costs, to cover transportation of artwork, and promotional materials.
PLATFORM DISPLICO
Lead Organizer: Patricia Healy McMeans
Awarded: $10,000
PLATFORM DISPLICO (meaning “we unfold together”) is collaboratively designed and built with John Corrigan and Christopher dela Pole as a modular structure to house residency events for visual artists. Once built, the itinerant structure made of basic construction panels can flatpack down and re-assemble in another location. At roughly 10’x12’, it can host multiple visual artists at once, providing well-lit wall, floor, and table studio situations, film projection, deck and outdoor space. We’ll undergo a ten-day pilot residency, engaging local residents, other area artists and publics, and culminate in a publication encapsulating the project for free dissemination. We center practices of conviviality, honest inquiry, rigour, risk-taking, learning and unlearning.
Songbird Spectra
Lead Organizer: Elisabeth Sundberg
Awarded: $10,000
In September 2023, while hiking in Leaping Tiger Gorge in the Yunnan province of China, Elisabeth Sundberg heard a bird singing a repeating melody. When she whistled back, it taught her the song through call and response. Elisabeth was reminded of an instrument building workshop she took in Berlin in 2019 and the power of call and response to establish community at protests. Songbird Spectra is a series of four workshops to build community and solidarity through exploratory instrument making and playing. Each workshop will culminate in a public performance and a recorded sound piece.
Under The Odaa Tree
Lead Organizer: Lokho Kotile
Awarded: $10,000
Under The Odaa Tree is an outdoor exhibition showcasing five Oromo Minnesotan artists inspired by the Gadaa system, a governance tradition symbolizing unity. Held under the Odaa tree, a cultural emblem of peace, the event features artist talks, painting workshops, and interactive sessions. Attendees can participate in the Oromo coffee ceremony, storytelling, and hands-on art-making, immersing themselves in rich cultural traditions. Through intergenerational collaboration and cultural exchanges, the exhibition deepens connections to Oromo heritage and promotes cross-cultural dialogue, fostering a shared sense of community and understanding among participants.