Sunday, September 5, 2010

New Public Art In NoMi (And It Doesn't Even Make You Cringe And Clutch Your Purse!)

Contributed photo, xoxo, blog post by John Hoff

A new mural is taking shape on the side of the 4th Street Saloon Building, and--unlike a lot of other public art in North Minneapolis--it doesn't appear to be a cringe-inducing chaotic celebration of "urban dystopianism" with an overriding anarchistic graffiti motif, such as the...

..."distorted faces" banners which were foisted upon West Broadway by Juxtaposition Arts or (worse case artistic scenario) the "tripping cows" mural on the side of the Kemps Ice Cream factory. No, indeed, this mural appears to be something nice, something North Minneapolis can point to with pride. Johnny Northside Dot Com is excited to see how the mural will continue to take shape in the coming days and weeks.

5 comments:

Patrick said...

Thanks for bringing this to our attention John. I love this stuff. I think this piece of art shows that in Nomi the man gives us the keys but no piano. Someday those in NOMI will get the whole instrument. Get To NOMI!

Anonymous said...

Nice to have a new mural, but I'm not sure what it's doing on the 4th Street Saloon, which always struck me as being more of a biker bar than a jazz club. The mural as well as the musical instruments painted on the windows on the South side upper windows of the building definitely seem to be more appropriate for a place with an ambiance that's lower-key than the 4th Street Saloon actually is -or is the venue changing to match it's mural?

Glassy Girl said...

This mural is being done by local artist Charles Caldwell through a program called West Broadway Art Street. This is the fifth & final project in that program that was funded by The McKnight Foundation.

Anonymous said...

Glassy Girl, what are the first 4 projects?

Patrick said...

Thanks for that explanation Gassy Girl. I was wondering what was driving the effort.