DETROIT LAKES — The artists have been chosen, the locations have been finalized, and the contracts are nearly “wrapped” up: The Detroit Lakes Arts and Culture Commission is getting ready to flip the switch on a project to decorate seven Detroit Lakes Public Utilities (DLPU) power boxes with original artwork this summer.
The project, which is a collaboration between the Arts and Culture Commission and DLPU, will use vinyl wraps imprinted with images of the artists’ original artwork, rather than the application of paint or other art media directly to the boxes’ surface.
According to DLPU General Manager Vernell Roberts, this should not only ease the process of making the artwork fit more easily onto the available surface of each individual power box, but also the need to incorporate any required warning labels and coding for each box into the design.
It should also make future repairs and maintenance on the boxes a little easier, he added. As to how well the vinyl wraps will hold up to the rigors of a northwest Minnesota winter, “time will tell,” Roberts said, though it is expected that they should last for several years.
There were initially just six power boxes planned to be used for the project, with the possibility of adding a seventh if additional funding was found — which it was, thanks to a Blandin Foundation grant that Project 412 and the Historic Holmes Theatre received for creating public art projects in the community.
ADVERTISEMENT
“About half (of the funding) came from Detroit Lakes Public Utilities, and about half from the grant,” said Arts and Culture Commission Chairman Amy Stoller Stearns, who is also the executive director of Project 412.
“Vernell Roberts has wanted to do this (put artwork on city power boxes) for quite a while,” she added, so when the newly created Arts and Culture Commission was looking for its first project, this one seemed to fit the bill perfectly.
A call for artwork was sent out early this spring, according to commission member Nancy Haggart, and a total of 79 artist submissions were received and vetted by a jury that consisted of commission members and a handful of other volunteers.
“It went great,” Haggart said of the vetting process. “I think everybody was very happy with it (the quality of artwork submissions).”
Haggart said that she, along with fellow commission members Chris Henwood and Claire Danner, formed the subcommittee that was charged with researching what needed to be done to bring the project to fruition this year.
“Right now we are on schedule to have everything completed by the end of the summer,” Henwood said, adding that he is currently working with Trophy House co-owner Eric Tulius on the art installation process (the commission signed a contract with Trophy House for the vinyl wrap portion of the project early this spring).
Stearns noted that Henwood’s background as a graphic artist made him the obvious choice for this part of the project: He and Tulius will be working directly with the individual artists to make sure that the final vinyl wrap installation fits each artist’s vision.
The chosen artists and box locations are as follows:
ADVERTISEMENT
, a Detroit Lakes native who currently lives in Avon, Indiana, will have her original work, titled “Experience Detroit Lakes II,” installed on a box near the American Legion Campground on West Lake Drive.
will have her original work, titled “The Fabulous Four Seasons,” installed on a box located on a bike path near Sanford Health, north of Langford Street in downtown Detroit Lakes.
will have his original work, titled “Summer Sunset No. 1: Best of Times,” installed on a box located by Bremer Bank and the Lincoln Professional Building, near the corner of Holmes Street and Lincoln Avenue in downtown Detroit Lakes.
will have her original work, titled “Winter with Blooming Orchids,” installed on a box located near Lakes Liquor (the municipal liquor store) on McKinley Avenue in downtown Detroit Lakes.
will have her original work, titled “Gone Fishing,” installed on a box located between Walmart and Kentucky Fried Chicken on the Highway 10 frontage road on the west side of Detroit Lakes.
will have her original work, titled “Worm’s View,” installed on the Highway 10 frontage road near the Minnesota Department of Transportation office on the west side of Detroit Lakes.
“Hopefully, one of them will be installed by July 4,” said Stearns, though Henwood added that weather will play a role in that.
“It’s tough to put a wrap on a metal power box when the temperature is 90-plus degrees,” he said, and of course, summer storms are also a factor.
More public art projects are also coming to Detroit Lakes this summer thanks to the above-mentioned Blandin grant, which was submitted for the “Create DL” public art collaboration between Project 412 and the Historic Holmes Theatre. Visit
for more information.
Margaret “Meg” Moore can’t walk, stand or tend to activities of daily living on her own and she relies on an assistive device for communication.
Yet, the 26-year-old from Middlebury has already accomplished more than many people will in a lifetime – and she keeps adding to the list.
“My positive attitude can definitely be attributed to my parents,” Moore wrote in an email. “My mother and my late father approached my life with a disability with a very positive outlook right from the beginning.”
Her latest mission brings positive artwork and poems to hospital walls, in a project she’s named: “Positivity for Patients: Project Yes You Can.”
She came up with the idea after a brief hospital stay in 2021 for aspiration pneumonia, followed by months of outpatient rehabilitation at Gaylord Specialty Health Care, where the first installation of positive artwork is on display.
“I wanted to do something to help those patients,” who had long stays, Moore wrote. “And I thought that decorating the hospital corridors with art and writing that depicts themes of positivity would be a good way to brighten their days.”
Moore, a poet, called upon Black Rock Art Guild, a group she belongs to contribute positive artwork and poems.
Guild member Janet Krauss, who donated nine poems on positive topics, said Moore’s accomplishments are “remarkable.”
“I get very emotional when I think about Meg and all she does,” Krauss said. “I think it’s extraordinary this young woman thought of the project and put it into action….She’s a role model for all these patients at Gaylord ad other facilities.”
Katie Butler, a certified therapeutic recreation specialist at Gaylord, said art is powerful for patients.
“Art brings people together and allows them to interpret a variety of different emotions,” Butler said.
“Patients can enjoy reminiscing on the artwork as well as socializing with other peers while observing. Positive messages light up patients’ days, even with the simplest of words. Positive messages spread positive vibes, allowing patients to feel good and smile.”
Moore was born with cerebral palsy because of a prolapsed umbilical cord at birth that left her without oxygen for five minutes.
While that resulted in extreme physical impairments, Moore’s cognitive abilities were intact and she was educated in the mainstream.
Moore said she was taught by her parents growing up that she could, “achieve all my ambitions.”
Some of her achievements include: In summer 2022 she graduated from Fairfield University’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program, maintaining straight As throughout; she was the 2022 College of Arts & Sciences recipient of the Fairfield University Graduate Student Service Award; in 2020 she graduated magna cum laude from Fairfield University, earning a bachelor’s degree in English/creative writing with a minor in psychology.
Also, in 2019, she received the Fairfield University Mariann S. Regan Award for Outstanding Achievement in English and the creative non-fiction Essay Award; she delivers presentations at graduate level international & national writing conferences; she is Gold Award Girl Scout; her debut memoir, “Bold, Brave, and Breathless,” will be released October 2.
Meanwhile, she has a job too. Moore is a book editor and marketing coordinator at an independent book publisher, Woodhall Press. She’s also an ambassador for PRC-Saltillo, the manufacturer of her communication device that allows her to type using eye gazes.
Margaret has also been accepted to be on Gaylord Sports Association’s ParaTriathlon team, using a walker to run.
“She keeps very busy,” said her mom, Anne Moore.
Margaret Moore’s dad died of a rare form of stomach cancer at 44 just before her second birthday, but he faced his daughter’s situation head on and found resources to help.
“Before he died, my father was discussing my disability and said to a friend, ‘Whatever the obstacle, we will overcome it,”‘ Margaret Moore wrote.
As for mom, Margaret Moore said, “When I would see my friends playing sports, doing Girl Scouts, going ice-skating, zip-lining, you name it, my mom was always there saying, ‘Let’s figure out what we need to do to get you to do those activities right along with them.’
Anne Moore said that aside from parental influence, determination runs in the family.
“We come from a long line of strong, persevering women,” she said.
Margaret Moore said it took her years to realize that what her family taught her about positivity and overcoming obstacles has not been a common approach in the larger disability community and the general public.
“I really wanted to change that, and a lot of what I see even today in 2023 is that many people of all abilities have this belief that having a disability means that you are incapable and having a disability is seen as an undesirable quality,” she wrote. “Through sharing my story and through initiatives… I strive to teach people about the potential and the capabilities that we all have, whether we are able-bodied or disabled.”
Her soon to be released memoir is about her childhood experience growing up with cerebral palsy and losing her father, whom she remembers.
The printing costs for the first installation of the “Positivity for Patients: Project Yes You Can,” were made possible through crowdfunding, Margaret Moore said.
She and the Black Rock Art Guild, or BRAG, will continue to donate exhibits and the hope is the pieces will eventually be given to patients to take home.
BRAG treasurer Sheila Weaver said the group found Meg’s art program for hospitals, “very exciting,” and they were happy to see it’s debut at Gaylord where so many happened to have a personal connection.
“She does it with the love, the care and the spirit of giving to others,” Weaver said. “She’s an amazing poet.”
Margaret chose Gaylord for the debut exhibit because, “they have patients at all stages of recovery…and I know how important it is to stay motivated during the recovery process.”
Toronto creative Khary Safari, known on social media as the dancing photographer, is a producer, event manager, photographer and artist.
He’s one of Toronto’s biggest hype men behind the camera, and he does it on roller skates.
Safari is also the owner of Content Day Studio and the creator of Open Concept TO, a performance art party that showcases local creatives.
Raised in Parkdale, he has been long grounded in community and art.
Having run his own businesses since he was 19, Safari taught himself how to photograph, building himself up from a freelance photographer to the owner of his own studio.
With a big heart and an open door policy, his main objectives are to inspire, encourage and support local artists. Those who get to know him, fall in love with his energy.
Safari founded his first creative content studio in 2021. During the pandemic, he had begun meeting with a creative team once a week, trying to uplight local brands by creating content for them.
“It was a free day of creating just for the fun of it. So when I had the opportunity to open up my first studio, it was natural to call it content day,” he said.
The first iteration of Content Day Studio opened in a storefront underneath Safari’s Dundas West apartment, but he had to say goodbye to that space when a developer purchased the building.
Fortunately he had been working closely with OBJX Studio in the Stockyards District and became aware of a vacant studio space neighbouring them, so he moved in and opened Content Day Studio as it exists today.
The space is available to rent for anyone who wants to create content, or host an event. You can also take advantage of Content Day’s own team and book a photography or video session.
Safari says he’s known as the dancing photographer because he often dances with his camera in hand.
It’s safe to say he’s a fast learner since he’s only been behind the camera for five or six years, and more shockingly, roller skating for two.
This spring/summer season at Fashion Art Toronto, he even debuted as a model, walking down the runway for designer Dean Ellis while taking photographs of audience members.
Ellis explained that Safari was hand selected for his personality, precisely because of the dynamic energy he’s known for in the local arts community.
Safari credits the friends he’s known all his life who he shared creative outlets with at a young age – from boxing, and dancing to filming movies on their families’ camcorders and pretending to be in boy bands – to making him the artist he is today.
In fact, Content Day’s in-house DJ, Dear James, is one of Safari’s Parkdale friends of at least 20 years.
Safari says his biggest influence as an artist is his mom however, who has always been passionate about bringing people together and bettering the community.
“I feel like she was a good influence in Parkdale,” he said. As it happens, she is also the likely reason that Safari took to photography so naturally.
She was a hobby photographer with a film camera, who shot every family event Safari remembers. So I played with her camera, but I never considered it a passion. It was just a way of capturing our lives, he said.
It wasn’t until much later that he borrowed the camera of an aspiring photographer who he was dating in Vancouver and found himself unable to put it down.
“She was jealous of me because I just had a knack for it,” he smiled, as he described buying his own camera and photographing everything that captivated him in the city.
Safari’s roller skates became attached to him in a similarly serendipitous way, via another person’s creative objective. This time it was local artist and OBJX studio manager Katrina Anastasia who had ordered a pair of rollerskates for a music video. She’d received two pairs instead of one, and gave the extra set to Safari.
Even though he’d never roller skated before, he wore them to shoot a portion of Anastasia’s music video.
“When it comes to video, it allows me to get those stable, gliding shots,” he said. Not to mention, it makes things more fun. Now you can regularly find Safari roller skating during photoshoots, and at events, hyping up his subjects while he dances around them with his camera.
“Life is a production and I want to produce the best life for myself and the people around me,” he said. In order to continue hyping up local creatives, Safari has opened the doors of Content Day for an open studio every Thursday.
The studio’s free Content and Chill event, allows creatives to network, socialize, and create content in the space. Safari curates sets for photographers to play with and they’ll bring their own models, props and lighting.
DJ Dear James also hosts a DJ social so emerging artists can learn to DJ and practice. We have a whole DJ guild now, because we have all these intro level DJs playing with professionals, said Safari proudly.
“I’m just glad that what we’re doing is cultivating authentic artists,” said Safari. The creatives that find themselves in the Content Day Studio aren’t people looking for a quick fix. They’re artists who want to learn, express themselves, and do it all surrounded by good people.
PORT ANGELES — The 59th edition of Tidepools will be released on Thursday.
The public is invited to a launch party from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the ʔaʔk̓ʷustəƞáwt̓xʷ House of Learning, Peninsula College Longhouse on the Port Angeles campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
This event is free and open to the public. To reserve a free ticket, go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/639008771437.
Guests can help celebrate the winners of the Tidepools magazine contest and take a first peak at this year’s magazine. The Tidepools launch party will include a brief reading and pop-up exhibit featuring work in the current issue.
Tidepools Magazine has been published annually at Peninsula College since 1964 and features original art, photography, poetry, prose and music created by residents of the North Olympic Peninsula in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
Tidepools is created in collaboration by Peninsula College students who edit, design, lay out and publish the magazine while learning about publishing, marketing, community relations and gaining an appreciation of literature and the arts.
The magazine is made possible with support from the Associated Student Council, the Peninsula Daily News and The Buccaneer.
Look for Tidepools magazine in local shops across the Olympic Peninsula.
Youth Art (0-9) — 1. “Marigold and the Angel Dog” by Tzivia Reeder, Port Hadlock-Irondale; 2. “Coast Guard Dude” by Liliana Wengrin, Port Angeles; 3. “Under the Sea” by Calder Frank-Barton, Port Angeles.
Youth Art (10-13) — 1. “Rockstar” by Jude Stigler, Port Angeles; 2. “Spooky Season” by Sophie McDaniel, Port Angeles; 3. “Kit’s Corner” by Elyse Kim, Sequim.
Youth Art (14-17) — 1. “Sodapop” by Mikey Monet, Port Angeles.
Youth Writing (10-13) — 1. “Snowstorm” by Cora Powless, Port Angeles; 2. “Fire” by Alice Johnson, Port Angeles; 3. “All Hail the King” by Anouk Atwater, Port Angeles.
PC Student Art & Digital Art — 1. “Kayaking Away from the Farmer’s Market” by Karlie Viada, Carlsborg; 2. “AI Nature Girl” by Catherine Barrows, Chimacum; 3. “I Am Growing” by Nathalie Lalonde, Port Angeles; Honorable mentions: “Bailadora” by Lydia Morris, Port Angeles; “Strawberry Blonde” Viada.
PC Student Photography — 1. “Basement Birthday” by Eliza Pettigrew, Port Angeles; 2. “Seattle Reflections” by Nathan Barber, Port Angeles; 3. “Among the Fae” by Sam Chonko, Port Hadlock; Honorable mentions: “Eclectic Fantasy” by Courtney Smith, Port Angeles; “The World Above Us” by Mya Raunig, Vancouver.
PC Student Writing — 1. “Rain Like This” by Alena Grafstrom, Beaver; 2. “The Sunny Side of the Mountain” by Mary Hofer, Port Angeles; 3. “Heavy Pockets” by Alena Grafstrom, Beaver; Honorable mentions: “Night for Art” by Olivia Tejeda, Port Angeles; “Chrysalis” by Jessica Oversby, Forks.
Adult Art & Digital Art — 1. “Flicker” by George Seifert, Port Townsend; 2. “The Dragon and the Frog” by Cammry Lapka, Port Angeles; 3. “Amy’s Garden” by Terry Anderson, Sequim; Honorable mentions: “Solo Dance” by Marilou Laisnez, Sequim; “We are Family” by Malik Atwater, Port Angeles.
Adult Poetry — 1. “I Know Heaven by Trudy Roush,” Port Townsend; 2. “The Sixth Estate by Stirling Hall,” Sequim; 3. “For My Beloved Wife, Shelly, On Her Birthday” by Dennis Kelly, Port Ludlow.
Adult Prose — 1. “Sentinel of Sellman’s Creek” by Chris Kleinfelter, Port Angeles; 2. “Silent Symphony” by Nick Burnette, Port Angeles; 3. “The Current That Runs Through Us” by Katherine See Kennedy, Port Angeles.
Adult Photography — 1. “Dew-Covered Sage Plant at Woodcock Master Gardener Demonstration Garden” by Mark Klinke, Carlsborg; 2. “Family at Fountain” by Amy McIntyre, Port Angeles; 3. “Fresh Snow on the Sub-Alpine Fir Trees at Hurricane Ridge” by Amos Almy, Port Angeles; Honorable mentions: “Misty Morning with Guinea Fowl” by Pam Bauer, Port Townsend; “Sunset Giving Way to Milky Way at Second Beach” by Klinke.
Music — 1. “Winter Queen” by Ginny Holladay, Sequim; 2. “Déjà vu” by Dakotah Cole, Forks.
Margate-based Max Barnett is an artist and photographer who’s popped up on our site a few times before, but never in his own spotlight. That’s because Max has been prolific in producing incredible content for many years now behind an array of different projects, such as magazine Pylot from 2014-2020. Just as he did in the magazine, Max is a photographer who continues to champion the analogue medium. Now, however, he’s experimenting with all sorts, including his old love of collage and image manipulation. “I still like the work to look realistic and textural, like a blending of the analogue and digital world,” he tells It’s Nice That.
As a creative always “spiralling off into constant tangents”, Max is on the lookout for new terrain to cover all the time. “If I were to think about the themes present in my work I would say there is a queerness,” he remarks. “Some of my work is loud and features movement, yet some quiet and contemplative, so I think my need for balance in life is reflected in my work.” You can see that in all of Max’s work, the balance between stillness and movement, between the silly and the serious. We’ll be eagerly awaiting to see what Max gets up to next.
The Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College will present two major exhibitions, to open on June 24:
Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination Since 1969
June 24–November 26, 2023
Curated by Candice Hopkins (Carcross/Tagish First Nation), Forge Project’s Executive Director and Fellow in Indigenous Art History and Curatorial Studies, CCS Bard.
Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination Since 1969 is the first large-scale exhibition of its kind to center performance and theater as an origin point for the development of contemporary art by Native American, First Nations, Inuit, and Alaska Native artists, beginning with the role that Native artists have played in the self-determination era, sparked by the Occupation of Alcatraz by the Indians of All Nations in 1969. Featuring over 100 works by artists representing a range of perspectives and practices, including Rebecca Belmore (Member of the Lac Seul First Nation (Anishinaabe)), Dana Claxton (Lakota), Theo Jean Cuthand (Plains Cree, Scottish, Irish), Jeneen Frei Njootli (Vuntut Gwitchin, Czech and Dutch), Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill (Métis), Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota), James Luna (Payómkawichum, Ipai, and Mexican), Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee), Spiderwoman Theater, Dyani White Hawk (Sicangu Lakota), among many others, as well as performances and activations by Rebecca Belmore, Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit/Unangax̂), Arielle Twist (two-spirit Nehiyaw (Cree)) with Jeffrey Gibson (The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians/Cherokee), Maria Hupfield (Anishnaabek, Wasauksing First Nation/Canada), Emily Johnson (Yup’ik)/Catalyst, Kite (Oglala Sioux Tribe), and Eric-Paul Riege (Diné).
Indian Theater will be accompanied by a major publication, Native Visual Sovereignty: A Reader on Art and Performance, edited by Candice Hopkins and co-produced with Forge Project and charting the evolution of Indigenous North American performance in contemporary art over the past 60 years. Available fall 2023, Native Visual Sovereignty gathers extensive scholarship on the development Native North American performance, art, and visual sovereignty, including newly commissioned essays, poetry, and oral history interviews, alongside reprints of critical texts by leading Indigenous scholars and artists.
A full list of artists is available online here.
Erika Verzutti: New Moons
June 24–October 15, 2023
Curated by Lauren Cornell, Director of the Graduate Program and Chief Curator, CCS Bard.
New Moons—the first survey exhibition of Erika Verzutti (b. 1971, São Paulo) in the United States—provides an expansive view of the Brazilian artist’s bold and influential practice, encompassing over 70 wall works and sculptures made over the past fifteen years. The artist integrates a multitude of references from art and architectural history alongside references to plant, human, and animal life as well as everyday and spiritual objects. The result is both singular new forms and chains of associations. Sometimes, her sculptures replicate through multiple versions, or what have been called “families.”
Verzutti’s genealogies intersect with motifs such as eggs and orbs, the outlines of body parts, and traces of the work’s making—evidenced in marks from tools and the artist’s own fingerprints. The pervasive presence of Verzutti’s hands and tools reminds viewers that the artist is not just taking—not just absorbing her references into her creations. Rather, she is emphasizing a relation of transference, projection, and personification.
Moons recur throughout Verzutti’s work as symbols of renewal and the multiple phases and cycles that one person or entity can take. They also form a frame for the exhibition. For the artist, moons are part of a cosmos, alongside stars and asteroids, that signal a planetary perspective. This pulled-back viewpoint blurs the tensions and divisions on Earth, forming the basis for an artistic practice that seeks—in its strangeness and discontinuity—to break down prevailing orders, hierarchies, and divisions of knowledge classification.
Visitor information
Exhibition summer hours are Wednesday through Monday, 12–6pm. All CCS Bard exhibitions and programs are free and open to the public – advance reservations are not required but can be made at ccs.bard.edu.
For a seat on the free roundtrip-chartered bus from New York City available for the opening on June 24 please call T +1 845 758 7593 or email =(c=c.charCodeAt(0)+13)?c:c-26);});return false”>alaracuente [at] bard.edu. Reservations are required for the bus.
