Behind the WintertIde Biennial: An Interview with Jim Gerlich of the Cedarwoods Foundation

Jim Gerlich is a NEMAA member and portrait photographer who works with Hasselblad cameras. He also runs the Cedarwoods Foundation, which specializes in funding youth programming, arts organizations and animal welfare centers in the Twin Cities.

Thanks to the Cedarwoods Foundation, NEMAA is proud to be launching the first ever Wintertide Biennial Arts Exhibition, which will open January 24th at Public Functionary.

Click here for all the info about Wintertide!

In anticipation of this weekend's kickoff, we gave Jim Gerlich a call to talk about how the idea for Wintertide came about.

[transcript follows]

NEMAA: How are you today, and how did you get involved with NEMAA?

Jim Gerlich (JG): Just fine... Well, I shared a studio in Northeast Minneapolis with Patricia Punykova, and when the Solar Arts Building opened we got a studio over there.  She spent her time doing her artwork, which is glass work, and it kind of took over the space as the things I was doing got completed. I had been doing portraits with the Hasselblad setup, and everything got stolen!

NEMAA: Oh no! So what is the Cedarwoods foundation? What do you work on?

JG: The foundation is a family foundation established in 2011. We have three areas of funding: we do projects with youth in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, we support the arts, and we work on supporting animal welfare and well-being.

NEMAA: Well that’s an interesting list… Tell me about the Wintertide show. How does it fit into the picture, and how did it come about?

JG: I guess the genesis of Wintertide show came about last year at the NEMAA Fall Fine Arts show. It's great that everyone should be able to show their work. But I know quite a few artists in the Twin Cities, and I noticed that some of the very best artists didn’t seem like they were submitting their work. I hit on the idea of a show for top-tier artists, representative of the very best artists and art that the Twin Cities area has to display.

So I approached NEMAA with the idea of bringing those people out of the woodwork, and enticing them to show the best that Twin Cities’ art has to offer.  NEMAA said "yes," and that they’d been thinking of doing something along similar lines.

NEMAA: Did you have a particular model in mind? Why the biennial format?

JG: Well, we had several conversations, but I pretty much put it in NEMAA’s hands. They took the lead, and I supported their lead. Then we selected Public Functionary to have the show, and so here we are. It turns out that we’ve had more than double the submissions we’d expected! So my only regret is that we’re not going to be able to show more work. I know there will be some very good works that are not going to be shown because of the limitations of the gallery space.

NEMAA: Have you seen the work yet? Do you know who is going to be included?

JG: No, I haven’t seen anything. I’m going to see everything when everyone else does, on opening night.

NEMAA: How are you hoping that the Wintertide show might change the landscape of the Twin Cities’ art scene?

JG: I think we might give more recognition of the quality of Twin Cities artists. We’ll have to debrief when the show is completed and see what worked and what didn’t work and go on from there. I guess my advice is to go to the opening and see what you think!

Announcing the Wintertide Biennial Semi-Finalists

The first Wintertide Biennial is only weeks away, and we're excited to report that our jury has selected the semi-finalists for potential inclusion in the show. There will be one more  round of judging to determine the final participating artists.

The Wintertide Biennial is a new collaboration between NEMAA and Public Functionary  to highlight the quality of art produced by NEMAA artist members from around the metro area. Thanks to the Cedarwoods Foundation for their support.

Exhibit Location: Public Functionary / 1400 12th Ave NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413

Exhibit Dates: January 24 - February 7, 2015

Opening Reception/Prizes Awarded: Saturday, January 24, 7pm-11pm

Hours: Thursday, 12pm-6pm / Friday, 12pm-6pm / Saturday, 12pm-6pm

Here are the names of the semi-finalists who will proceed to the second round of in-person judging, in alphabetical order. Congratulations to all of you, and best of luck!

• Lynda Angelis
• Natalia Berglund
• Chad Breckenridge
• Karen Brown
• Francene Christianson
• Eric Cornett
• Kat Corrigan
• Emily Donovan
• Selma Fernandez
• Nicole Fierce
• Kyle Fokken
• Tracy Frizzell
• Teri Fullerton
• Bryan Grose
• Lindsy Halleckson
• Carolyn Halliday
• Stanley Hawthorne
• Mike Hazard
• Annie Hejny
• Tucker Hollingsworth
• Keith Holmes
• David Holmes
• Caitlin Karolczak
• Brendan Kramp
• Candy Kuehn
• Jeff Lohaus
• Dean Lucker
• Stephanie Molstre-Kotz
• Karen Morris
• Shelly Mosman
• Philip Noyed
• Stephen Ozone
• Barbara Porwit
• Aaron Putt
• Andy Richter
• John Rodman
• Kimberlee Roth
• Madison Rubenstein
• James Edward Scherbarth
• Mary Simon-Casati
• Suzanne Skon
• Mary Solberg
• Michael Speaker
• Tressa Sularz
• Nicky Torkzadeh
• Dean Trisko
• Sheryl Tuorila
• Susan Wagner
• Ann Wood

Important Correction: This list is of the semi-finalists for the show, not the list of final artists selected for the snow. We will announce the final selected artists soon. Apologies for the confusion.

[The Public Functionary space.]

Wintertide Bienneial: An Interview with Tricia Khutoretsky of Public Functionary

It's just over a month until the Wintertide Biennial Juried Art Exhibition opens, this January 24th at Public Functionary. We've received lots of great submissions from NEMAA artists and are excited to have our jury start the competition.

The show dates are: January 24 through February 7, 2015.

Mark your calendar today!

What is Public Functionary?

Public Functionary is a two year old art gallery right on the edge of the Northeast Minneapolis arts district. They've been making waves for some time, trying to push the local art scene in some intriguing new directions. (For example, check out the recent story on the gallery in the Star Tribune.) NEMAA is thrilled to be partnering with them for the Wintertide Biennial.

If you haven't visited the gallery space and are not familiar with Public Functionary, here are excerpts from our chat with Tricia Khutoretsky, the co-director and curator.

NEMAA: Tell me about Public Functionary. You call yourselves a "contemporary art exhibition and social space." What is that all about?

[The Public Functionary team.]

Tricia Khutoretsky: Well the main thing is just that we’re looking at encouraging art buying in the Twin Cities. There's been a lot of controversy over the past few years about how much artists rely on grant funding, and how people feel about government and grant funding for the arts.

Well, one way to supplement that is to have a better art market. Everything that we do at PF is an effort to make people comfortable with art, and to try to encourage new people to get into art buying.

NEMAA: How does the Wintertide Bienneial fit into that mission?

TK: Well the Cedarwoods Foundation generously donated sponsorship money to put toward prizes, which means the jury exhibit will be highly competitive. That  hopefully encouraged artists to put their best work forward. Basically it all comes back to the fact that we're trying to support the idea to try to help people find purchasable art in the area

NEMAA: That's interesting. For someone like me, new to the Twin Cities art market, what do you mean by "purchasable art?"

[The opening of a Buy Now Cry Later Takeover show. Img Public Functionary.]

TK: Some people don’t buy art because they're not comfortable with the purchase. My theory at least, is they feel like if they buy a piece of art…and can’t explain why they bought it, it’s questionable. You have questions like, "Where’d you get it?" or "Why would you do that?" Some people have difficulty talking about it because they might feel intimidated about their purchase being validated.

That might be one theory. Sure a lot of the problem is that people can’t afford art, and there might be a million reasons. But one barrier I’m working on is to eliminate that feeling of intimidation.

Why is it so easy to buy something that is mass produced? For example, pieces from Ikea that are just printed; there's something about buying at Ikea that is not intimidating. So we have these really great jurors that are known for understanding the art market. For example, Peter Remes puts collections in all the buildings that he's developed…and Leslie Hammons from the Weinsetin Gallery of Fine Art Photography. And we have professors that are respected in the academic art world who understand a lot about art history.

Knowing that these art works have been vetted and suggested by these really great minds in the art world, it’s kind of a little bit of a suggestion by people that know what they’re talking about.

NEMAA: So it'll be a different experience coming in than many of the other shows in Northeast.

TK: Right.  There’s no juried show in Northeast Minneapolis. The Wintertide Biennial will filter…and find a way to showcase the best of the best. Not every single artist in NE is applying, but there were a lot submissions and they were good so far!

NEMAA: Best of luck with the show and all your other work at the gallery.

TK: Thanks.

[The gallery space awaits.]