“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
As noted earlier, I moved to the Twin Cities from Los Angeles, California. I lived in Minneapolis, then I lived in St. Paul, then I lived in Minneapolis again. For all intents and purposes, they are pretty close in feel. Both cities have great attributes. They are both connected to this wonderful river. Then I realized little by little that these cool cities had . . . a pretty big rivalry. A lot of my Minnesota-native friends had some biases when it came to their city of choice. And lo and behold, there was an amazing art community in Lowertown, St. Paul, akin to the arts district of Northeast Minneapolis. Twin Cities indeed!
My question as the naive outsider was: why didn’t they do more together?
Naive indeed. From competing cathedrals to census counting, I learned that the rivalry between the Twin Cities is as old as the cities themselves. They had been competing practically since both of their foundings, and Minneapolis spent most of its formative years trying to catch up to its older twin. According to local legend, in the 1890 census each city literally arrested the other’s census takers in a heated effort to keep the rival city from outnumbering them.
We decided to play with this concept in one of our 2008 exhibits and tease out this little rivalry. We opened the MPLS vs. STPL exhibit in April 2008 and partnered with the Black Dog coffee shop and restaurant in Lowertown, St Paul. Altered Esthetics hosted all artwork about St. Paul. Th e Black Dog hosted all works about Minneapolis. The artwork featured a variety of photographic and painted tributes to iconic Minneapolis and St. Paul landmarks.
We held the opening reception at Altered Esthetics and the closing reception at the Black Dog. In the middle, we planned a variety of events getting people to go from space to space. We held an artists’ talk and we hosted a group ride, taking a 10-mile bicycle tour from Minneapolis all the way to St. Paul.
Did we shift any gallery-going habits? Maybe, maybe not. Did we get a few folks going to the Black Dog for the first time, heading from Minneapolis, and vice versa? Yes! And more importantly, we had some great conversations on the dynamic between Minneapolis and St. Paul and the nature ofthe relationship between the Twin Cities. Ten years later and now the Green Line light rail is open, a significant investment in the connection between the two cities. Has the dynamic shifted? I’ll be interested to read future studies to see if this pulsing artery that connects us truly changes the nature of the relationship between Minneapolis and St. Paul. So far, things are promising.
This post is adapted from It’s Never Going To Work: A Tale of Art and Nonprofits in the Minneapolis Community. Book includes illustrations by Athena Currier. ©2019 Jamie Schumacher.
It’s Never Going To Work is a light-hearted, illustrated book that offers real-life insights on founding a community space and nonprofit. It provides tools, tips, resources, and camaraderie to community organizers and anybody attempting something new.