August 12, 2015, Wednesday - The Soap Factory Common Room Tour

Time:  6:30pm

Location: The Soap Factory, 514 Second St SE

Common Room began as a month-long series of interactive art events, out of a refurbished art deco office at The Soap Factory. Since 2011, Vucci and Sturdevant have taken the Common Room concept outside the four walls of The Soap Factory and into the city, activating public spaces and redefining our relationship with our surroundings.

Scroll down to take a look at this summer's tour descriptions!

2015 Common Room Tours

Wednesday, August 12, at 6:30pm // The Repatriation Tour

Wednesday, August 19, at 8:45pm // The Mobile Karaoke Dance Party Tour with Mike Hoyt

Wednesday, August 26, at 6:30 pm // The Youth Tour

Wednesday, September 2, time TB // The Minnesota State Fair Tour with Peter Haakon Thompson

AUGUST 12
The Repatriation Tour: Have you ever visited a city where you once lived, years ago, and attempted to make your way through it again, finding yourself surprised at all that's changed, and how unreliable your own memories are? Live that experience over again: Common Room has invited Detroit artist and one-time Minneapolis resident Jonathan Gabel to lead a walking tour of the city, beginning from The Soap Factory. Gabel hasn't visited the city in nearly a decade, and won't be making a set itinerary or agenda in advance. We'll follow Jonathan through the potentially familiar, potentially alien landscape, revisiting a familiar city through the eyes of someone who hasn't experienced it in years, comparing our own experiences and memories with his.

AUGUST 19
The Mobile Karaoke Dance Party Tour with Mike Hoyt: Join Common Room and artist Mike Hoyt of Rolling Revelry and Norae Shanty fame on a bike-driven dance themed karaoke excursion down the Greenway. Meet up in the back parking lot of Calhoun Village Shopping Center (behind Punch Pizza), 3226 W Lake St, at 8:45 pm.

AUGUST 26
The Youth Tour: The geography of childhood is radically different than the geography of adults. A group of students from the Marcy Open School near The Soap Factory, ranging in ages from 10 to 13, have created a tour focused around Marcy Field, the open park that serves as a playground, gathering place and landmark for the school. The students will walk Common Room attendees through important historical landmarks, remembered experiences, sites for games, points of conflict, and other notable spaces they've experienced through in their childhoods.

SEPTEMBER 2
The Minnesota State Fair Tour with Peter Haakon Thompson: Join Common Room and artist Peter Haakon Thompson, founder of The A Project and co-founder of Art Shanty Projects, at the Great Minnesota Get-together. See the fair through an artist's lens as we embark on an epic, endurance version of the artist's classic Auto-ethnographic Tours of the fair and its offerings. Join for the whole day or just segments. Meeting times and locations to be posted.