Must See Exhibit - Locally Grown: Documentary Photography of Minnesota Communities

Article by Becky Fillinger, photos provided

A Discussion with curatorial fellow Ashley Cope

The Weisman Art Museum is exhibiting documentary photographs by Minnesota artists Joseph Allen, Laura Migliorino, Tom Arndt, David L. Parker, Wing Young Huie, and Michael Dvorak. The work spans five decades and highlights topics as broad as family, friendship, culture, relationships, sexuality, work, inequality, hardship and joy. We spoke to curator Ashley Cope about documentary photography and what the artists hope you’ll take from the exhibit. 

Ashley CopeQ:  What is documentary photography?

A:  Documentary photography incorporates a wide variety of photographic techniques and various subjects, but the term generally refers to photographs which capture real, often spontaneous, moments from life. Documentary photography is interested in long-term projects and ongoing issues; the works in the exhibition, therefore, are not shocking scenes from breaking news stories, but are instead snapshots from the daily lives of Minnesotan communities over the past fifty years: football games, parades, waiting for the bus, taking a break from work. The artists represented in the show often work in series and gather specific subjects together into a larger narrative. Laura Migliorino’s Hidden Suburbs series, for example, focuses on the diversity of Twin Cities’ suburbs and highlights the realities of Minnesotan families in the metro area; Migliorino’s Silverod Street #1 from the Hidden Suburbs series is on view in the exhibition.

Q:  How did you go about selecting the photographers for the exhibit?

A:  As the O’Brien Curatorial Fellow, I had the opportunity to pore over the Weisman Art Museum’s robust collection of artworks. Within the collection, the Weisman’s impressive photography collection stood out to me, as many of the photographs I was coming across returned to Minnesota and its people. Not only were many photographs centered on Minnesotan subject matter, many of the photographers were also deeply connected to the state; all of the artists in the exhibition are either born and/or based in Minnesota. As a born and raised Minnesotan myself, I was fascinated by images of the Minnesota State Fair from the 1970s, photos of familiar streets I’ve walked down a thousand times, as well as events and locations I’d never visited despite growing up nearby.

It became clear that the artists I was looking at the most - the five in the show - saw something in Minnesota that kept them coming back to photograph the community around them, the community in which they lived and worked. To see one’s own community from multiple perspectives and across time is a strength of the documentary photography represented in the show. Visitors will see scenes that are familiar and those that are not - they might even see themselves! - but everyone who visits will see the various, intimate experiences of everyday life in Minnesota from a new perspective.

Q:  What do you want or hope the visitor will experience as they view the exhibit?

A:  I spoke recently with one of the artists in the show, Tom Arndt, and we discussed how we often stay in our own little communities within a larger shared space, like Minnesota. We are so often within our own small bubble, and often these bubbles seem never to come into contact, or they do so very rarely. I hope this show allows for those bubbles to pop a little bit, for lots of people to see the larger shape of our community and how each small piece fits together to make the whole. I hope that the exhibition can serve as a space to see and engage with our neighbors.

Q:  Are there any events planned around the exhibit?

A:  Yes, I recently did an interview with Tom Arndt and Michael Dvorak, two of the artists whose work is represented in the show; a blog post and interactive map connecting some works from the show to locations in the Twin Cities will come out in early 2023 in response to that interview. There is also a panel conversation planned between three of the artists in the show, which will be moderated by another local photographer, Pao Her.

Q:  On a somewhat related note, you are a recipient of the O'Brien Curatorial Fellowship. What did this mean to your career?

A:  The O’Brien Curatorial Fellowship was an incredible opportunity for me; I graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2019 with a B.A. in Art History and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies. I’ve always been interested in museums and, knowing I wanted to work in art institutions, I ended up interning at the Weisman Art Museum and the Minneapolis Institute of Art during my undergraduate career. I applied for the O’Brien Fellowship prior to my 2019 graduation and served as the 2019-2020 Gerald and Lisa O’Brien Curatorial Fellow between undergraduate and graduate school. As the O’Brien Fellow, I got to work closely with Diane Mullin, the Weisman’s Senior Curator and an all-around lovely person from which to learn. I learned the ins and outs of curatorial work and worked closely with WAM’s other amazing staff. I loved my time at WAM, and though it was a bit disrupted by COVID-19, my time as the O’Brien Fellow was an extremely formative experience for me and encouraged me to continue pursuing a museum career.

Q:  How may we follow your news?

A:  The Weisman’s news can be found at their website and at weismanartmuseum on Instagram.

Personally, I am working towards my Ph.D. in Art History at the University of Maryland, College Park. My most recent milestone was the completion of my M.A. in April 2022. I will be presenting at the Barnes Symposium in Philadelphia in February 2023.

I also co-curated RINGGOLD | SAAR: Meeting on the Matrix which will open at the David C. Driskell Center in College Park, Maryland, on January 26, 2023. This exhibition highlights the printed works of significant American artists Faith Ringgold and Betye Saar.

My picks from the exhibition:

Joseph Allen (Rosebud Sioux b. 1964)

Clyde Bellecourt (White Earth Ojibwe), 2001

Clyde Bellecourt stands before the symbol of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in this vibrant portrait. In 1968, Bellecourt and co-founders Russell Means, Eddie Benton-Banai, and Dennis Banks formed AIM in Minneapolis to combat police brutality and historical injustice against Indigenous Americans. Bellecourt passed away on January 11, 2022, at his home in Minneapolis; his legacy as a leader of civil rights and an outspoken champion for the importance of indigenous culture and tradition persists.

Tom Arndt (American, b. 1944)

Waiting for the bus, downtown Minneapolis 1974

Waiting for the bus, 7th Street, Minneapolis 2006

Two photographs taken three decades apart demonstrate a shared, and often dreaded, experience: waiting. In Tom Arndt’s 2006 photograph of a bus stop in downtown Minneapolis, people on 7th Street crane their necks and gaze intensely in the same direction, each waiting - some more patiently than others - for the correct bus to come into view. Despite changes to the city over Arndt's long career, his images of downtown bus stops show how the trials and tribulations of waiting are both common and persistent.