Northern Lights.mn Announces Northern Spark 2021: Alchemy

Via a March 22 e-announcment from Northern Lights.mn:

Design by Matthew Rezac

The annual festival returns in the summer of 2021 with two weeks of healing, transformative programming focused on the theme Alchemy .

Northern Lights.mn announces this year’s Northern Spark theme, projects and artists. Northern Spark will span two weeks (June 12-27) instead of one all-night festival or two late-nights.  The public will come together in creative, unconventional ways, engaging with artist projects online, through the mail, and in person in St. Paul. The Theme: Alchemy The theme for this year's Northern Spark was created by the 2021 Artist Council with Northern Lights.mn. Artists are the modern-day alchemists. We mix form, materials, and ideas to transform the collective emotional matter of this world into new shapes. If art were a universal elixir for healing, how do we hold space for grief and loss as well as concoct recipes to honor our hunger for joy? How do we transform isolation into intimacy? Orbits into intersections? What community wisdom might we mix together for recovery? In 2021 the festival supports artist projects that encourage our communities to safely connect and still inspire the kind of experimental, surprising experiences we love at Northern Spark. Bring your grief, your joy, yourself and be part of the elixir of magical transformation. New project forms for 2021 Mail Art has populist, anti-institutional and experimental roots, as artists looked to disrupt traditional gallery systems by sending handmade or printed postcards, letters, stickers, collages and even small objects through the postal service. Northern Spark loves to support artists who tap into systems such as the mail service to connect people, places and ideas in unconventional ways. For residents of St. Paul’s Eastside and Rondo/Frogtown neighborhoods. Mail Art Artists and their projects:  Seed Paper of Hope by Milkweed Collective (Kallie Melvin and Eva Adderley). Collaborative Blocking: a Community Map by Corinne Teed and Tia Simone-Gardner. Friends are Silver and Gold by L. Kling and The Support Local Hustle Collective. There is an opportunity for BIPOC, Eastsiders to be included in Friends are Silver and Gold. See the open call here. Virtual Connections is a platform that invites artists in many disciplines to create an art experience that connects people using online meeting technologies.  Virtual Connection Artists and their projects: Virtual Solstice Sound Garden by Dameun Strange. Vigil by Gabrielle Civil. The Wind Always Strikes the Highest Mountain by Yeej Moua. Title TBD by Lightning Rod. Braiding our Generations Together - A Virtual and Public Art Storytelling Project: In collaboration with Indigenous Roots, American Indian Family Center, Elder’s Lodge and Metro State University, led by Reyna Day and Ruti Mejia of International Indigenous Youth Council - Twin Cities.   More details about the project and artists will be announced soon.

Northern Spark Background Northern Spark is a late-night, participatory arts festival that lights up the Twin Cities in early summer. In 2021, the festival takes new forms: in the mail, online, and in person in St. Paul, MN during a two week span of time.  In past years during Northern Spark, tens of thousands of people gathered throughout the city on one night to explore giant video projections, play in temporary installations in the streets, and enjoy experimental performances in green spaces. From dusk to dawn the city surprised you: friendly crowds, glowing groups of cyclists, an unexpected path through the urban landscape, the magic of sunrise after a night of amazing art and experiences. In 2018 we introduced a two-night model, so people could experience the artful magic of Northern Spark for two nights until 2 am. As our city still grapples with the effects of COVID-19, in 2021 festival still support artist projects that encourage our communities to safely connect and still inspire the kind of experimental, surprising experiences we love at Northern Spark. Northern Spark is produced by Northern Lights.mn, a Twin Cities non-profit arts organization whose work ranges from large-scale public art platforms like Northern Spark to Art(ists) On the Verge, a year­long mentorship program for 5 emerging artists working with digital culture. We support artists in the creation and presentation of art in the public sphere, such as at St. Paul's Union Depot (Amateur Intelligence Radio), "choir karaoke" at the Minnesota State Fair (Giant Sing Along) and Illuminate South Loop, a mini outdoor festival of nine interactive projects in Bloomington, MN’s South Loop in the days leading up to the 2018 Super Bowl. Through projects such as Aquanesia, a location-­based environmental mystery game, and large scale festivals themed around social issues, our work helps audiences explore expanded possibilities for civic engagement through art.