Art Hounds: Speechless films, inmate artists, and girls who have rhythm
"Prison Cell" by Schavitz, an inmate at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater. The piece is part of "Out of the Abyss: The Prison Art Project" at the Bloomington Art Center.
This week, a Bloomington art exhibition arising out of the despair of imprisonment, a Mankato festival celebrating films which strictly limit dialogue, and another festival which places women who rock on a pedestal.
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Ex-Soviettes drummer Danny Henry has played with and admired women rockers for years. Danny, co-host of the Jazzed Up and Bonkers podcast, is giving advance notice for the Girls got Rhythm Fest Rock and Roll Weekend at the Amsterdam Bar in St. Paul, May 10th and 11th. Danny is particularly interested in San Francisco punk rockers The Avengers, who are appearing at the fest on Friday, May 10. He says The Avengers introduced him to punk rock.
For revealing, disturbing, sometimes painful insights into life behind bars, artist and curator John Schuerman highly recommends "Out of the Abyss: The Prison Art Project" at the Bloomington Art Center. John says the exhibition was expertly curated by William Murray, an instructor at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater for 30 years. Murray has divided the show into his personal collection of art gifted to him by inmate students, and his own unsettling mixed media pieces reflecting on his tenure at the prison.
Gibbon, Minn. painter Gwen Ruff thinks that removing an essential component from an art form can pose an interesting creative challenge for artists. So it makes sense Gwen would be drawn to the Speechless Film Festival in Mankato, which consists of films which have little or no dialogue. The Speechless Film Festival is being presented by Bethany Lutheran College at the Mankato Place Theater and the Mankato Event Center on May 3rd and 4th. For more Art Hounds' recommendations, check us out on Facebook and Twitter. Art Hounds is also available as a podcast on iTunes. Art Hounds is powered by the Public Insight Network.
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