Artistic Inspiration News
Exchange mail art with incarcerated artists, fulfill your dance resolutions, perfect your handstand, or write your picture book in 2023.
Welcome to Artistic Inspiration News! Once a month, this substack brings artistic opportunities, activism, events, opportunities, ways to learn and develop as an artist, and artists and artworks to watch. All events in the Artistic Inspiration News are free unless noted. We are Twin Cities-centric, but we do report cool opportunities all over. Jackson Street Arts’ substack (including Artistic Inspiration News) remains free, at least for now. Thanks for reading!
Dance/Movement
(Twin Cities and Everywhere) Is one of your resolutions to dance more this year? Dance is one of those things that’s kind of stressful and fraught for a lot of people – there’s a reason dance clubs sell alcohol. But dance is a wonderful way to connect with people, to experience your body, and to make art. It’s not as hard as you think. You can go to the dance club by yourself, or with just one other person, even if they don’t dance. You can pay the cover, check out the vibe, and turn around and leave as soon as you get there; no one will notice or care. You can find a little corner of dance floor and vibe – or vogue – all by yourself and no one will notice or care about that, either. If you skip drinking, going out to dance is also remarkably cheap, sometimes free, entertainment. The pictures in today’s post were taken at Ground Zero in Minneapolis on New Year’s Eve. Ground Zero is a gothy, campy, horror-themed nightclub that has changed not one iota in probably 25 years, which is reassuring in these parlous times. The cover is usually $10; the music is industrial but danceable; the people-watching is always excellent. Another good option locally might be the Electric Snow Globe on January 21st from 2-7. This will be an outdoor dance party, supposedly in a snow fortress, with fire dancers. It’s free. Sounds excellent.
(Everywhere) CLI Studios is an app with dance lessons. It’s only free for a seven-day trial, but they’re running a sale for half of 2023 memberships (code NEWDANCE23), which works out to about $9 a month. We’d be curious to try this one, since going out to dance classes is less fun masked.
(Everywhere) Yogi Flight School is offering a free week of inversion/handstand training marketed as being accessible to folks of all sizes, ages, and ability levels (although they do mention you need to be “able-bodied,” which is a little bit of a red flag for me). (Sidebar PSA: Friends who do movement instruction, please specify the actual physical requirements for your movement and fitness experiences, and please indicate what kinds of adaptations are and aren’t possible and which ones you have experience instructing. Don’t say “able bodied.” All living bodies are able to do certain things; all living bodies are not able to do certain things, these certain things in both cases are individualized, please specify what’s required so we can decide whether we can make it work and whether we can trust you to adapt successfully to our needs). Anyway, this does look fun despite the red flag: January 9th to the 13th, MWF at 10 a.m. each time.
(Upper Valley, New Hampshire and Everywhere) Belly Dance with Gina is offering a free introductory week of classes both in person and online, January 10th -15th at various times.
Music
(Everywhere) We’re curious about Amp, a free app that lets you create your own radio shows. It’s giving 1995 2 a.m. KFAI listening vibes, but with a slick, bitter, silicon valley frosting. Has anyone tried it? Opinions?
(Twin Cities) Oh my goodness, I’m so excite! (That is not a typo.) There is a Klezmer music festival in the Twin Cities January 29th to February 5th, Klezmer on Ice. This burgeoning Jewish progressive arts community is cool to see. Tickets to most events are free.
Writing
(Everywhere) Storyteller Academy is once again offering a five-day free Children’s Book Challenge, with workshops on character design, illustration, plotting middle-grade novels, submitting kid lit to publishers, self-publishing, and creating picture book dummies. January 9-13th, 7 p.m. Central time.
Visual Arts (and Craft) Making
(Twin Cities) Are you intrigued by glassblowing but also completely terrified? Foci Center for Glass Art has these one night glass discoveries workshops where you make a pretty glass object 1-on=1 with someone who knows what they’re doing and is willing to do the scary parts for you if you’re not. If you like that, you can level up to an actual glassblowing class. Various dates and times, costs about $90.
(Twin Cities) Do you need help or equipment to better document your art work? The Vickie Benson Resource Center has a variety of scanners, lightboxes, backdrops, and other equipment and tutorials to help, all free.
(Twin Cities) Heart of the Beast in collaboration with Paradox Teatro is offering free puppetry workshops centered on climate justice. Sundays February 12-26th at 11 a.m.
(Everywhere) Heart of the Beast is also offering free virtual climate-justice-focused art workshops this winter, focused on creating a “time capsule.” Sundays January 22nd to February 5th at 2 p.m. Central.
(Everywhere) Would you like to learn to turn your art into greeting cards? Stacie Bloomfied of Gingerber is offering a free on-demand (i.e., anytime) greeting card making class that looks fun.
(Everywhere) Would you like to exchange mail art with an incarcerated artist? The Justice Arts Coalition’s PARTner Project can hook you up!
Spirituality/Magic
(Twin Cities) Want some radical intersectional queer tarot that supports the fat community in Minneapolis and also gives you a chance to buy groovy used plus-sized clothes? Cassandra Snow is popping up at Cake Plus Size on January 7 from 12-5. Cake is struggling financially, so shopping there now – and getting your cards read – supports community.
What’s inspiring you in 2023? Share your transformative adventures in comments, and, as always, comment, like, share and subscribe if you’d like to keep this work coming!