Twin Cities Art Festivals to Experience Online

Take in Art-A-Whirl and the St. Paul Art Crawl in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic

 

Art-a-Whirl ordinarily takes place in northeast Minneapolis. For its 25th anniversary, it's going online.
Art-a-Whirl ordinarily takes place in northeast Minneapolis. For its 25th anniversary, it’s going online.

Courtesy Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association

Outdoor art festivals usher in a typical Twin Cities summer. The coronavirus pandemic has cancelled some and pushed others—like the Edina Art Fair and the Stone Arch Bridge Festival—back into late summer and fall.

A couple, among the spring showcases, are taking it online instead:

St. Paul Virtual Art Crawl

When: April 24-26
Where: Facebook

Artists post work for sale, musicians livestream, and viewers can create “watch parties” with friends—all on a Facebook page created specifically for the virtual event. Scrolling through, the page already feels strangely more intimate, as artists show off the paintings hung in their homes.

“I encourage you not to do it all at once,” says photographer Stephen Hadeen in a video posted to the St. Paul Virtual Art Crawl page. “Take blocks of time each day—Friday, Saturday, and Sunday—so you don’t get overwhelmed by it.”

Art-A-Whirl Online

When: May 14-16
Where: Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association (NEMAA) Website

Art-A-Whirl would ordinarily open 60 locations to crawlers, featuring some 800 artists and this year intending to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Now, a virtual alternative flips the weekend into an “online promotion of the arts community in northeast Minneapolis, coupled with resources and training for members to develop, or further develop, their online presence,” NEMAA president Brian Burke said in a statement posted to the association’s website.