How Is Duluth Home? Tonight's Theme for DAI's Design DLH #4

If you have been following this year's Duluth Art Institute (DAI) announcements and mailings, you would have heard about the series of events and presentations called Design DLH. The fourth of six Design DLH sessions will take place tonight at Trepanier Hall, home to the American Indian Community Housing Orgamization (AICHO).  Tonight's topic: "How Is Duluth Home?" The presentation will feature Michelle LeBeau, AICHO Development Director; Nick Smith, musician and AICHO staff; Jacob Vanio, spoken word poet and musician; and AICHO artists.

Design is all around us, from the structures we live and work in to the shape of tools we use, the clothes we wear, cars we drive and the computers we surf the Internet with. It's actually a very exciting field. And I have been pleased to see the DAI recognizing design as an art form through this series of events and discussions.

Each Design DLH gathering has invited local designers to present ideas around a prompt that addresses some aspect of Duluth’s visual identity. The theme for Session Four, “How is Duluth Home?” will embrace cultural diversity in Duluth and the reclamation of Native American space. Tours of AICHO will be offered following the discussion.

Sessions are free and open to the public, but due to limited seating, RSVPs are required at info@duluthartinstitute.org.  All of the events so far have been borderline overcrowded, though no fire marshall have been called in as yet to determine if we were over capacity.

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In a related note, the DAI Member Exhibition will taken down on Sunday. There are still a few days left to see the show which is in the Great Hall. Be sure to go upstairs to see Shawna Gilmore's fantasy paintings and Tweed Museum director Ken Bloom's "Public Domain" photography from 1976-78 Japan.

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More DAI News

The Internet Cat Video Festival, #CatVidFest, is a project of the Walker Art Center in celebration of online cat videos. It will once again return with favorite “celebricats” to make a Duluth premiere, presented by the Duluth Art Institute and Zinema 2 on Wednesday, March 2. Two show times will be offered—at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.—at Zinema 2, 222 E Superior St. Tickets are $9 for adults, $7 for students and $6.50 for senior citizens.

Throughout the month of March the Duluth Art Institute will recognize artistic achievements of area K-12 youth in the annual “Youth Art Month” exhibition. The display will be on view in the Great Hall of the Duluth Depot, opening with a reception from 5 to 7 PM on Thursday, March 3. The opening celebration will include further educational opportunities with free artist demos featuring Laura Gapske on Zine production, Cody Paulson and Tyler Johnson of Stack Prints showing off screen-printing, and Matt Kania demonstrating plein air painting. The reception is free and open to the public.

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Get into it.