Local Art Seen: Vintage Bikes and Bike Art @ the Duluth Folk School

One of the coolest stories in our evolving Duluth saga has been the renovation of the West End. The transformation that has taken place is quite impressive as rundown abandoned buildings have one-by-one been renovated to become contributions to the community instead of eyesores here.

Lee Johnson entertaining at the Duluth Art School.

The renovated Clyde Iron Works became an anchor, joined by Tom Hanson's investment in the restaurant businesses here. The craft brewers that have sprung up and a variety of other new faces that were not here three decades ago made their contributions. These once-neglected spaces have begun to shine in unexpected ways, striving together to produce a vital and lively part of town, the Lincoln Park Business District.

One of the newer businesses here--and it seems like there's a new one every time I turn around--is the Duluth Folk School, across the street from Karin Kraemer's Duluth Pottery and next door neighbor to the OMC Smokehouse.

When I learned that long time DTA bus driver Lee Johnson, a super-talented, multi-dexterous jug band performer, would be performing at the Folk School from 3 to 5 this past Sunday, I made my way there to be part of it. I brought my harmonicas and joined for a couple songs as other brought their various instruments to be shared on Lee’s generous stage with other friends.

Painting by Adam Swanson

After a short while I began to notice a theme in the artwork that spread across the walls. Then I noticed the bicycles suspended from the rafters. At least 21 of these vintage bikes were donated by people who know and love bicycles. Old Schwinns were abundant, but many other unusual bikes as well. A Monarch Silver King Rocket owned by Mark Lavalier is one example. And a 1908 Lea Francis owned by Paul McLeete is quite striking, this latter having been built in Coventry, England.

Bicycle paintings by Adam Swanson are accompanied by handlebar-bike seat compositions that look like the heads of steer. Add Rolf Hagberg’s Motivity photographs, and you have an excellent tribute to biking here.

If you get the chance, stop in a grab a bite to eat, or sup some java. If nothing else this ought to be a place to check out soon, just for the bike art show and the art of vintage bicycles.

Here are more photos of Bike Art that will be on display throughout the month ahead. It’s much more interesting in person though. If you’ve not yet been there, use this exhibition as an excuse to go check out a new space in town.

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Rolf Hagberg’s Motivity.

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Pretty cool, eh? Creation by Matt Postier.

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Unless I’m mistaken, this is a print by Adam Turman.

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While there, don’t forget to look up… and reflect on your own bike history.

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This isn;t something you see every day.

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To each his or her own…

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Local Art Seen: Sculpture Show @ the Tweed. Museum Director Ken Bloom Retires.

"Pair, Pear" by Isidro Blasco (detail)

The food was good. The music was good. The speakers were good. The afterparty was good. And the setting was great.

After 15 years, that fellow from Brooklyn, the one who some thought would never stay, seemed like he'd never leave. And actually, the big surprise might be that he isn't really leaving. That is, he's not leaving Duluth, he's only stepping down from his position as museum director.

For Ken Bloom it will be a new chapter, not the end of the story.

He's not the first East Coast or West Coast artist to have move here and fallen in love with the region. Bloom's passion is photography, and his aim will be to stay, with wife Danielle, and have Duluth his continued "base of operations."

When it comes to the economics of retirement, you can own 40 acres here or 40 square feet in Manhattan, so why go back? (For my fact checkers, this is hyperbole, but not by much.)

UMD catered the food, Blackwoods the bar, with short farewell remarks by Jim Klueg (an art prof at UMD's School of Fine Arts), Rick Smith (director of the American Indian Learning Resource Center), Annie Dugan, and Ken himself, the highlight being Ken's screeching mike. (Just kidding, again.) These were followed by musical performances by Soprano Alice Pierce and pianist Jacqueline Foley.

The talks began with Jim Klueg welcoming us, then introducing Rick Smith, who thanked Ken for being respectful of the sacred items in the collection including repatriated spirit bags and birchbark scrolls.

"Time Bomb" by Karess Pastore

Klueg then introduced Annie Dugan, former director of the Duluth Art Institute, among other roles here in the region. Annie was in school when he first learned of Ken Bloom's selection to be Tweed Director. The person who informed her said, "He's not going to last long at all. He's from Brooklyn and doesn't even try to hide it."

Dugan said that while she was at the DAI "Ken came to openings, but also came back to look at the work." This is what impressed her. He cared about the art and took time to engage it. She spoke briefly about the importance museums like the Tweed offer "in service to the art, the cultural context, people and the stories."

"Cubic Herd" by Leslie Bohnenkamp

Always eloquent, she spoke about the challenges art museums face today, citing a New York Times article "Can Museums Find A Way Forward?"

Ken Bloom was then introduced and he began by indicating that all he did was "under the watchful eye of George and Alice Tweed." He talked about the mission of the Tweed, that it was an elevating opportunity for the whole community. The Tweeds gave their collection the the University so that it would be shared.

Ken Bloom awaiting introduction. 

"This museum is unique," Bloom said. "It is about us, our collective history. All exhibition s and acquisitions are paid for by you, the community. UMD pays for overhead and staff, but this is your museum."

Though he's lived in New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Japan and elsewhere, he is retiring here "because the lake got me. And my wife Danielle got me,..."

He noted that this was his first real opportunity to craft a collection. And at this moment the current show of art by Minnesota's Native Americans provided a visual endorsement of his description of our region as "the Ojibwa Riviera."

He closed with this takeaway: "Art is our way of expressing our community and our time here on earth."

EdNote: Except for the photo of Ken above, all photos here are from the sculpture exhibit upstairs featuring works currently in the Tweed collection.

"Untitled" by Isidro Blasco

"Figure Fragment #AV" by Orazio Fumagalli

Related Links
Powerful Images & Native Stories Fill Main Hall at the Tweed
Museums Confront Their Crowded Basements

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

A Few Quotes and Thoughts About Retirement

As the saying goes, when one chapter ends another begins.

"The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off."
--Abe Lemons

"Sooner or later I'm going to die, but I'm not going to retire."
--Margaret Mead

"A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams."
--John Barrymore

"Retirement is not in my vocabulary. They aren't going to get rid of me that way."
--Betty White

From my youth till a couple years ago I never gave much thought to retirement. Yes, I had been setting money aside, paying down our house and all that, but the notion of actually retiring was a concept not in my vocabulary. Hence, this cake was so apt. A new chapter is beginning. Today will be the end of something, and tomorrow... a new story will begin.

I don't know about you, but there is usually a soundtrack playing in my head. I wonder if that is a phenomenon of growing up watching movies. Did people in the Middle Ages have soundtracks playing in their heads? (If they did, they certainly had a different name for it.) This week's soundtrack is courtesy the Grateful Dead: "What a long strange trip it's been."

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So, what next? People keep asking, and as for now it's uncertain. I have a long list of things I want to write, articles on various themes, stories I want to tell. As of tomorrow my "day job" will no longer occupy the bulk of my waking hours. Before I write the next chapter I'll need to take a short break to work on the Preface and Intro.

Here's one more quote related to retirement that I excluded from the above: "Gods retirement plan is out of this world." Hopefully I won't be learning the details on that plan any time soon. I still have more to accomplish here first.

What will you accomplish in 2018? Have a very special Christmas, and a majorly meaningful new year!