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You are browsing an archived site for a previous Northern Spark event. To visit the current site click here.

Almanac
Northern Spark
Steve Dietz stopped by to chat up this weekend’s “white night” arts festival.

art of wore
Nuit Blanche Festival: Northern Spark
I love nights like this. It’s so much fun to do something different, y’know? By the time 3am rolled around, we were pretty much sleepwalking, but it was worth it.

Asian American Press
A Ping Pong Retrospective: 1500 Photographs by Wing Young Huie
Join celebrated urban photographer Wing Young Huie, creator of Lake Street USA and The University Avenue Project-during the Twin Cities Northern Spark Festival, in viewing 1500 photos while batting glow-in-the-dark ping-pong balls with friends and strangers!

CBS Minnesota
Best Twin Cities Summer Art Exhibits And Events
Have your coffee ready. One of the Twin Cities’ biggest events of the year is an all-night art extravaganza….

City Pages
Rachel Hutton, Food trucks coming to Northern Spark art fest
With all that citywide art-viewing, appetites are surely going to be worked up. Fortunately, several food trucks will be parked outside various venues, each serving from 8:55 p.m. to 5:28 a.m., the hours of the festival…
Andrea Swensson, Northern Spark starts at sunset tonight, follow along at home.
If staying out until dawn isn’t in the cards for you tonight, you can follow along at home courtesy of “official livestreamer” Chuck Olsen and the UpTake, who will be running video feeds from the Walker and the MIA in Minneapolis, the Black Dog Cafe in St. Paul, and a roaming camera operated by Olsen that will be bouncing between performances all night.

Examiner.com
Malia Frey, A weekend workout plan that combines fitness and art
Rather than driving to the event, incorporate the celebration into your workout plan. Leave the car at home and devise a workout to travel to several of the exhibits around the city. . . . Ramp up the effort with a multisport workout by including Nice Ride bikes.

The Journal
Dylan Thomas, White Night
A white horse galloping on the Mississippi River. A cartoonist who looks like a woodsman and carries a tree-sized pen. A silent concert under the stars. Scenes from a dream? No. Call it a premonition of Northern Spark….

The Line
Tristan Pollock, Lighting Up the Night with Northern Spark
At the end of my white night, I was exhausted but exhilarated, and not just by the art. I realized that the importance of Northern Spark went well beyond what was on show. Our first Nuit Blanche brought people out of the comfortable confines of their homes at an odd hour for an illuminating experience of togetherness….

LOL!OMG!
This Week in (Uploaded) Pictures

Minnesota Public Radio
Marianne Combs, The reviews are in for Northern Spark
It would be practically impossible for any critic to have taken in the entire line-up of festivities for this past weekend’s Northern Spark festival. . . . So rather than seek out a variety of reviews in the local media, I turned to artists and art lovers to find out what they thought of the festival.
Marianne Combs, 10 Ways to Light your Northern Spark
Feeling up to the challenge? Even if you’re not able to stay up as late as you used to, you could probably take in a fair amount by midnight. Here are some of the more provocative items on the program:…
Euan Kerr, Artist presents ‘Scattered Lights’ at the Northern Spark arts festival
At Upper Landing Park, just by the river in downtown, St. Paul artist Jim Campbell has strung up hundreds of glass globes that chatter gently in the wind. The piece is called “Scattered Light.”
Chris Roberts, European-style Twin Cities art festival to be an all-night affair
Organizers of new European-style 24-hour art festival planned for the Twin Cities say it has potential to be a huge tourist draw and international event. MPR arts reporter Chris Roberts spoke with Northern Spark organizer Steve Dietz about the event….

mnartists.org
Christy DeSmith, A Sleepyhead’s Northern Spark
A WELL-RESTED WOMAN WHO CLOCKS seven or eight hours every night, I’ve always resented the oft-repeated notion that creatives think best at 3 a.m. At the same time, I must admit I’ve always been intrigued by the sleep-deprived set.
Susannah Schouweiler, Stay up all night with Andrea Stanislav, Piotr Szyhalski, and Wing Young Huie
With more than 60 Minnesota artists contributing work and just as many local organizational partners, Northern Lights.mn‘s upcoming “nuit blanche” is going to be a barn-burner. As mentioned here last week, we’ll be introducing you to a sampling of creative folks behind some of the events in the Northern Spark Festival this week and next. See below for thumbnail portraits of projects by three festival notables: Andrea Stanislav, Piotr Szyhalski, and Wing Young Huie.
Susannah Schouweiller, A Dancey Houseboat, Phone Booth Migrations, Cheesy Dreams and a Big-Ass Horn Section
Barbara Claussen’s phone booth monoliths on the move, BodyCartography invites you aboard the HOUSEBOAT, Peter McLarnan would like to offer you a bit of cheese and sweet dreams, and Chris Kallmeyer’s preparing to herald the onset of night with a big horn section.
Susannah Schouweiler, Northern Spark Is Here!
A final sampling of participating “nuit blanche” artists: Ben Garthus and his Mobile Creative Outpost, Janaki Ranpura’s fertile retooling of “hide-and-seek”, and Diane Willow’s luminescent nightscapes.
Regan Smith previews Northern Lights’ all-night festival, Northern Spark: Nuit Blanche, featuring dusk-to-dawn interactive art happenings throughout the Twin Cities, with 100 projects by more than 50 regional artists and organizations, on June 4 & 5.

mnoriginal
Northern Spark: All Night Ping Pong
Northern Spark: For Dusk or Dawn Homeward
Northern Spark: Battle of Everyouth
Northern Spark: Mississippi Megalops

Mpls Mirror
Northern Spark
On most nights when one drives around Minneapolis past 10:00 p.m. the city looks like a ghost town except those areas around the bars such as Uptown and Downtown. How refreshing it was to see the city come alive on Saturday, June 4th in the least expected parts of town….

My Life on the V-List
Yet Another Reason To Love Minneapolis: Northern Spark Festival

myfox.com
All Night Arts Event
The Twin Cities will be the scene of an all-night, metro-wide celebration of the arts.

Pioneer Press
Amy Gustafson, All-night event a chance for Twin Cities artists to shine
There’s nothing typical about the newest Twin Cities arts festival. From the time it takes place — sunset to sunrise — to the number of local arts organizations involved — more than 50 — Northern Spark has potential to be a monumental arts event. Inspired by the worldly ‘Nuit Blanche’ movement of nighttime arts festivals that originated in Europe, Northern Spark plans to turn the urban landscapes of St. Paul and Minneapolis into one giant art gallery early next month….

River Falls Journal
Phyllis Goldin, Maybe River Falls could reproduce cool Twin Cities’ art, light, river celebrations
Overnight arts, light and river celebrations were held simultaneously in both cities from roughly 8:55 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. It was a marvelous example of possibilities that emerge when a dedicated group of people collaborate to maximize local creativity. …

StarTribune
Mary Abbe, New festival provides a spark in the dark
Attention night-crawlers, avant-gardists, bikers, party crashers and insomniacs: This one’s for you….
Mary Abbe, Art Spotlight: Northern Spark
Jumping the gun on the summer solstice, Minnesota’s eager-beaver culturati are staging the Twin Cities’ first-ever all-night performance-art fest next weekend….
Sara Glassman, Face Time: Spark in the Dark
The event was the brainchild of Steve Dietz, who wanted to create a “nightlife beyond bar-hopping.” The enthusiastic crowds at installations from the top of the Foshay to the Landmark Center gave every indication the event was a success….
Laurie Hertzel, Nightowls and nightsiders, nighthawks and insomniacs, this one’s for you
We don’t exactly have white nights here in Minnesota, but the Northern Spark Festival will do its best to light up your night, from sundown on June 4 until dawn on June 5….

Twin Cities Metro
Morgan Halaski, Northern Spark Arts Festival Steals the Night
Since the invention of bedtimes, man has only hypothesized what sorts of otherworldly and elusive phenomenons take place while heeding his bodily demand for sleep. Well, speculate no more….

vita.mn
Jay Gabler, Saturday: Northern Spark
Saturday night was my first experience with the Northern Spark all-night arts festival – in fact, it was the entire Twin Cities’ first experience with Northern Spark….