4 ways to navigate northeast Minneapolis’ Art-A-Whirl, the country’s biggest artist open-studio event

A billowing black tornado loomed inside a studio at the Holland Arts West Building. It didn’t sneak in from outside, and it wasn’t a natural disaster that the National Weather Service predicted.

This tornado is a wooden sculpture that artists Michael and Kelly Helsinger turned black by wiping it with a highly concentrated vinegar. Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association (NEMAA) commissioned them to make the piece for Art-A-Whirl, the popular artist open-studio celebration in northeast Minneapolis this weekend.

Now in its 30th year, the open-studio event with more than 1,400 participating artists is something of a whirling art force. But it wasn’t always that way.

It started 30 years ago with a couple of artists, smoking pot and chatting.

“Artist Dean Trisko was sitting in the Thorp Building with a few other artists, trying to figure out a way to tell people they were there,” NEMAA Executive Director Anna Becker said. “Someone was looking at the Whirl-Air-Flow dryer on a billboard, and so they decided to call it Art-A-Whirl.”

Here are four ways to navigate the madness.

This year NEMAA launched the Passport Challenge, where people can find new locations using the Vibemap app.

“It’s a way to encourage people to check into places and get points,” Becker said. “You have to check in to fewer places on the outskirts than the in-skirts [of Northeast].”

The top point earner will get a $1,500 gift certificate to buy art from northeast Minneapolis artists. Three runners-up will get $500 each. Visitors also get points if they take Metro Transit, which is free with an Art-A-Whirl transit pass.

There also are QR codes at each artist studio.

“That’s the first time in my life I can be redeemed with a code,” said artist Katayoun Amjadi, whose studio is in the basement of the Q.arma Building on Quincy Street.

If you want the who’s who of the event, plan to visit all 30 of Art-A-Whirl‘s featured artists. They are at the Casket Arts Building, A-Mill Artist Lofts, Quincy Hall, Solar Arts Building, Holland Arts East and West Buildings, Northrup King Building, Q.arma Building, a few other locations and more. There are two featured artists in each of the major studio buildings.

In her studio in the Q.arma Building, Amjadi, an installation artist with a focus on ceramics, will be selling mugs, dishes, vases (in the shape of Bahman cigarette packages, a nod to the Iranian diaspora) and her signature pomegranates.

She also has many, many headless chicken sculptures. They are from a series about love and relationships.

“It’s a take on the old fable of the nightingale and the rose,” she said. “In my version, the nightingale becomes a headless chicken.”

This is Amjadi’s 10th Art-A-Whirl.

While Amjadi’s studio is nestled deep in the heart of the Northeast Arts District, artist Racquel Banaszak’s sunny second-floor studio, at 23 4th St. SE. #201, is in the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood.

This is the first Art-A-Whirl for Banaszak, whose work is inspired by her mother’s stories, urban relocation and Indigenous pop culture. She’ll be selling prints, beadwork, paintings and mixed-media.

Banaszak, a member of the Bad River Band of Ojibwe, is drawn to using unique materials in her work ― such as black velvet, which is specific to Ojibwe culture, and quillwork. She thinks about Indigenous futurism and incorporating relatives and Indigenous worldviews into her work.

“You’ll see the buffalo and flowers, you’ll see the cosmos in there, dragonflies, and all of those have very specific meanings,” she said, “but when you put them together, it can feel like a story that rebuilds our world.”

Who said Art-A-Whirl needs to be all schmoozing with artists and sipping sparkling drinks? The festive spring event can also be a fun way to jump into a family-focused art weekend.

Interactive family-friendly events are everywhere at Art-A-Whirl. Discover an acrylic paint pour demo, a pottery painting party, an abstract collage portraits demo, a ceramic jewelry making workshop, community sculpture building, a finger puppet making workshop and more. To find all the family-friendly events, go to nemaa.org/art-a-whirl and select the “family-friendly” filter.

The annual coloring contest is another way to engage kids. Pick up 11-by-17-inch coloring pages at a local library (full list available on neema.org), the Eastside Food Co-op or Wet Paint, or during Art-A-Whirl at GBBN Architects in Quincy Hall. The coloring sheets are specially made for kids ages 4 and under, 5-8 and 9-12.

If your main interest in Art-A-Whirl is to stay low-tech, just pick up the Art-A-Whirl brochure at any of the artist studio buildings. We won’t tell you how to use it ― like a paper newspaper, it’s up to you.

“You can just show up, close your eyes, put your finger on the map and go to that location,” Becker said. “That’s kind of the beauty of Art-A-Whirl, you’re always going to discover something you didn’t anticipate or know.”

Hours: 5-10 p.m. Fri., noon-8 p.m. Sat., noon-5 p.m. Sun.

Cost: Free

Info: nemaa.org