The spring installment of the St. Paul Art Crawl starts on Friday and runs through the weekend offering plenty of arty adventures in Lowertown and beyond.
Things get started with the Brass Messengers stopping at Lowertown locations on Friday (6 p.m.) with high school students dropping off snow shovels that have “Spring is Here” written on them.
Here are five additional things you should know about the crawl.
1. ‘THE ART OF BASEBALLS’
Since Lowertown is the future home of the new St. Paul Saints ballpark, teaming up with the baseball team is a natural. Last year, the Saints mascot Mudonna visited the Crawl, but this time around the Art Crawl folks wanted to do something different, said Tom Reynen, St. Paul Art Collective vice president.
“The Saints gave us 108 baseballs and we passed them out to the artists and they had a month to create an art project around it,” said Reynen, who notes there was a line of artists out the door of the AZ Gallery when the balls were given away. “I think it’s a fun way to merge art and sports.”
The 70 baseballs that were artistically enhanced will be displayed at Union Depot during the Crawl and will be set up again for the Green Line light-rail launch in June. The baseballs will be judged by Saints owner Mike Veeck and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman with the grand prize winner named “artist of the day” at the Saints home opener. Why 108 baseballs? That’s the number of double stitches in each ball.
2. LITTLE BOHEMIA
The Little Bohemia Neighborhood Association (West Seventh Street in St. Paul) is throwing its own special art crawl celebration on Saturday (noon-6 p.m.) with 40 artists displaying their work in neighborhood shops and participating in open houses and special gallery exhibits. The West Seventh Street part of the crawl also includes the addition of the Schmidt’s Artists Lofts to this year’s event with 20 artists participating throughout the weekend at the renovated Schmidt Brewery.
3. BUSKERS
In an effort to include St. Paul musicians, writers and performance artists in the Crawl, five busker stations located at different corners in Lowertown, along with a performance stage inside the Union Depot, have been added to the festivities.
“At the busker stations there are going to be little wooden stages with a stand and tip jar,” said Reynen about the new event. “People will spontaneously get up and sing, read a poem, play the accordion or whatever and they get to collect the tips for their 10 minutes. We’re trying to get the streets more animated.”
4. ROSSMOR BUILDING TOURS
There are people who are drawn to the Crawl as much for the art as for the sneak peek into where the artists live. The “Art in Architecture” tour offers all residents in the Rossmor building — artists and non-artists — a chance to open their unique warehouse living spaces to visitors. Visitors will be able to tour 20 units including artist and designer Erin Hegel’s home, which has been described as “classic St. Paul warehouse loft meets ’60s midcentury design.”
5. FREE TRANSPORTATION
Last year, the Crawl added pedicab rides and they will be available once again for folks to take around town. In an effort to get people to see more art and check out buildings they might have otherwise skipped, pedicabs will be roaming the streets of St. Paul looking for crawlers who’d rather not walk (or drive) to their next stop.
“Several businesses are sponsoring them, so the rides are free,” said Reynen. “It’s a good way to get people to go to different buildings. Just remember to tip your driver.”
On another transportation note, new this year to the cRawl is Metro Transit’s participation on Saturday and Sunday. All you have to do is go to stpaulartcrawl.org to print out passes and you will get a free ride to Art Crawl destinations anywhere in the city.
BONUS
Nine new stops to see art have been added to this year’s schedule: the Schmidt Artist Lofts, Cherokee Park United Church, Front Avenue Pottery, the Penfield, Midway Pottery and Studios, Mims Photography, Hancock Recreation Center, the Bindery Building and Bedlam Theatre.
Amy Carlson Gustafson can be reached at 651-228-5561. Follow her at twitter.com/amygustafson.
