Art + Community + Curiosity – A New Exhibit in Minneapolis

Written by Dr. Jerry Stein

Learning Dreams has a new exhibit at the Hennepin Gallery!

Learning Dreams is a Twin Cities-based project providing home and community-based support for parents, youth and children to help them become active members of a culture of learning. Learning Dreams also reaches out into the public realm in unique and creative ways.

For the month of October the Hennepin Gallery in the lower level of the Hennepin County Government Center features an exhibition about the ingenious ways Learning Dreams has begun to take root in the community using an artist-designed mobile structure that draws attention, engages people, and stimulates learning.

With support from Hennepin County Multicultural Arts Committee and Hennepin County Library, Learning Dreams artists Jena Brune and Matt Carlson developed a mobile Dreamcycle to tour the region and collect people’s response to the questions: “What do you want to learn?” and “What do you dream of doing?” In response, Learning Dreams finds people, places, and organizations nearby, or creates actual learning opportunities for each person who participates in the program. Essentially, we bring the learning dreams of individuals and the educational capacities of their neighborhood to the surface of community life.

The exhibition follows the trike-powered Dreamcycle as it works its magic and reveals the stories of participants, past and present, who have realized their dreams. A special feature of the exhibition is the Dreamcycle itself, which will be active on the Public Service Level of the County Government Center every Friday during the exhibition times (12:00pm – 1:30pm).

Learning Dreams: Art + Community + Curiosity was organized by Forecast Public Art, sponsored by Hennepin County’s Multicultural Arts Committee, designed by Witt Siasoco and produced in part by MCAD DesignWorks. Support for this project was also received from Hennepin County Library, Learning Dreams, the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota, the Southeast Minneapolis Council on Learning and an anonymous donor.

For more information call 612-624-3672, or visit: www.learningdreams.org.