Neighborhood Show

The Neighborhood Show
Exhibition runs 
June 5 – 28, 2009

Opening Night Reception on Friday, June 5 from 7 – 10 pm

Framed by two major freeways and a narrow strip of Franklin Avenue, Stevens Square/Loring Heights is the smallest—and the most densely populated—neighborhood in the entire city, comprising a total area of just 0.26 square miles.

Most of the 4,000 residents of Stevens live within just four blocks of one another, in the historic brownstone apartments surrounding Stevens Square Park. It is a neighborhood in transition, a border zone where downtown developers rub shoulders with homeless veterans, and Victorian mansions butt-up against group homes and subsidized apartments (20 percent of the neighborhood’s residents live below the Federal Poverty Level).

Yet, despite its small size, Stevens Square has always had a disproportionately high number of artists living and working within the neighborhood.

Perhaps this is because of the neighborhood’s close proximity to two major art museums and the Minneapolis College of Art & Design (MCAD). Or perhaps it is the combination of low rents, dozens of ethnic restaurants, and locally-owned small businesses that lures people to the Stevens community.

Whatever the reason, Stevens has become a hot spot for the arts: from Zine Fest and the annual Red Hot Art Festival, to Cinema and Civics in the Park and the ongoing theater and VocalEssence performances at Plymouth Church, there’s a whole lot of creative activity taking place within the space of a quarter-mile.

It is no coincidence that Third Avenue is now referred to as the “Avenue of the Arts.”

for more info check out
http://www.stevensarts.org/