THE HISTORY OF
ST. PAUL ART COLLECTIVE
We Support Artists Through Diverse & Engaging Artistic Experiences
The Beginning
During the 1970s and early 1980s, the Lowertown district of St. Paul was characterized by empty parking lots and abandoned warehouses that were quickly deteriorating. The affordability of these warehouse spaces attracted artists, and Lowertown soon became the center of the St. Paul art scene. In 1977, a group of artists from Lowertown founded the St. Paul Art Collective with the mission of educating the public about Minnesota artists and promoting new artwork. As development plans for the neighborhood emerged, the artists organized efforts to protect spaces for artistic creation and to raise awareness of the crucial role that artists play in the cultural life of the Twin Cities.
The origins of the St. Paul Art Crawl date back to 1977, when the Collective was formed to arrange exhibitions and encourage the creation of new artwork by providing venues to share their work with the public. The founding artists organized their first group exhibition at the Union Depot, aiming to educate the public about Minnesota artists and their creations. In the subsequent decade and a half, the artists continued to hold loosely organized group events in and around downtown St. Paul. From 1981 to 1985, the Collective also operated a critically acclaimed fine art gallery in Lowertown called the Wall Street Gallery.
As tax laws made it feasible to rehabilitate the rundown warehouses and artists were notified that their studios would be eliminated, the Collective formed a housing committee to establish an artist-owned cooperative studio and living space in Lowertown. The initial project fell through when the bank that had agreed to participate backed out, citing concerns about the artists’ ability to repay the debt. The committee was restructured with Ann Marsden and David Evans serving as co-chairs, and Gus Gustafson as a guiding conscience. With the participation of many artists over two years, the committee successfully established the Lowertown Lofts Artist Cooperative, which opened in August 1985. Over three hundred artists applied to join the Coop, which only had 29 units available. This overwhelming response led Artspace to create the Northern Warehouse and eventually the Tilsner Artist Cooperative. These three buildings established a new artist community in Lowertown, which continues to foster new possibilities for social experiences in St. Paul.
Groundbreaking Social Project
The St. Paul Art Crawl is a groundbreaking social project that transformed the way artists and the public interact. It was initiated in 1991 when the Collective decided to organize a weekend-long open studio event across multiple buildings, and thus, the St. Paul Art Crawl was born. The first event featured five participating buildings: Jax, 262 Studios, Lowertown Lofts Artist Cooperative, Tilsner Artists Cooperative, and the Northern Warehouse Artists Cooperative. Most of these original buildings still house artist studios and continue to participate in the semi-annual St. Paul Art Crawl.
The St. Paul Art Collective has been hosting the St. Paul Art Crawl ever since, with the number of participating artists approaching 400 and the number of visitors averaging around 20,000 for each three-day event. In the mid-2000s, artists along University and Grand Avenues, as well as in the Eastside and Westside neighborhoods of St. Paul, began to participate. As a result, the St. Paul Art Crawl has grown to include more than 40 locations across the city.
The St. Paul Art Crawl showcases the diversity of art that St. Paul has to offer. By nurturing a vibrant arts community, the St. Paul Art Crawl inspires artistic growth and fosters a creative exchange of ideas.
The St. Paul Art Crawl is widely recognized for its tremendous success and has become a model arts event that many cities across the country seek to emulate. For the artists and residents of St. Paul, the event signifies much more than just a weekend of art. It has evolved into a framework for building and nurturing important, interdependent relationships between the arts community and the city itself. The Collective and its member artists receive substantial support from local residents, businesses, and government to host an event of this scale. In return, they have created a close-knit, vibrant, and energetic art community that significantly contributes to the broader cultural landscape of the Twin Cities.