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| Intermedia Arts | |
|---|---|
| Name | Intermedia Arts |
| Formation | 1970s |
| Dissolution | 2018 |
| Type | Nonprofit arts organization |
| Purpose | Multidisciplinary arts production, community arts, artist residencies |
| Headquarters | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Region served | Twin Cities, United States |
Intermedia Arts Intermedia Arts was a Minneapolis-based nonprofit arts organization focused on multidisciplinary contemporary arts, artist residencies, community programs, and exhibitions. It operated within the cultural ecosystems of the Twin Cities and engaged with networks connecting regional institutions, national foundations, and international arts festivals. The organization collaborated with artists, curators, and community leaders to present projects that intersected visual art, performance, sound, and media arts.
Intermedia Arts originated in the late 1970s as part of a broader wave of experimental arts collectives and artist-run spaces emerging after the Fluxus movement, influenced by networks like Walker Art Center, Minnesota Museum of American Art, Institute of Contemporary Art and policies such as funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the McKnight Foundation, and local arts councils. Founding members drew inspiration from practices associated with Allan Kaprow, John Cage, Nam June Paik, Joseph Beuys, Yoko Ono and other interdisciplinary figures, aligning with artist-run initiatives like Artists Space, The Kitchen, Coalition for Contemporary Art and cooperative models in cities such as New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle. The organization’s mission referenced precedents from the Artist Placement Group, the London Arts collectives, and public art dialogues seen at institutions like Tate Modern, Museum of Modern Art, and Centre Pompidou.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Intermedia Arts participated in the rise of postmodern and postminimal practices linked to artists and theorists associated with Robert Rauschenberg, Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger, Hannah Wilke, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and movements such as Performance Art, Conceptual Art, Relational Aesthetics, and New Media Art. The organization’s programmatic shifts echoed debates prominent at symposia hosted by South London Gallery, Art Basel, Venice Biennale, and the biennials associated with Documenta and Whitney Biennial, while funding and policy shifts traced lines to agencies such as the National Endowment for the Arts and philanthropic bodies like the Ford Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Regional alliances tied Intermedia Arts to local histories involving American Indian Movement, Minnesota Historical Society, Minnesota State Arts Board, and community arts projects linked to civic partners such as City of Minneapolis and neighborhood organizations.
Programming at Intermedia Arts encompassed hybrid practices that incorporated technologies and methods used by artists and institutions like Nam June Paik, Bill Viola, Laurie Anderson, Trevor Paglen, and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, spanning video art, installation, sound art, performance, photography, printmaking, participatory projects, and digital media informed by software used in laboratories and studios at places like MIT Media Lab, SIGGRAPH conferences, and university programs at Yale University, University of Minnesota, California Institute of the Arts, and Rhode Island School of Design. Projects frequently referenced techniques associated with pioneers such as Eadweard Muybridge, László Moholy-Nagy, Brion Gysin, Bruce Nauman, and Harun Farocki, while engaging curatorial strategies comparable to those at New Museum, Serpentine Galleries, and MoMA PS1.
Intermedia Arts presented and supported artists whose practices connected to figures like William Wegman, Maya Lin, Sharon Hayes, Tania Bruguera, Mark Dion, Kara Walker, Fred Wilson, Siah Armajani, Theaster Gates, Dread Scott and local practitioners with ties to the Twin Cities such as Suzanne Lacy, Annika Ström, Carolyn Lazard, Michele Pred, and others who operate in networks that include galleries like Gagosian Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, and noncommercial spaces such as Para Site and Whitechapel Gallery. Notable projects combined community engagement traditions associated with John Dewey-inspired pedagogy, activist art strategies linked to ACT UP, and site-specific commissions reminiscent of public projects by Christo and Jeanne-Claude and Jenny Holzer.
Intermedia Arts collaborated with institutions and festivals across scales, aligning with programs at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Soap Factory, Northern Spark, Art Shanty Projects, Twin Cities Pride, Fringe Festival, Icelandic Festival, biennials including Minnesota Biennial-style events, and national platforms such as SXSW, New York Fringe Festival, Performa, Transmediale, and Ars Electronica. Exhibitions and residency exchanges involved partnerships with universities and cultural centers like Carnegie Mellon University, University of Minnesota, Columbia University, University of Chicago, and museums such as Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Seattle Art Museum.
Critical response to Intermedia Arts appeared within discourses shaped by writers and theorists associated with Lucy Lippard, Hal Foster, Claire Bishop, Rosalind Krauss, Nicholas Bourriaud, Pauline Oliveros, and critics writing for publications like Artforum, Art in America, Frieze, BOMB Magazine, and Hyperallergic. Debates around community arts practice, cultural equity, arts funding, and interdisciplinary curating linked Intermedia Arts to policy conversations in municipal and philanthropic contexts involving Americans for the Arts, Grantmakers in the Arts, and scholarly research at centers like The Getty Research Institute and Smithsonian Institution.
Contemporary practices that evolved from Intermedia Arts’ legacy intersect with digital platforms, VR and AR projects represented at SIGGRAPH, SXSW, Ars Electronica, and universities such as MIT, Stanford University, New York University where artists work with machine learning, interactive systems, and social practice methodologies akin to projects by Hito Steyerl, Trevor Paglen, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Ken Goldberg, and Kate Crawford. These emergent forms continue to appear within festivals, museums, and civic initiatives including Nesta, Creative Time, New York Public Library collaborations, and municipal arts programs across North America and Europe.
Category:Arts organizations in Minnesota