Not many people know that the University of Minnesota houses a foundry inside the depths of the Regis Center for Art, and even fewer know that students operate the heavy machinery.  On Tuesday night, the University foundry bustled with students and spectators eager to witness the 31st Annual Fall Iron Pour. 

“The experience was pretty amazing.  We were able to explore the Walker archives and work with Walker curators, installation staff, and archivists to design the installation and interpret the materials,” says Armani, who after recently graduating now begins a new role as a fellow with the Dallas Museum of Art. 

Ringler has been a full-time, Term Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota for the last three years, and she has been in charge of the Foundry program since Professor Emeritus Wayne Potratz retired.  She received recognition for her work with metal in the form of a McKnight Fellowship in 2017, and there are no signs of her slowing down.  Her recent work explores the energy of landscape through mold-making and casting, and she has an ambitious project in mind that involves casting every mammal on earth – some 5600 species – as part of a broad conservation effort. 

It’s far too easy to spend the day sucked into the screen of your phone or laptop, essentially oblivious to the details of the world around you, whether that means the cracks in the sidewalk, the faded signage on corner convenience stores, or the quotidian rhythms of pedestrians and commerce on a given city block.  Both Grant and Hoolihan are inspired by the cityscape right outside the doors of the University of Minnesota, and have treated this summer workshop course as an opportunity to inspire and encourage their students to explore their immediate surroundings with a sense of intention, awakeness and awareness. 

This 75 percent position will provide material and digital instruction on 3D digital fabrication software and equipment to undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty in the Department of Art’s XYZ Lab.  Assist in the integration of 3D digital fabrication technologies into Department of Art curriculum and research activities.  Provide technical support for the Drawing, Painting and Printmaking (DPP) facilities in the Department of Art.  Maintain, repair, design, and build equipment in the XYZ Laboratory and in the DPP Area.  Responsible for purchasing supplies and equipment within assigned areas.  Reports to the Facilities and Technical Coordinator. 

Surveying her body of work in bronze casting and welded metal, the depth of her curiosity, experimentation and playfulness quickly become apparent.  Almost 50 years after her initial entry into the University of Minnesota as an undergraduate, and fifteen years after she began teaching there, Katherine E. Nash retired in 1976.  Though she had been the only female faculty member of the art department for more than a decade, she lived to see the impact of her hard work over the years, as women slowly began to play a larger and larger role in the composition of the faculty. 

Rosenow and Martin were excited about the opportunity to create something on a much more monumental scale than they had ever worked before.  They were inspired by the projects of Félix González-Torres, Ann Hamilton and Roni Horn, who use everyday materials in unfamiliar ways.  For their giant blue curtains they settled on debris netting fabric, made of knit polyethylene, which is commonly used in the construction of skyscrapers.  For the height of the piece, they decided upon 34 feet because that was the upper limit imposed by the logistics of constructing the steel support frame.