BIPOC Artists: Labor, Cultural Production, and the Emotional Cost of Political Art

9:30 – 10:00 Slide show of some of the street art documented by the urban mapping team.
10:00 Panel discussion starts.

This panel, consisting of a conversation between Urban Art Mapping researchers and visual artists active in Minneapolis, reflects on art, activism, and healing following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. The uprisings that emerged in the summer of 2020 have been seen as a breaking point not just for Minneapolis, but also for the country as a whole. There was, and continues to be, a breaking open and unearthing of how deeply embedded and concealed racism thrives in the Midwest and with that, a reckoning in progress. Minneapolis has prided itself on being immensely rich in resources and in the summer of 2020, efforts to support and ensure BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) artists were included in these opportunities was prioritized. What accounts for this historic imbalance in the Twin Cities art scene? What does it mean to produce public murals about communal pain while also trying to care for oneself? What are the lasting changes that must be implemented to support BIPOC artists in the future? Our panel seeks to answer these questions and more with three Minneapolis based BIPOC artists and muralists as they share in conversation their experiences of creating work during a physically and emotionally demanding summer.

Urban Art Mapping is an interdisciplinary research team studying graffiti and street art created in response to the murder of George Floyd and systemic racism more broadly. Recognizing the important role that street art plays in the uprising, Urban Art Mapping’s crowd-sourced database documents all forms of art in urban spaces, including stickers, graffiti, plywood panels, and murals. Please view and contribute to the database here: https://georgefloydstreetart.omeka.net
Remembering George Floyd Through Minneapolis Public Art

Panelists:
Artists:
Simone Alexa, artist
Maiya Lea Hartman, artist

Urban Art Mapping researchers:
Todd Lawrence
Heather Shirey
Adem Ojulu
Amber Delgado
Frederica Simmons
Rachel Weiher
Dr. Heather Shirey, Professor of Art History,University of St. Thomas