WOAH! Walk of Art Hopkins

Schedule of Events:

As you are planning your evening, please note the times that each location will be open. For your convenience, maps will be available at Hopkins Center for the Arts on June 22.

Cream & Amber, 4 - 7pm  

1605 Mainstreet

Enjoy Happy Hour from 4 - 6 pm

Pam Luer, Member Artist Spotlight

The Windshield Series 

My Mother’s final year on Earth put me in the driver’s seat. Literally. For more than a year, I spent every free moment behind the wheel of my car, rushing back and fourth from my home in Minneapolis to her nursing home in southern Wisconsin. I loved my momma, but hated the drive. Season after season, the miles stretched across long dull horizons. Frozen fields appeared hostile and cold. I felt I was holding my breath those five hours it took to reach my mom, never sure she would remember me.  

Catching my breath on the drive back home, I began to notice flashes of trees lit up by the peach sunrise or darkening line of blue pines as storms threatened miles off. Subtle color and light swaddled distance farm buildings. Flying down the freeway became a game of catch. Small, quick moments of beauty appeared as I tried to snatch them up and release them on paper days later in my Twin Cities studio.  

As I worked, handwritten text appeared as a design element. Objectively, it made little sense, but the gibberish reminded me of my Mom’s speech after her stroke. Eventually, full sentences formed like a whisper. In the end, I came to believe we are all going in one direction and everything is truly this beautiful. 

J Pony Allen, Second Floor Commons

J Pony Allen lives and works in the Hopkins, Minnesota.  He was born and raised in an interstitial space, a pocket universe between Philip Johnson’s IDS Center and Amber Waves of Grain. He grew up in the wilds of Minnetonka where great mares once ran free, Dead Man’s Hill swallowed sleds, and the Swamp and Woods held great treasure.  The woods and swamp have since shrunk, fully plundered. The hill has been capped with gardens and Dishes. And the horses have scattered west and east, north and south. 

 In his paintings, he examines and explores the delicious friction between organic growth and manufactured disruption.  Inspired by discoveries of bush plane wreckage on barren high tundra, intrusive thoughts, F250s abandoned in woodlands, Darth Vader's paternal admission, irritated molluscs birthing nacreous gems, and stick framed barns caved in by giant's feet; these paintings are, in essence, bootleg interior & exterior landscapes.  Like unauthorized recordings of Rock Gods, their authenticity is questionable but the spirit of fanaticism is earnest.

More about Cream & Amber

The Gallery at Zeller Studio, 5 - 8pm

1421 Mainstreet

Deb Zeller and Jim Clark "The State Fair Experience"

This exhibition revolves around the Fine Arts at the Minnesota State Fair and the State Fair in general, as experienced by Jim Clark and Deb Zeller.  Jim has been superintendent of Fine Arts at the State Fair since 2011 where he created 12:12:12: Twelve Artists, Twelve Hours, Twelve Days.  The program is now known as Studio: HERE.   Jim filled in for a Studio:HERE artist cancellation in 2021 and Deb was one of the twelve in 2022.

About Deb Zeller: 

Deb was the guest artist at the 2022 Minnesota State Fair Studio:HERE in the Fine Arts Building.  In her 12 hours demonstrating she created twelve portraits.  These included an oil painting of Mrs. Minnesota, Mandy Iverson which took 3 hours.  She then moved on to 1/2 hour watercolor or charcoal portraits.  These include Craig Flor who is in charge of Grandstand Productions; Dani Vavreck from the MN State Fair Foundation; Mary Chung who is the Executive Director of the Minnesota State Fair Foundation; Paul Quast who is head of MN Wine Country; Renee Alexander who is the new CEO of the MN State Fair; Ron Knafla the chief of police at the State Fair; Rachel Rynda who was the newly crowned Princess Kay of the Milky Way; Ross Wiggins, police officer in charge of the grandstand; Jerry Hammer the “Face of the State Fair”; Tim Streit who delivers beer to 23 different sites across the fairground and Jan Hildebrand who does all the concessions in the grandstand.  

About Jim Clark: 

Jim Clark is a practicing multi-disciplinary visual artist, curator, and art educator. As a visual artist, his experience and body of work includes drawing, painting, sculpture, and illustration. He has exhibited his fine art throughout the region, and won numerous awards including top honors for work in each of those disciplines. His recent exhibitions of personal work include The Once and Never Cowboy, including 30 drawings at the Paul Whitney Larson Gallery, May- August 2019, and Chasing Ruin at Robbin Gallery, June 2022. As a freelance illustrator, he has completed work on multiple comic book projects including Captain Popcorn for the Northern Star Council of Boy Scouts of America, the upcoming premiere issue of Freedom Raiders, Henri L’Ouest, Magician of the West, eight issues of the award winning independent series Colliders. He holds an undergraduate degree in Art from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and an MFA in Eco-architecture from Vesper College. Additionally, he has completed course work and studio studies in Paris at the Cours de Civilisation Francaise de la Sorbonne and the private atelier, Academie de Port-Royal.

More info on this exhibition: Zeller Studio 

Hopkins Center for the Arts, 6 - 8pm 

1111 Mainstreet

Cash bar, and light refreshments

Nikki Besser "Quillin' It: Life In Paper"

IBased in northern Minnesota, self-taught artist Nikki Besser uses hundreds, often times thousands, of strips of rolled paper, glued and shaped together in various forms to create original, one of a kind artworks. Her paper quilled artworks capture positive life moments of joy, happiness, love, and beauty.

MaryAnn & Gary Carlson "A Confluence of Objects"

Assemblage sculptors, MaryAnn and Gary Carlson, use found objects to create sculptures that spark stories of the past and present. Their goal is to awaken the viewer to the extraordinary beauty of ordinary objects, and the potential of these objects to communicate beyond their former utility.

Polly Norman "Tooled In Space"

Polly Norman's work is rooted in movement and rhythm. Working in New Media, she blends and reshapes intersections of image, color, and form in active, sometimes frenetic picture planes. Sometimes languorous, sometimes ecstatic, again, the motion is always there, asking the eye, and maybe the heart, to follow.

The exhibitions are on view June 22 - July 29, 2023

More about Exhibitions

Member Spotlights at Hopkins Center for the Arts

Matthew Lex

member artist 

I have been an artist my whole life, and have taken many art classes over the years.  One thing that I love doing is making straw people (you know the kind of straw you find on a farm), so I have definitely done it all… 

But abstract is my favorite.  I also do story writing, so I am classified as a book author, even though I haven’t officially released my own book yet.  But I do have stories in some books with other people’s written work… 

My goals all the time are to find more places to display my art and also sell more art pieces and eventually even release a book. 

On view through July 10.

Thirty Bales, 6 - 8 PM

1106 Mainstreet, Hopkins

Enjoy live music by Julian Manzara and cocktails on the new patio!

More about Thirty Bales

The Sunset Series: Winona Jazz Collective, 7 - 8:15pm

Hopkins Downtown Park, 40 Ninth Avenue S, Hopkins

The Winona Jazz Collective was originally started in 2002 while several of its members were teaching at Winona State University (WSU). Initially referred to as the WSU Faculty Jazz Ensemble, the group assumed its new identity after a one-year hiatus due to COVID concerns (2020-2021). Since its inception, about 20 musicians have been part of the collective. Over the past 12 years (since 2010), the group has been performing monthly at the No-Name Bar in Winona, MN. These sessions have been built around providing opportunities for young players (high school and college) to sit in with experienced players in a semi-professional, affirming environment. The group performs fresh takes of popular songs as well as modern jazz classics. This show will also feature the Center’s very own Kelly Blau on lead guitar. (Jazz)

Free summer music series in Downtown Park. More info at: The Sunset Series

Hopkins ArtStreet

Downtown Hopkins

Public Sculpture Program. More info at: Hopkins ArtStreet