NE SCULPTURE | Gallery Factory

NE Sculpture I Gallery Factory is a non-profit arts organization working to support artists & organizations in the cultivation and enrichment of our community through sculpture, painting, performance, installation, transformative place-making & social justice practice.

NE Sculpture I Gallery Factory  is located @ Casket Arts Factory Building within the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District, MN. Our facilities include a working gallery, sculpture studio rental spaces, an outdoor work area, and a sculpture exhibition quad. In the past years, our public art initiative has placed over 40 sculptures in various locations including East Side Neighborhood Services, Silverwood Park, California Building, Hook & Ladder Apartments and our own Sculpture Quad at Casket Arts.  This year, 2023, we have had  twelve incredible gallery exhibitions supporting more than 75 artists.

Our Artist Intern Fellowship Residency program invites emerging artists to NE Minneapolis as both  resident artists and gallery interns, a unique opportunity to live and work among more established artists that culminates in the creation and exhibition of two & three-dimensional work. Since the kickoff of our residency program in April of 2019, we've had 37 fantastic fellows from Canada, China, Mexico and the US. These artists have produced large-scale works, helped to organize and operate the gallery, and curated their own shows of all new, original works produced while in residence at NE Sculpture I Gallery Factory.

We are currently 36 months into our multi-year  Social Justice Billboard Project (SJBP) a community-funded initiative to elevate the voices and artwork of BIPOC artists through three rented billboards at the George Floyd Memorial Square on 38th and Chicago Ave. in Minneapolis, MN. The art on these billboards turns over to a new round of artists every three months, creating the opportunity for 30 BIPOC artists, so far, to share their works in a large-scale format at a site already charged with energy and emotion. The SJBP is suported by generous awards from the National Academy of Design/Edwin Austin Abbey Memorial Trust Fund for Mural Painting, NYC & The Woodbury Foundation, TX. 

The steering committee of NE Sculpture I Gallery Factory is grateful to be cultivating art and artists in our community.  We will use your generous donation to continue our current programming outlined above, develop our capacity, and create new opportunities for artists as we continue to expand to fit the needs of our community.

Thank you for your help and support from our Board of Directors & the Steering Committee:

 Allison Baker, Neal Cuthbert •  Ronald Kopeska • Ben Janssens • Mary Johnson • John Hock • Andrew MacGuffie • Herman Milligan Jr. • Peter Morales  • Christine Podas-Larson • Mary Jane Mansfield • William Ransom • Peyton Scott Russell • Carissa Samaniego •  Xavier Tavera • Pocket Toscani • Jennifer Young

Dear Friends and Family of NE SCULPTURE;

Thank you very much for supporting NE SCULPTURE I Gallery Factory over the past five years. We could not have gotten to the point we are at without friends like you.

It is our mission to support artists in the cultivation and enrichment of our community through art, public art, exhibitions and transformative place-making.

It is our vision to be a leader in exhibiting and placing public art within the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District and other communities around the country. And it’s working!!!

Your belief in NE SCULPTURE I Gallery Factory as a powerful community asset helps us do some great and important work. Integrating the arts more fully into our lives enriches each of us, and because engaging in the arts brings individuals together, it fosters community. Art and artists aren’t only in museums or concert halls – they are all around us. Every one of us has the ability to create and to imagine a way to make our world healthier and stronger.

Two members of our Board of Directors, Jennifer Young and Ronald Kopeska, have promised to match dollar for dollar any gift of $50 or more that is made by the end of Thursday. 

Between our dollar for dollar match and the #GTTM23 Prize Pool, donations starting at $50 will have an important impact on us:

● $100 will provide food for a week for two Artist Intern Fellows

● $250 will sponsor an Opening Reception in the Gallery

● $500 will fund an Artist with art materials to create

● $1,500 will sponsor three billboards in George Floyd Square for 4 weeks as part of the Social Justice Billboard Project, an initiative to elevate the voices and artwork of BIPOC artists 

● $5,000, or more, will help propel the organization and support a Resident Artist Fellowship to create new work while in residence at our Casket Arts facility.

Thank you for being part of the NE SCULPTURE I Gallery Factory community & family! 

Regards, NES Board of Directors