Public Functionary

2024 GOALS

Public Functionary has an exciting year ahead in 2024! Our new exhibition and performance project space in NKB is always fully booked, and we support 5 studio spaces with 26 artists in residence as part of our PF Studios program. All funds raised by our community during Give to the Max Day will contribute to core needs as we continue to grow:

• A full 2024 schedule of exhibitions by early career & emerging BIPOC artists in the PF Main Gallery and Upstairs Gallery. Funding provides stipends to exhibiting artists to ensure they have time and resources to present their best work. 
• Development of Studio Ariseama (designed and led by M. Jamison) a new program in our space previously known as "The Study." Studio Ariseama is an incubator program that creates a safer creative and learning space for Black artists of marginalized identities (trans and cis women, as well as all trans and non-binary people.) The program will be geared toward artists working in music production, engineering and performance, and artists working with photography, videography, and light performance.
• Capacity-building for the PF team, as we intentionally scale up and increase our ability to support the artists in our program and in our broader community.  Because our team includes working artists, we operate as contractors. It is important to us to continually invest in our team, so this non-traditional structure can be nurturing and supportive, while also highly productive. 
• A start to an ambitious Capital project, Public Functionary will open a new fully realized exhibition and performance venue in a re-developed building in 2025 in partnership with Artspace's development of the full Northrup King Campus. 

We look to those who understand the depth and impact of our work, to support us this Give to the Max Day by investing in our team and our artists!

ABOUT PF

Public Functionary (PF) is artist-led space to dream and live in a world where our multi-faceted identities are celebrated and centered. A place where creative production is reparative and generous. 

Supporting the expression of art and culture through studios, galleries, and performance space — PF pours into an abundant community of practice, where possibility is seen in relationship to each other. 

In 2019, Public Functionary launched PF STUDIOS in the Northrup King Building to empower young artists to grow their practice + community. The program centers early career artists who identify as Black, Indigenous, people of color, queer, trans, and gender fluid. The studios are a multi-disciplinary exploration and collaboration. 

PF Studios is a program that cultivates presence and growth for historically under-represented artists in the Northrup King Building, to ensure diverse communities of practice within the cultural economy of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District.

PF Studios has grown to a cohort of 26 early career visual artists in residence, supported with affordable space, mentorship, workshops, and economic opportunity. 

Meet PF Studios Artist Godfree Manley-Spain:

Meet PF Studios Artist Maiya Lea Hartman:

Meet PF Studios Artist Jelani Ellis: