“Real People, Real Conversations, Real Solutions” exhibit on display in Hennepin Gallery thru March 30

Community Mediation & Restorative Services, Inc. (CMRS) presents “Real People, Real Conversations, Real Solutions,” an exhibit highlighting the different service areas handled through mediation or restorative services. This exhibit will be on display in the Hennepin County Government Center, Hennepin Gallery, from March 2 through May 30, 2017.

Since 1983, CMRS has helped Hennepin County residents move from conflict to resolution and from harm to healing through mediation and restorative services. CMRS works to address a broad range of disputes including school, juvenile crime, housing, harassment, consumer, family, neighborhood, elder, and workplace conflicts.

CMRS continues to expand services for youth and schools and services that help individuals avoid the collateral consequences of court and police interactions. Additionally, through outreach and training, CMRS is spreading messages of hope and civility throughout our communities. This exhibit provides information about how to get involved through training and volunteering.

The public is invited to a reception on Thursday, March 23, 2017, 4:30-7:30 p.m., at the Hennepin Gallery to celebrate CMRS volunteers and the important work they do in our communities.

The Hennepin Gallery is free and open to the public Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., at the Hennepin County Government Center, A-level, 300. S. Sixth Street. The exhibit is sponsored by Hennepin County Human Services and Public Health Department.

The Hennepin Gallery is free and open to the public Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., at the Hennepin County Government Center, A-level, 300 South 6th Street, Minneapolis. The exhibit is a project of Hennepin County Communications.

New Truckstop Gallery on Nicollet Island to hold Opening Reception for Situation Normal on March 4

Truckstop Gallery is located at 20 Grove St #72 on Nicollet Island.  It is an art gallery created by artists, for artists, with the intention to showcase the highest caliber of work in an environment free of pretense.

Join them Saturday, March 4, 6 – 10 pm, for the opening reception of Situation Normal, a solo show by Minneapolis artist Russ White. Situation Normal is an exhibition of powerful, poignant, and political new drawings and sculptures.

This new body of work uses orange and white traffic barricades as a kind of mixed metaphor for our current national mood. In day-to-day life, these traffic cones and “Road Closed” signs stand in our way; they slow us down, they reroute our commute, they inconvenience us. But from another perspective, they are beneficial. They are signs of roads being fixed, of bridges being built, of infrastructure being strengthened. Of progress.

And now, as millions of people across the country have begun banding together to protest the initiatives of this new administration, the barricades in White’s work serve as a symbol for their resistance. Staunch and impassive, emblazoned with an American flag reworked in dirty white and safety orange, these barricades are a call to arms to resist the un-American initiatives of this administration and this Congress.

Featured in the exhibition will be large scale colored pencil drawings, sculptures, homemade flags, and a series of brightly colored portraits inspired by coins. Where the barricades are passive and impersonal reminders of the turmoil in our country, the faces of White’s subjects are striking reminders of our shared humanity. Playing off the idea of loose change, this series of colored pencil busts questions our traditional notions of worth and value, emphasizing the beauty in us all. These are not just pretty portraits; they reframe empathy against the backdrop of capital, asking the viewer to consider what truly makes us rich.

The show takes its name from the military acronym SNAFU, meaning “Situation Normal: All Fucked Up.” The work in this exhibition strives to remind viewers that this new political reality is, in fact, not normal at all.

A percentage of all sales will be donated to Planned Parenthood and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The gallery will be collecting donations for these organizations at the opening reception as well.

Situation Normal will be on exhibit March 4 – 19 (open during events and by appointment). There will be an Artist talk on Saturday, March 11 at 4 pm. The closing reception will be Sunday, March 19, 12 noon – 5 pm.

For an appointment or questions, please email info@truckstop.gallery.

Voting now open for 2nd Annual FINNEGANS Chef Food Fight to Benefit Minnesota FoodShare

FINNEGANS BREW CO. TO PARTNER WITH MINNESOTA FOODSHARE FOR THE SECOND ANNUAL FINNEGANS CHEF FOOD FIGHT

Breakfast, lunch, dinner- three words that typically bring people together. FINNEGANS Brew Co. and Minnesota FoodShare are uniting Twin Cities restaurants for a friendly cooking competition to raise funds and increase awareness about hunger in Minnesota. During the Minnesota FoodShare March Hunger Awareness Campaign, chefs are challenged with developing a menu item using FINNEGANS beer (Irish Amber, Dead Irish Poet Stout, or the Hoppy Shepherd) and selling it on their menus for the month of March. Each establishment will have a portion of the sales donated to MN FoodShare’s March campaign and customers will be asked to vote via social media for their favorite dish.

This year’s participants include:
Chef Sarah Master of Red Stag Supperclub
Chef Vincent Francoual of Cooper Pub
Chef Jose Sanchez of Morrissey’s Irish Pub
Chef Chris Oxley of McKinney Roe
Chef Bobby Juhnke of The Nook
Chef John Lambe of The Draft Horse
Chef Jeremy Lafond of Mission American Kitchen & Bar
Chef Chris Nelson of Crave

The top five chefs with the most votes toward the end of the month-long contest will be invited to showcase their dish at the first, Chef Food Fight Live at The Food Building benefiting the FINNEGANS Community Fund! The evening will gather 100+ local foodies and barstool philanthropists to name the 2017 Chef Food Fight Champion! Included in this ticketed event will be demos from the top 5 chefs, libations from 2Gingers and FINNEGANS as well as nosh from The Food Building’s partners, Red Table Meats, Baker’s Field Flour and The Draft Horse.

Online voting is open to the public from now until March 30.

Tickets for Chef Food Fight Live are available at http://www.finnegans.org/cheffoodfightlive

Founded in 2000 in Minneapolis, FINNEGANS is a self-sustaining and inspirational social business. Through the sale of its Irish Amber Ale, Hoppy Shepherd IPA, Dead Irish Poet Extra Stout and now the new Freckled Rooster Bière Blanc ale, FINNEGANS has created an innovative business model that allows the company to create community wealth. How? One hundred percent of the profits are donated to the FINNEGANS Community Fund (501c3) to support hunger alleviation programs in every market where FINNEGANS is sold. FINNEGANS has scaled its giving program to MN, WI, ND, SD and IA. Now, is there a better reason to raise a pint of FINNEGANS? For the latest information, find FINNEGANS on Twitter and Facebook or visit finnegans.org.

The FOOD BUILDING is home to Red Table Meat Co. and Baker's Field Flour & Bread.  We value not only the foods themselves, but the methods and intention ushered in by each maker.  Together, we are greater than the sum of our parts. The work we do challenges and is informed by current standards; and we seek what is possible, from the farmer to the maker to the eater. Each of our foods stands out in flavor as well as in sourcing. From production to distribution, we are building unparalleled levels of transparency in all steps of the process.  Collectively, we are building a better food present, and future.

Boom Island-Nicollet Island Bridge Repairs Update

Originally built as a railroad bridge in 1890, the Boom Island-Nicollet Island Bridge was acquired by the MPRB in the 1970s and installed in its current location in the early 1980s.

Project is being revised to reflect Heritage Preservation Commission findings

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) is revising the Boom Island-Nicollet Island Bridge Repairs project after the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC) denied an MPRB application for a certificate of appropriateness to allow rehabilitation and alterations to the bridge.

The original MPRB plan called for the removal of deteriorated steel stringers and timber ties rarely viewed by the general bridge user to save on capital and ongoing maintenance expenditures. The HPC found that the removal of the stringers and ties would significantly degrade the bridge’s historic integrity and denied the application.

The MPRB is in the process of revising the project scope to meet the HPC’s findings as well as the available project budget. At this point there is no timeline for construction.

In late 2013, the bridge was closed to emergency and maintenance vehicles after an inspection discovered significant deterioration. Emergency repairs were completed in July 2015 to replace the bearings on the north abutment and modify the ends of the stringers. The bridge was then reopened to emergency and maintenance vehicle traffic.