REFLECTION: MADE HERE Creates 45 Storefront Window Showcases of Minnesota Art

Reflection: Made Here, a project of Hennepin Theatre Trust, launches its latest window Showcases on Thursday, December 3, 2015, at Mayo Clinic Square, 600 Hennepin Avenue. A free public celebration will be held between 5 and 9 p.m.

This is the fifth round of Made Here. It will feature 45 new window displays up through March 30, 2016, featuring work by more than 60 Minnesota artists and 20 students who creatively explored the "reflection" theme through photographs, paintings, graphic art, textiles, drawings or multi-media installations.

The public launch event will feature the dance groups Black Label Movement and HIJACK, live music by the Wayzata High School String Ensemble and DJs Venus DeMars and KFAI's Vinyl Voices. Guided walking tours of the window Showcases will begin at 7 and 8 p.m. A pilot Made Here Holiday Market will run in City Center. For more details, visitMadeHereMN.org.

Twice each year, Made Here fills windows and other underused spaces throughout the downtown Minneapolis Cultural District with art made by local artists. The project has grown from visual displays in windows to live performances, artist markets, pop-up galleries and more.

In every instance, the intent is to infuse underused public spaces with art and art-inspired experiences - and transform them with the spirit of what is possible.

Since it launched in 2013, Made Here has produced more than 180 window displays in commercial spaces, making it the largest initiative of its kind in the country. That presence has mattered. Five downtown commercial spaces that had a combined vacancy rate of more than 35 years were leased within 12 months of participating in Made Here.

Additional Made Here elements planned for 2015-16 include:

The Made Here Holiday Market is a pilot project featuring more than 30 artists in the City Center atrium on December 3 from 5:00-9:00 p.m., and continuing on December 10 and 17 from 11:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.

A special Made Here art gallery at the Mall of America® in the new Central Parkway Level Two section, also invites shoppers and visitors to see the sights downtown.

A lunchtime "Radical Recess" performance series curated by dance luminaries Laurie Van Wieren and April Sellers that features 10 Minneapolis-based choreographers in four performances. The series kicks off with Black Label Movement and HIJACK at the Reflection: Made Here launch event on December 3 at Mayo Clinic Square. It continues at 12:30 p.m. with the April Sellers Dance Collective, Taja Will and Dustin Maxwell at the City Center Atrium on January 8; Ananya Dance Theater, Anna Shogren and Robert Keo at the IDS Center on February 5; and Pramila Vasudevan and Rosy Simas Dance at Loring Park on March 4.

Reflection: Made Here artists include: new media artist Kathy McTavish with a window display in the Witt Building, Kulture Klub Collaborative, Pat Benincasa, Leslie Barlow, Sara Wichterman, FAIR School, Carly Beseman and Lindsay Keating, Christopher Lutter-Gardella, Dana Sikkila, Lizardman, Brian Matthew Hart, Jes Reyes and Katie Rensch, Eddie Hoon Yang, Stephanie Glaros, Ruthie Krech, Erin Lavelle and Anthony Chapin, Inna Valin, Brian Skalak and Karrie Cooling, Tim Carroll, Rebecca Krinke and Team, Carolina Borja, Steve Merrill, Rhys Jones, Christopher Selleck, Maggie Thompson, Gillian McLaughlin, Amy Sands, Sharol Nau and Jeffrey Haddorff.

Artists at the Mall of America® include: Aaron Brand, Zach Nagle, Leslie Barlow, Tara Costello, Sandi Thompson, St. Paul Slim, Christopher E. Harrison, James Wrayge, Bailey Cahlander, Maggie Thompson, The Minneapolis Beard and Moustache Club and Jim Denomie.