Here are a few more photos taken in the gallery this week. The color in there is really helping me forget about winter!

Last Saturday night we had the opening for the New Land Of Milk And Honey at The Soap Factory. The opening was a HUGE success! Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped install and prep the gallery for the opening and to the volunteers who staffed the opening. Everyone did an amazing job!

We had over 500 people attend at the opening and due to the success hopefully the artists will coordinate another performance mid-way through the exhibition’s run. This exhibition will run until the first week of April so there is plenty of time to see the show but limited opportunities to see the performances.

This is such a cool show, not only because of its own content but because of the artists’ local ties with The Soap Factory, particularly through volunteering. What a terrific example of what volunteers can do! And in a year with the Volunteer Biennial I hope that everyone is feeling as inspired as I am!

More info about the current exhibition at www.soapfactory.org

Within the next few weeks we will be tearing down one of the walls in Gallery 1 and putting up a permanent gallery sitting booth for cold weather sitting! I am thrilled and you should be too. I’m sure we all remember being very chilly the past few winters during Clive Murphy and Soul on Ice… Now we’ll have a home!

Any volunteers interested in helping bring down the wall or put up the booth is more than welcome! I will send out a reminder next week.

Lillian

Some of you might be wondering what The Soap Factory is like in the winter… well, we don’t abandon the building like you might think. In fact, currently The Art Shanties Project is building all over the gallery space. They will be in the building until January when the art shanties take up residency on Medicine Lake.

In other news I seem to have fixed the issue with the internship page. As always, feel free to contact me with questions!

Lillian

Hello everyone! I am currently vacationing in the fantastic state of Wisconsin. That being said, I am unable to correct the problem with the internship page of this website. Please feel free to contact me with questions about the internships (applications due February 1st).

I will be back in Minneapolis December 30th and will take a look at the problem then. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Lillian

It is amazing that a mere two months ago we were in the middle of The Haunted Basement. It is certainly one of the most adventurous and enjoyable projects that we take on at The Soap Factory. One of The Haunted Basement originals, Aaron Wojack, was around during the build and run of the basement this year to document this monumental task. He has some terrific photos on his website: http://aaronwojack.com/haunted/

“I believe that the Soap Factory Haunted Basement is the culmination of installation, theater and collective creativity. It is a wonderful thing that has made it possible for the Soap Factory to continue as an incredible and unique artistic venue.” – Aaron Wojack

I have been shamefully ignoring the blog, and I have no one to blame but myself. I wish I could claim that a comet hit my house and thus derailed me from making any blog posts, but alas, no comet.

I took over for (the illustrious) Fiona in August and have been endlessly happy working at The Soap Factory. I am so lucky to work with so many amazing people (that’s you volunteers!!).

I promise to blog my little heart out in 2010.

- Lillian

Hi All,

Check out the new call to artists for Clapperclaw on the Shout-Out! page. Click on the link in the right-hand column.

Thanks,

Fiona

Check out the shout-out page for information about this fabulous opportunity! The deadline is June 12th .

P.s. Please become Artery 24’s follower on Twitter, we need groupies! We also have an artists blog if you fancy checking it out: http://www.artery24.com/blog