An exciting but difficult to explain art exhibition. A series of studio workshops. A library with amazing collections just steps away…does this sound like a library-as-incubator opportunity or what? Librarian Margit Wilson and artist Margaret Pezalla-Granlund teamed up to make the library an active art space with Fluxus Club, and we’re delighted to host a new series on their work at the Walker Art Center. Enjoy! ~Erinn
Photo by Gene Pittman. Courtesy Walker Art Center.
by Margaret Pezalla-Granlund & Margit Wilson
Last winter, an unexpected collaboration bloomed at the Walker Art Center between its Art Lab, a workshop space, and its Library. Artist Margaret Pezalla-Granlund was working with the Walker’s Education & Community Programs department to plan Fluxus Club, a series of four workshops inspired by the work of Fluxus artists featured in the exhibition Art Expanded, 1958–1978. The collaboration began the first month of Fluxus Club, when Margit Wilson, the Walker’s librarian, offered to host an open house featuring Fluxus publications. That evening sparked a series of back-and-forth conversations about how to integrate library and studio activities, and how the many historical resources of the library could bring Fluxus to life for Fluxus Club visitors.
Photo by Gene Pittman. Courtesy Walker Art Center.
Fluxus Club began with a fairly traditional idea for a series of hands-on, drop-in workshops for visitors of all ages in the Walker’s Art Lab, a brightly-lit studio space with large work tables and sinks. The challenge was how to connect the workshop activities with the Fluxus artworks that inspired them: the Fluxus movement was difficult to explain to visitors, and the gallery exhibiting Art Expanded, 1958-1978 was not adjacent to the lab. However, the Library — and its collection of Fluxus publications and catalogues — was just steps from the Art Lab.
The challenge was how to connect the workshop activities with the Fluxus artworks that inspired them…However, the Library–and its collection of Fluxus publications and catalogues–was just steps from the Art Lab.
Photo by Erin Smith. Courtesy Walker Art Center.
Despite their proximity, the Art Lab and Library had not previously partnered on public events quite like this. When the Library was first approached about Fluxus Club, the original idea was to create a mini-library within the Art Lab for visitors to browse and read about Fluxus. The Art Lab activities would involve making posters using paint, markers, and other ink, which raised some initial questions about the safety of library materials.
These challenges quickly turned into opportunities: rather than bringing the library materials to the Art Lab, why not open the doors to the Library and provide an open house for the evening?
These challenges quickly turned into opportunities: rather than bringing the library materials to the Art Lab, why not open the doors to the Library and provide an open house for the evening? Due to staff and access constraints, the Library normally operates on an appointment basis with the public. Partnering with the Fluxus Club enabled the Library to try out a public open house after hours with an ideal audience. With staff present, the Library could provide a wide selection of Fluxus resources for visitors to handle, including rare exhibition catalogs and artist books. While the exhibition Art Expanded, 1958-1978 included many artist books and other printed ephemera, in the library visitors were able to hold some of these historic materials in their hands.
Photo by Erin Smith. Courtesy Walker Art Center.
The Library provided a wide selection of Fluxus resources for visitors to handle, including rare exhibition catalogs and artist books…visitors were able to hold some of these historic materials in their hands.
After that first Fluxus Club collaboration, it was clear that the partnership could both continue– and grow. Visitors were fascinated by the library and saw this as an opportunity to go “behind the scenes,” and, as educators, we were really excited about the potential of the Library both as a resource for exploring historical Fluxus, and as a generative site for new Fluxus-inspired activity. We thought we could do more with the Library. We observed that visitors often entered timidly and were sometimes shy to put on white gloves and handle special materials. Moreover, we found that Fluxus was still hard to explain, even with exhibition catalogues and scholarly publications to share. Moving forward, we wanted to take the pressure off of explaining Fluxus by putting the emphasis on doing and making Fluxus. We look forward to sharing more on how we activated the spaces and what learned from our iterative process in blog posts to come.
Want More?
- Follow along with this series as it develops.
- Check out the Walker Art Center and it’s Library online and on social media.
Margit Wilson is Assistant Librarian at the Walker Art Center, where she oversees the Rosemary Furtak Collection of artist books in addition to maintaining a general collection of library materials devoted to contemporary art. She comes to librarianship with a background in independent publishing and book arts. She received her MLIS from St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota and her BA in English and French from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.
Margaret Pezalla-Granlund is an artist and the curator of library exhibitions at Gould Library at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. She has a background in museum education at both science and art museums and has led workshops for the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Walker Art Center, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the St. Paul Public Library. She received her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA and her BA from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN.
Author photos by Erin Smith. Courtesy Walker Art Center.
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