Routines and customs keep each of us going in challenging and good times whether consciously or not. For artists, each has a unique way to keep moving forward creatively and personally. Rituals, ArtReach St. Croix’s Mobile Art Gallery exhibit for Summer 2021, is an exhibit conceived and curated byWilliam G. Franklin, an independent art curator and educator. Part anthropological project and part experiment on the museological display of objects.

The exhibit is centered on thought-provoking stories of Minnesota- and Wisconsin-based artists and what their lives have been like during this past year. Accompanying the stories, the exhibit showcases objects of ritualistic significance in their lives and images of their studios, the latter, a collaboration with local photographer Lauren Bína.

“The artists’ routines, the psychic-transformative power of objects, and the studio as a state of mind, act together to create an all-embracing portrait of each artist, enshrined now under the Mobile Art Gallery,” says Franklin. “The exhibit hopes to inspire audiences to deepen their relation with themselves, their creative environments and communities.”

Rituals is Silvana Agostoni, Bo Young An, Christopher Atkins, Zoe Cinel, Chris Cunningham, Deja Day, Sophie Donahue, Susan Fink, Alondra Marisol Garza, Figen Haugen, Ken Johnson, Whitney McLaughlin, Amy Crickenberger Oeth, Dougie Padilla, Carol Patt, Erica Spitzer Rasmussen, Sue Rowe, Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo, Jocelyn Suzuka, and Nese Yurttas.

The Mobile Art Gallery can be a powerful place to experience the arts and particularly during a thought-provoking show like Rituals. FamilyMeans developed mental health resources to accompany the exhibition.

Find the Mobile Art Gallery and Rituals at:

Lake Elmo Park Reserve – July 2-4

Afton State Park – July 9-11

William O’Brien State Park – July 30-August 1

Interstate Park-MN – August 6-8

Walker Art Center – August 21-22

Learn more about this exhibition and the Mobile Art Gallery at artreachstcroix.org/rituals and see specific times for each park location.

Rituals can be followed on Instagram @artreach_stcroixor with the hashtag #ritualsmobileartgallery. Other dates and locations may be added!

Rituals is made possible thanks to a grant for the Mobile Art Gallery from the Xcel Energy Foundation and support from the RBC Wealth Management Foundation and the EagleView Wealth Management Group.  

William G. Franklin is an independent art curator and a bilingual educator. Franklin has curated more than a dozen exhibits across local galleries. He has served as panelist reviewing applications for grants and artist-in-residency programs. He teaches modern and contemporary art at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and at Saint Cloud State University. He is teaching the graduate seminar Criticism and Theory 1to MCAD’s MFA candidates this coming fall.

Lauren Bína is a professional teaching artist based in Minneapolis, MN. Bína holds a K-12 Minnesota teaching license and has extensive experience teaching in and through the arts with diverse audiences. She currently teaches media arts at Perpich Arts High School and works as a Lead Educator at the Walker Art Center. Bína’s sculptural photography explores the relationship between experience and memory.