Riverside Park Sound Garden 5/14/2022

Composer / Director JG Everest teams up with Artist Organizers and poets Chavonn Shen and Nimo Farah
to present a new site-specific temporary sound + performance installation at hostoric Riverside Park, part of the
Cedar Riverside People’s Center and Clinics’ “Because Your Health Matters” community wellness initiative
and the City Of Minneapolis’ Creative City Making program’s Creative Response Fund.

The Riverside Park Sound Garden event is a free, family-friendly, self-guided event that features
a sound installation of 70+ small, wireless speakers, distributed throughout a section of the park, (see map)
with live accompaniment by roving musicians and dancers, and embedded poetry and site-specific visual art.
Check out a recent interview with composer JG Everest about the new piece here.

(Scroll Down for short videos of previous Sound Gardens projects, including at Riverside Park)

In the weeks leading up to the event, we offered four free community Art + Nature workshops, where
local participants were led by naturalists on guided nature walks and then led through
art-making activities by Teaching Artists in four disciplines: Poetry, Sculpture, Murals, and Music. The artistic
elements created and developed in these workshops by community members (poems, sculptures, murals,
music) will then be featured in the larger Sound Garden event on May 14, as a gift to the wider community.
(For context, these workshops are similar to our previous Monarch Magic! series at Lake Nokomis Park for the Mpls Monarch Festival.)

FREE COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS SCHEDULE:
Take a guided nature walk in the park and then participate in art-making activities for the new Sound Garden event!
Sun April 24 1-4pm Poetry Workshop w/ poets Chavonn Shen, Nimo Farah, Lisa Yankton, and Teresa Ortiz
Sat May 7 10-1pm Murals Workshop w/ Muralist Tim Blighton
Sat May 7 2-5pm Music & Sound Workshop w/ composer JG Everest, percussionist / MC Truth Maze, and Matty Harris
Sun May 8 1-4pm Natural Sculptures Workshop w/ Sculptor Jim Proctor

Teaching Artist Turth Maze co-leads the SOUND + MUSIC workshop on May 7
Teaching Artist / Poet Chavonn Shen co-leads the POETRY workshop on April 24
Naturalist Jenny Winkelman will lead guided nature walks
Teaching Artist / Poet Teresa Ortiz co-leads the POETRY workshop on
April 24
Teaching Artist / Muralist Tim Blighton leads the MURALS workshop on May 7
Teaching Artist / Sculptor Jim Proctor leads the NATURAL SCULPTURES workshop on May 8 – Mother’s Day!
Guided Nature walk with naturalist Jenny Winkelman
Truth Maze leads Sound + Music workshop
nature talk and demo
Making Music in the park
Riverside Park on the Mississippi river – Water is Life!
Making a Banner Mural
Making Natural Sculptures
Natural Sculptures
Teaching Artist / Muralist Tim Blighton
Teaching Artist Tim Blighton leads the MURALS Workshop on May 7
writing poetry
painting murals
Poet Lisa Yankton co-leads the POETRY workshop on April 24
Teaching Aritst / Poet Nimo Farah will co-lead the POETRY workshop on May 7

The Riverside Park Sound Garden is part of the Peoples Center’s “Because Your Health Matters” community wellness initiative in partnership with Wavelets Creative. Funding is provided by The Creative Response Fund, a program of the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy in the City of Minneapolis and also in part by The Kresge Foundation, and by the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization. This activity is also made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

What Is A Sound Garden? A short interview with composer / director JG Everest

“Behind The Scenes” short documentary about creating the Fall Sound Garden at Riverside Park, with interviews with participating artists.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.