Artist Talk & Open Studio with Seitu Jones

The Anderson Center invites community members of all ages to participate in an Artist Talk & Open Studio with public artist-in-residence Seitu Jones at the North Studios Courtyard at Tower View on Tuesday, May 24 from 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Refreshments will be provided.

As the Anderson Center’s second “First Step Public Artist Resident,” Seitu Jones is spending the month of May researching the historic African American presence in Red Wing, including his own family history. Jones’ great-grandfather, Joseph Parker, lived in Red Wing and worked at the St. James Hotel from 1877 – 1879.

Seitu’s long-term goal is to work with Red Wing community members to design & create public artwork that recalls and remembers the historic African American presence in Red Wing & Goodhue County. Participants at the Artist Talk & Open Studio will have the opportunity to meet Seitu, learn more about his project, and help shape the public artwork he is developing.

Seitu Ken Jones is a multidisciplinary artist, advocate and maker based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Working between the arts and public spheres, Jones channels the spirit of radical social movements into experiences that foster critical conversations and nurture more just and vibrant communities from the soil up. Throughout his career, he has harnessed the tools of visual art, infrastructure, and civic engagement to create work that links history to the present and honors the community’s assets — from its historic figures to natural resources to cultural traditions.

In his public art and events, Jones pushes beyond traditional art spaces to reach people in the context of their lives and communities. His large-scale sculptural installation Turnip Greens was dedicated in 2019 in the Nashville Farmers Market, inspired by the city’s bounty of food and black culture. First enacted in St. Paul in 2014, A Community Meal convened two thousand people over dinner at a table half a mile long. Jones’s site-specific art installations for the Twin Cities Light Rail Transit system blend visual beauty with local history. In 2013, Jones co-founded Frogtown Farm, a five-acre urban farm in a St. Paul city park created with and for neighborhood residents.

Jones is a recently retired faculty member of Goddard College in Washington State. He holds a BS degree in Landscape Design and a MLS in Environmental History from the University of Minnesota. He’s been a Senior Fellow in Agricultural Systems in the College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Science Resources at the University of Minnesota and is a member of the board of managers for the Capitol Region Watershed District.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Creative Support grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.