Crop Art Students Head to the State Fair

By Cynthia Maya | August 29, 2024

Something seedy is growing at White Bear Center for the Arts. Under the expert guidance of Marta Shore, Assistant Superintendent of Crop Art and Scarecrow at the Minnesota State Fair, a group of artists honed their skills as they learned how to create crop art and submit their work to the State Fair. Starting in…

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Mexican Clay Makes a Pilgrimage to Minnesota

By Cynthia Maya | August 22, 2024

White Bear Center for the Arts is prepping to host the Mata Ortiz Pottery Sale again for the first time since its run in 2019. From September 18-21, renowned artists from the small village of Mata Ortiz, in the Northern state of Chihuahua, Mexico will display their pottery at WBCA for a special four-day sale.

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Q&A with Into Nature Judge Michele Combs

By Cynthia Maya | August 14, 2024

When Michele Combs took her first painting class at 38 years old, she couldn’t have guessed she’d become a renowned, award-winning plein air painter. She began her painting journey in an acrylic painting class at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts, the art center where she ended up teaching. When she entered her first painting…

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“Ode to my Umi”: Celebrating Black Motherhood, Ancestry, and the Revolutionary Power of Rest

By Cynthia Maya | July 19, 2024

The newest exhibit in White Bear Center for the Arts’ Ford Family Gallery, “Ode to my Umi,” honors Black motherhood and ancestral wisdom. But the curator of the show, 2023-2024 Emerging Curators Institute Fellow Eshay Brantley, wants to make one thing clear: this exhibit is for everyone. Directly influenced by the women in her family…

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The Power of Plein Air: The Benefits of Doing Art in Nature

By Cynthia Maya | June 7, 2024

Seeing sunbeams after the long dreary winter days, have you been finding your home or studio lacking in inspiration? You might want to try art en plein air. En plein air is a French expression, meaning simply, “in the open air.” As with most things when said in French, it gains a romantic quality. But…

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The Joy of Creating

By Cynthia Maya | June 7, 2024

From the time the earliest humans marked their handprints on the walls of caves, art-making has been synonymous with the human experience. Even in our busy days, we find ways to make art: doodling, humming, dancing, taking pictures, or even composing beautifully written emails. We do art because it feels good, in ways deeper than…

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Q & A with the 50th Annual Northern Lights Judges

By Cynthia Maya | March 7, 2024

How the Northern Lights Judges Make History Every Year It is as big as it sounds: it’s White Bear Center for the Arts’ 50th Annual Northern Lights Juried Art Exhibition. Just 10 years after its creation, Northern Lights was considered one of the most prestigious art shows in the area and one of the most…

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WBCA Launches Paid High School Internship Program

By efuelling | February 27, 2024

Inside White Bear Center for the Arts’ administrative office, high schoolers are busy at work, learning how to install exhibits, design promotional materials, and work in arts administration. Seven students from local high schools recently accepted positions as interns at White Bear Center for the Arts through an internship program called “Studio Repose.” The internship…

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Chris Scholl Welcomed as White Bear Center for the Arts’ next Executive Director

By efuelling | July 19, 2023

It is with tremendous enthusiasm that White Bear Center for the Arts (WBCA) announces Chris Scholl will be its next Executive Director, beginning on August 7. In Chris’s words, “I was first an artist myself, and later realized that my gifts as an administrator are greater than as an artist. Since then I’ve used my…

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Capturing Summer through Plein Air Painting

By admin | June 14, 2023

We spend so much of the year dreaming about Minnesota summers. Going to the lake, long evenings spent outside, and finally seeing that glorious sun. But when it gets here, doesn’t it always seem to slip through our fingers? Somehow we blink and all of our lofty goals of spending every second hiking or in…

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