(shared content with Secrets of the City/Scene Spree)
This past Saturday, l’etoile collaborated with the Weisman Art Museum on their closing gala, a final blowout to celebrate the iconic museum’s year-long hiatus and expansion project that kicks off this week. Since early this year, l’etoile had been brainstorming with Weisman marketing guru Christopher James on the concept of a “break all the rules” party at the museum right before the renovations were to start. It took a little convincing, but the higher-ups eventually gave us their blessing and WAMarchy was born. Once tickets went on sale, the event sold out almost immediately!
At 8pm the doors were open and well-heeled attendees of all ages flooded in. The Art Creation Station sponsored by Friedman/Iverson and mplsart.com was one of the first things people stumbled across when walking into the museum. Long tables with scads of art supplies piled onto them invited people to create custom pieces to hang along the walls of the corridor. We even brought a stack of old l’etoile print issues for people to cut up and collage into their art.
WAMarchy! Time Lapse at the Weisman Art Museum from Stephen Squared on Vimeo.
We commissioned Cult Status Gallery owner Erin Sayer and her posse of graffiti artists to create a “WAMarchy” inspired mural and interactive art wall for attendees to add to in the main hall, which was completed Friday. The mural, sponsored by Art Space, was huge, colorful and stunning – a perfect representation of the vivid WAMarchy theme. At the last minute we got the okay from the building manager to add an additional wall for people to draw on during the event, which ended up being one of the most popular spots of the night.
Projection artist Clement Shimizu put together an impressive video installation that overwhelmed one huge gallery. Manipulated footage of art installs that have happened at the museum and huge eyeballs surveying the crowd were just a couple of the visual tricks Shimizu had up his brilliant sleeves. As a backdrop to the eye candy, DJ Adam Mehl of Radio K’s “Out of Step” kept party goers riled up all night with a seriously rockin’ punk playlist.
In the far gallery, the God Damn Doo Wop Band kicked things off at 9:30pm with their rebelliously adorable, bop-worthy tunes, which had stylish attendees swing dancin’ their hearts out throughout the set. After a brief intermission, Epitaph Records punk rockers Off With Their Heads took the stage for a truly raucous performance that filled the room with happily pogo-ing party people.
Photo by Erik Hess for l'etoile
Fueled by free Surly Beer, a red wine tasting from Big Top and Sorella (previously forbidden in the hallowed halls of the Weisman) and a taco bar, bahn mi sandwiches and a cash bar from D’Amico, the party kept rockin’ until the stroke of Midnight.
For even more pictures from the night, visit Digital Crush Photography
For more behind-the-scenes commentary on the event, check out the new weekly Secrets of the City feature "Scene Spree" where Kate Iverson will be recapping her weekend arts antics every Monday.
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