The Great Idea! Exchange took place on

March 27, 2008, 5PM-8PM at the Bean Scene 1,

2220 West Broadway, Minneapolis, MN 55411

See a slideshow of images from the event here!

A message from the organizers:

Our gratitude to the community members and stakeholders, young people,
artists, design professionals and our colleagues at the University of
Minnesota for your contributions and support in making the Great Idea!
Exchange a smashing success.  Way to go!

The Great Idea! Exchange Event last Thursday, March 27 at the Bean Scene was
an exuberant, unique, well designed, project showcase / idea-a-gora /
resource fair / party. It was the result of a community-based process that
connected more good people to each other to work together to make real
change happen in our North Minneapolis community!

115 people voted for their favorite proposal out of the nine ideas submitted
by North Minneapolis grass-roots arts and youth serving organizations, for
new collaborative projects that utilize art and design to positively impact
the community.

The winning idea, is a youth sidewalk art project to raise awareness about
AIDS / HIV prevention.  All of the Great Idea! Exchange partner
organizations will work together over this spring and summer to implement
the sidewalk art project.   We've heard from people who voted at the event
that this project was particularly compelling, because it is concise and
doable with an important public health focus.  Accolades also go out to the
2nd and 3rd place vote getters - Talking Picture, which is an
intergenerational photo documentary project and Art Shelf, think Food Shelf
for art supplies!

All three project ideas are described in the attached pdfs.  Be on the
lookout for our collective to implement several of these Great Ideas over
the next few years.

If you are interested in getting involved to help support the Great Idea!
Exchange as an ongoing initiative  DO WHAT?

Extra Special Thanks and Mad Props to:

*Avenues for Homeless Youth
*Bean Scene
*DJ Stage One
*Hawthorne Area Community Council
*Homewood Studios
*Juxtaposition Arts
*Kwanzaa Church
*Minneapolis Council Member Don Samuels
*Northside Arts Collective
*Tish Jones
*University of Minnesota Center for Urban and Regional Affairs
*University of Minnesota's College of Design
*University of Minnesota Design Institute
*West Broadway Coalition

Regards,
The Great Idea! Exchange organizers

Kristine Miller, mille407@umn.edu, UMN Graduate Landscape Architecture Studio
Satoko Muratake, satoko@juxtaposition.org, Juxtaposition Arts Remix Course
Marcy Schulte, mschulte@conwayandschulte.com, UMN Design Institute Seminar

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