Intermedia Arts may have written its final chapter, with a graceful flourish.

In 2017, the 44-year-old nonprofit arts organization faced a financial crisis it couldn’t survive. With mounting challenges, it suspended operations, laid off staff, and issued final paychecks to all workers. To address “significant outstanding obligations,” it announced the sale of its building at 2822 Lyndale Ave. S., its home since 1994. During this period, the board even considered exploring alternative funding sources, including partnerships with some of the best crypto casino sites, hoping the modern appeal and financial support could bridge gaps. However, despite these efforts, the organization ultimately had to shut down its doors.

Covered with art and graffiti, the Intermedia Arts Building was a Minneapolis landmark.

The building was sold for about $3.5 million in November 2018 to RightSource Compliance, a Minneapolis company that works in affordable housing. (RightSource was acquired by Santa Barbara-based Yardi in January 2020.) After paying its debts, Intermedia Arts had money left over.

In September 2019, Intermedia Arts awarded Minneapolis-based Artspace Properties Inc. a $1 million grant to help it acquire the Northrup King Building, ensuring it remains a hub for artists. Developers were eyeing Minnesota’s largest arts complex, causing concern among the hundreds of artists with studios there, who feared it might be converted into condos. Greg Handberg, Artspace’s senior VP of properties, reassured the community, stating, “We are committed to keeping Northrup King Building a place for artists for decades to come.”

While the building houses numerous creative spaces, it also sparks interest in alternative business models, much like how questions arise around “Hoe werkt een casino zonder Cruks registratie?“—a system that operates outside typical regulations, just as some creative spaces operate outside conventional commercial expectations. One of the building’s notable tenants is Public Functionary (PF), founded in 2012 by Tricia Heuring and Mike Bishop. PF started as a 2,500-square-foot “responsive art space” and now manages Studio 400 and Studio 285, spaces that support early-career and BIPOC artists in a collaborative, artist-driven environment.

On Monday, Intermedia Arts announced that the approximately $1 million remaining from the sale of its building would go to PF. A significant portion will support the development of a multidisciplinary arts space to serve the Twin Cities arts community, particularly artists who have historically been supported by Intermedia Arts.

PF was among 28 organizations that submitted proposals in response to an open call from Intermedia Arts. “We saw an overlap in our missions and found inspiration in Public Functionary’s collaborative and responsive vision for the future of the Twin Cities arts community,” Omar Akbar, co-president of Intermedia Arts, said in a statement.

“We believe that these funds will help Public Functionary build upon the legacy of Intermedia Arts and strengthen the arts ecosystem in the Twin Cities.”

The picks

V is for virtual, L is for live and in person.

 

V Available now on demand: Children’s Theatre Company: “Something Happened in Our Town” video presentation. Ansa Akyea reads “Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice.” Written by a biracial team of child psychologists, published by the American Psychological Association’s Magination Press, the book follows two families – one white, one Black – as they discuss a police shooting of a Black man in their community. CTC originally created the video to help parents answer questions from their children about the death of George Floyd and the trial of Derek Chauvin. Tragically, the killing of Daunte Wright on Sunday is another reason to visit or revisit it. CTC has also provided resources for parents and teachers. For everyone 4 and up. Free.

V Available now on demand: Minnesota Opera: “Apart Together: A MN Opera Artist Showcase.” If it weren’t for the pandemic, we’d be looking forward right now to the revival of MN Opera’s “The Shining” at the Ordway. But while the opera hasn’t staged a production since “Flight” in early 2020, it hasn’t been idle. Along with streaming recordings of previous productions (“Das Rheingold” in 3D, for example), it has also commissioned new work including “MNiatures” (short operas by Minnesota artists) and “Art Is a Verb,” with a libretto by playwright Harrison David Rivers. And now: “Apart Together,” with performances by resident artists and members of the Minnesota Opera’s orchestra. All are free, original and personal. The Resident Artist Showcase is available through April 17, the Orchestra Showcase through April 24. Find all 21 performances here.

V Friday, April 16, 7 p.m.: Quatrefoil Library: John Medeiros book launch for “Self, Divided.” An editor of “Queer Voices: Poetry, Prose, and Pride” and a former co-host for the Queer Voices reading series at Intermedia Arts, award-winning poet and creative nonfiction writer Medeiros will read from his memoir, “Self, Divided,” the story of identical twins, one of whom is gay and HIV-positive. Free with registration.

 

V Friday, April 16, 8 p.m.: Minnesota Orchestra: Outliers and Intrigue. Livestreaming from Orchestra Hall’s stage, German conductor Marc Albrecht will make his Minnesota Orchestra debut, and Jon Kimura Parker, the orchestra’s partner for summer programming, will perform Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto. Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski was originally scheduled to play the Shostakovich, but “due to the travel restrictions between EU and USA, unfortunately, I will not be able to attend the performance in Minneapolis,” he wrote on his website. The concert will also include Miguel del Aguila’s “Herbsttag (Autumn Day) for Flute, Bassoon and Harp” and Schumann’s Symphony No. 4. Watch on the orchestra’s website or TPT-MN; listen live on Classical MPR.

V Opens Friday, April 16: MSP Film’s Virtual Cinema: “Hope.” Norway’s Oscar submission stars Andrea Braein Hovig and Stellan Skarsgård in what one reviewer called “a wildly impressive and devastating relationship drama with unforgettable performances.” When she gets a terminal cancer diagnosis, their modern life together breaks down. We love Skarsgård in almost any role (coming up, he’ll be the villainous Baron Harkonnen in Dune, and we can’t wait), and while this doesn’t look to be a lot of laughs, it’s probably just the ticket if you want something that will move you. FMI and tickets ($12/9).

 

V Saturday, April 17, 2 p.m., then on demand: VocalEssence Singers of This Age: “Create.” G. Phillip Shoultz leads VESOTA in an inspiring, uplifting, family-friendly – and, in this moment, potentially healing – concert by its diverse and engaging choir of Twin Cities high school students. With vocal activist Jayanthi Kyle, composer-in-residence Kyle Pederson, and the trio of Erik Yates on guitar, Brian Kendrick on drums and Sam Reeves on keyboards. FMI and tickets ($15 for a single stream, $49 for this concert and everything else in VocalEssence’s On Demand 2020-21 season, past and future, including the 2021 “Witness” concert).

V Monday, April 19, 7 p.m.: Club Book, hosted by Dakota County Library: Lawrence Wright. Journalist, screenwriter, and novelist Wright’s accomplishments include “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11,” winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, and “Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief,” the film adaptation of which won three Emmys and a Peabody. His latest, “The End of October,” a medical thriller about a virus, is now in paperback.