Marcus Young
Marcus Young 楊墨 is a behavioral and social practice artist making work for the stage, museums, and the public realm. He seeks new tones of belonging and liberation through design of behavioral and social forms. His work creates shifts in systems and in awareness that turn things into art. Since 2008, he has been creating Don’t You Feel It Too?—a participatory radical street dance practice for social healing and inner-life liberation. From 2006 to 2015, he served as City Artist in St. Paul, MN, where he helped redefine the role of the artist in government and created art within city systems. Museum work includes With Nothing to Give, I Give Myself—living 10 days around-the-clock at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts to foster the revelation that people are the great overlooked works of art. He is ongoing Collaborating Stage Director with Ananya Dance Theater, and currently an artist in the creative collaborations program at the Weisman Art Museum. Marcus is a recipient of awards from the McKnight, Bush, and Jerome Foundations, and the 2016 Forecast Public Art Mid-Career Award given to one artist a year. He is program director of Art for Social Change at HECUA, the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs. In 2019 he was named Community Vitality Fellow for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, a one-year artist in residence position, one of two in the nation and the first known examples of artists embedded in a statewide agency. He consults on public art and mindfulness integration in a variety of projects and processes.
Organizing team
(from left to right): Shira Charis, Laura Levinson, Diane Hellekson, Theresa Madaus, Aki Shibata, Marcus Young
2018 Cohort
(From left to right) Alejandra Tobar Alatriz, Shira Charis, Julia Davidson, Rae Eden, Elizabeth Fontaine, Diane Hellekson, Matt Huang, Rahletta Jackson, Laura Levinson, Theresa Madaus, Demetrius McClendon, Wendy Morris, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Asher Edes, Conie Borchardt, Keila Saucedo, Khadija Siddiqui, Michael Thurston, Stayci Bell, Alys Ayumi Ogura, Heather Peebles, Mire Regulus, Aki Shibata, Xiaolu Wang, Caspian Wirth-Petrik, Kendrick Wronski, Marcus Young
2017 CoHort
(from left to right): Julia Davidson, Demetrius McClendon, Wendy Morris, Heather Peebles, Miré Regulus, Alejandra (Tobar Alatriz), Xiaolu Wang, Caspian Wirth-Petrik, Kendrick Wronski
funders
This activity is made possible by the Headwaters Foundation for Justice; and by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Photos by
Steven Cohen, Zoe Prinds-Flash, Dave Kapell, Rob Levine, Ryan Murphy, Travis Spangler, Kaamil Haider,
Jon Pocklington, Jae Shin Cross, Sarah White