Juxtaposition Arts
Nearly 20 years in the making, a completed creative campus for a North Minneapolis nonprofit delivers on a dream
By Cinnamon Janzer | October 17, 2024
The Juxtaposition Arts campus, completed in 2023, teems with creativity indoors and out. Photo by Morgan Sheff.
SPOTLIGHT
This feature appears in the 180-page 2024 ENTER print annual, available for purchase here.
Juxtaposition Arts (JXTA)—a nonprofit that provides teens with paid, hands-on education and experience in arts and design—secured its location at the busy corner of Emerson and West Broadway avenues in 2004. But the organization quickly outgrew the property. Space was tight, so each class had to pack up and put away its supplies before another could begin. JXTA’s founders saw possibilities in neighboring vacancies. After years of dreaming and planning, the organization broke ground in 2021 on a transformation that culminated in a completed campus last summer.
Every part of the process was imbued with creative expression. After acquiring and demolishing some of the adjacent buildings, JXTA installed a multipurpose skate plaza while waiting for construction to start. The plaza was immediately embraced and became a fixture in the final design. The campus, which also includes a multipurpose parking plaza and rain gardens, is woven together with patterned concrete. A perforated-metal fence around the parking plaza is fitted with removable plywood panels on which students can practice aerosol-art techniques.
Photos 1–7: A multipurpose skate plaza installed in 2019 was retained in the new campus design. The new building is especially visually dynamic at night, when color-changing LEDs trace the architecture. Solar panels are installed on the roof and third-floor terrace. The railing on the terrace features metal artwork by JXTA apprentices. Photos by Morgan Sheff.
The new building, designed by 4RM+ULA, features a dynamic, red and dark gray metal exterior. On the first level, perforations in the red panels give detail to a mural whose lines continue onto neighboring windows and glass doors. At night, a line of color-changing LED lights makes its way up and around the three-story structure, tracing its geometry. Inside, a generous gallery and well-equipped production studios serve JXTA’s mission: putting a difference-making amount of pay into the hands of young North Minneapolis creatives while preparing them for flourishing futures.
James Garrett Jr., AIA, NOMA, 4RM+ULA principal
“We wanted to make it a building with a strong facade. The metal panel wraps from one side of the building all the way across to the other. It’s lit up with the same color-changing LEDs that we used with JXTA students on the 26th Avenue North Overlook. It creates these really powerful statements against the night sky.”
Photos 1–8: The inviting lobby, viewable from outside, is also an art gallery tailor-made for hosting events. The pinups in a first-floor studio show JXTA interns creating a publication. The various studios offer all the digital and physical tools, dust collection, and natural light the young apprentices need. One of the studios is even indoor/outdoor thanks to a garage door. Photos by Morgan Sheff.
Roger Cummings, Juxtaposition Arts chief cultural producer
“The new space gives us a couple of things we didn’t have before, like the ability to work in different disciplines with dedicated spaces. We can also offer space to the public now. Just recently, we had a celebration of life held here. We can also employ more young people, which means more money in their pockets. It’s really beautiful to have the young people respond well to it because it was made for them.”
Satoko Muratake, Ten x Ten landscape architect
“In addition to integrating stormwater management, the site had to weave everything together. The alley became a promenade, but it still didn’t quite feel like a campus. So, we used color and patterns on the pavement. Scoring created the pavement patterns while the plants in the rain gardens are mostly reds, yellows, and greens that change throughout the seasons.”
The Juxtaposition Arts project team included Juxtaposition Arts, 4RM+ULA, Ten x Ten, Emanuelson-Podas, Mattson Macdonald Young, Solution Blue, Shuler Shook, and Watson-Forsberg in association with TRI-Construction.
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