Thoughtful Dialogue: 15 Years of Form + Content

In 2005 two Minneapolis-based artists, Robyn Stoller Awend and Camille Gage, began meeting together to discuss the Twin Cities visual arts landscape and how they might collaborate on a new artist-driven initiative. Additional artists were invited to participate and the conversations took the form of a regular gathering in the living room of Jil Evans’ and Charles Taliaferro’s home in Minneapolis. After a time the discussion group expanded to a total of 12 individuals.

A variety of ideas were put forward and considered. By 2006 the group decided to form a gallery on a new model and call it Form+Content. The gallery established itself as a limited liability corporation and all 12 members formed the Board of Governors of the corporation. This required the artist-members to also run the company; but in exchange the artists retained 100% control over the artistic direction, exhibitions, and events sponsored by the gallery. The members’ vision for this new platform was summarized in the gallery’s mission statement:

Form+Content Gallery will nurture diverse artistic practice and thoughtful dialogue. We value art as a catalyst for critical thinking. We value integrity and the artistic process. We aspire to link personal expression to broader social contexts.

After months of exploring neighborhoods across Minneapolis and St. Paul, the members settled on the Whitney Square Building in the North Loop section of downtown Minneapolis. On March 1, 2007, Form+Content Gallery opened the inaugural exhibition Trace Elements. The gallery invited Doryun Chong, Assistant Curator of Visual Art at Walker Art Center, to choose the members’ artworks for the exhibition, which was organized around the following themes: Nature and the Natural Environment, The Inner Self, Repetition and Variation, Politics and Memory.

The collaboration with Doryun Chong signaled the gallery's ambition to work in partnership with the community and make a valuable contribution to the Twin Cities visual arts ecology. Since Trace Elements in March 2007, Form+Content Gallery has presented 125 exhibitions and shown the work of artists from the Twin Cities, Minnesota, the United States, and numerous other countries. The exhibitions have been organized by artist-members of the gallery and by curators from the community including Christopher Atkins, Doryun Chong, Kristin Mackholm, Dean Otto, Colleen Sheehy, Suzanne Slavick, and Jenny Wheatley. In 2007 the gallery initiated its Internship Program and since then has welcomed over 60 students enrolled in colleges in Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin who have assisted with gallery exhibitions, programs, and events. The interns also participated in group intern exhibitions they organized at the gallery.

Form+Content Gallery has published two editions of original art. In 2008 the gallery published Intimate Immensity, a portfolio of prints in a variety of media by artist-members and 3 guest artists. This edition entered the permanent collections of Carleton College, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Minnesota Historical Society, Walker Art Center, and the Weisman Art Museum. In 2011 the gallery published connections, an artist book with contributions by artist-members and 3 guest artists.

Most of the past and current artist-members of the gallery are represented in the group exhibition Thoughtful Dialogue. The exhibition includes artworks in a variety of media with a common scale of 15 inches in any dimension. Past and current artist-members of the gallery include: Robyn Stoller Awend, Christine Baeumler, James Boyd Brent, Arlene Burke-Morgan, Chris Cinque, Crescent Collective (Laura Bigger, Artemis Ettsen,Teréz Iacovino), Jim Dryden, Elizabeth Erickson, Jil Evans, Camille J. Gage, Leah Golberstein, Annie Hejny, Jay Isenberg, Ellie Kingsbury, Vesna Kittelson, Kristen Lowe, Joyce Lyon, Mike Marks, John Marshall, Lynda Monick-Isenberg, Clarence Morgan, Marty Nash, Kathryn Nobbe, Patricia Olson, Howard Oransky, Mark Ostapchuk, Steve Ozone, Gwen Partin, Faye Passow, Jeff Rathermel, Michal Sagar, Kenneth Steinbach, Sandra Menefee Taylor, Jody Williams, Jeff Wetzig, Kathy Wismar, and Cameron Zebrun.

"The space for thoughtful dialogue that the collective sought to cultivate is ever expanding and still much needed in the cultural landscape of the Twin Cities, Minnesota, and beyond."  - Christina Schmid

Gallery Hours

Thursday - Friday - Saturday: 12:00 - 6:00 pm 

Covid-19 policy
We are following the current Covid-19 protocol set forth by the Minnesota Department of Health. Masks are encouraged.