Events

National Artist Call

2026 National Artist Call

OMG Studios

March 28, 2026 @ 12:00 am – May 22, 2026 @ 5:00 pm

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Reconstruction 2.0: Allegories of a Better World

Submission Opens: March 28, 2026

Submission Deadline: May 15, 2026

Artists Notified By: May 22, 2026

Public Exhibition Date: June 28, 2026

Exhibition Venue: Minneapolis Institute of Art

Minneapolis Institute of Art, June 28, 2026. Artists are invited to submit original works which reflect the world they want to see, examining themes such as:

  • Virtue and moral courage
  • Nobility beyond class or status
  • Truth, justice, and liberation
  • Reconstruction and unlearning
  • Memory, history, and inherited systems
  • Cultural healing and collective imagination
  • Confronting ignorance, silence, and erasure
  • Envisioning a more equitable future

Works should center visual storytelling and historical reflection. See Juan de Pareja, Diego Velazquez (1650); The Calling of Saint Matthew, Juan de Pareja (1661); Allegory of the Planets and Continents, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1752); and Standing Rock, Jim Denomie (2016).

This exhibition is happening in conjunction with the release of film, “The Making of America,” a humanities documentary from OMG Studios and Minnesota Humanities Center, that examines how Enlightenment-era systems of knowledge—art, science, architecture, and cartography—produced enduring frameworks for racial slavery, territorial extraction, and Indigenous dispossession in what became the United States. The film advances the argument that these outcomes were deliberate consequences of its visual and systemic commitments to order, hierarchy and control. Exhibited works may be featured in the film.

INNOVATION LAB APPLY NOW 2026

OMG Studios Innovation Lab 2026 – APPLY NOW

OMG Studios 550 Vandalia St. Ste. 220, Saint Paul, MN 55114

February 1, 2026 @ 12:00 am – February 28, 2026 @ 12:00 am

Apply now for a spot in the 2026 Innovation Lab at OMG Studios. This is a unique opportunity for Twin Cities youth (ages 14-19) to explore, create, and grow in a collaborative setting. Learn all about this year’s lab assignment at one of the upcoming Zoom info sessions:
⭐️Sat, Feb 14, 2:00pm
⭐️Mon, Feb 16, 6:00pm
Application Deadline: February 27th.
This programming is made possible with support from Minnesota Humanities Center.
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Juneteenth Reckoning with Slavery Film Series

Watch Online Free

July 22, 2025 @ 12:00 am – December 31, 2025 @ 12:00 am

Reconstruction Destructed, sixth in the “Juneteenth Reckoning with Slavery” film series, aims to shine a light on the most misunderstood period in American History and why it remains critically important to understand today. “It challenges our understanding of the impact of slavery and its ongoing impact throughout the United States,” said Monique Linder, Film Director and CEO, OMG Studios. “As our nation struggles to come to grips with our history of racial caste, the legal luminaries, civil rights leaders, and educational scholars are excellent guides not only to illuminate the past but more importantly to provide a path forward,” added Kevin Lindsey, CEO, Minnesota Humanities Center.
Reconstruction Destructed features Minnesota Federal District Court Judge Jerry Blackwell, Bryan Stevenson, Esq., Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, Dr. Josie R. Johnson, University of Minnesota Regent and First Lady of Minnesota Civil Rights and Dr. Duchess Harris, Special Assistant to the Provost and American Studies Professor at Macalester College.
You can watch all six Juneteenth Reckoning with Slavery films online.
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