Interact show features mentorship partners

Interact Center for Visual and Performing Arts was formed in 1992 as a professional theater company that included actors with disabilities. In 1996, the organization expanded to include visual arts, and now offers training, performance opportunities, and exhibitions for artists with disabilities.  

Emerson says that for the FAME program, Interact staff looked at artists in the studio who would particularly benefit from a one-on-one relationship with a professional artist. The Interact artists were selected because they exhibited an interesting development artistically and were "poised to blossom" under the individualized dialogue the mentorship program offers.

Once the four Interact artists were selected, Emerson thought about professional artists who would be a good match. Some of the things she considered were the artistic direction of both the Interact artist and the Mentor artist, but also temperament and affinity they might have for each other, in addition to what the mentor artist might bring to the Interact artist that they wouldn't necessarily experience otherwise.  

One of the pairings included multimedia artist Chris Larson, and Eric Sherarts, who has been with Interact for 13 years. Larson has an MFA from Yale, and has shown his work internationally as well as locally at the Walker Art Center and the Weisman Museum. Larson, who teaches at the University of Minnesota, was able to offer Sherarts access to new technologies of cutting wood and Plexiglas, and brazing metal. Emerson says that the work in the exhibition also shows a personal affinity between the two artists. For example, while Larson has Elvis Presley images in it, Sherarts has images of a Mexican wrestler.  

Another pairing, between Kelly Cox, a professional ceramicist, and Anna Halvorson, who has been an Interact artist since 2006, gave Halvorson the opportunity to work in Cox's studio making tiles. Cox was able to introduce Halvorson to a wider range of glazes and techniques than was available to her at the Interact studio, Emerson said. "It helped bring more maturity to her work."  

The opening reception for "FAME," featuring Anna Halvorson, TJ Neumiller, Jill Griffith, Eric Sherartz, and their mentors Kelly Cox, Alexa Horochowski, Michael Garr, and Chris Larson takes place on Friday, January 21, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Interact Center for Performing Arts (212 Third Ave. N., Minneapolis).