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California Building

2205 California St NE
41 members open
Image: california-building-banner

Welcome to the California Building, one of the first studio buildings in NE Minneapolis. The building has a long commitment to the arts, community and arts sustainability in Northeast Minneapolis.

Building owners, John Kremer and Jennifer Young purchased the property in 1991 and have rented studios to artists ever since. With over 80 artists as tenants, the building is an anchor in the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District.

While we do not require masks, we do encourage them!

Art-A-Whirl

California Building is open Art-A-Whirl weekend on Friday, Saturday & Sunday.

California Building is considered mobility accessible.

Elevator
Ramp
Restroom
Parking
Legend
Online sales available
Art-A-Whirl: open at least one day

Art-A-Whirl Activities

Example of Rope Art Created by a participant
Family-friendly
Indoor
Interactive Activity
Wheelchair Accessible

“Ease Anxiety, Create Calm, with Rope Art”!

Cost: $6-$10 Suggested Donation

Saturday - May 17 · Sunday - May 18
Drop-in Saturday from 1:00-7:00pm, Sunday 1:00-4:00pm

In this relaxing 30-minute drop-in art experience for all ages, you’ll create your very own a mixed media “rope art” painting on an 8×8”canvas board!!

Candice will guide you to think of an experience (such as eating chocolate ice cream, or camping with your friends by the lake), notice where you feel it in your body, then effortlessly transforming it into an abstract of color, line, and shape!

“Creating art helps us learn how to deal with uncertainty”

California Building – 207A
2205 California St NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Map & Directions

6512310098 Send Email Visit Website

Art Demo
Family-friendly
Indoor
Interactive Activity

Ceramic Jewelry Making Workshop

Cost: $40 per person

Sunday - May 18
Sunday 2-3pm

This workshop will introduce participants to ceramic jewelry making—no clay experience necessary!

After a brief demonstration, participants will make and glaze a few pair of ceramic earrings and/or pendants. Work will be fired and and ready for pick up within 2-3 weeks.

Registration is by email, drop-ins welcome, if room allows.

California Building – Studio 403
2205 California St NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Map & Directions

651-468-7951 Send Email

Art Demo
Family-friendly
Indoor
Interactive Activity

Community Sculpture Building

Cost: Free!

Friday - May 16 · Saturday - May 17 · Sunday - May 18
All Art-A-Whirl weekend

Visit Studio 113 in the California Building during Art-A-Whirl® to help build a community sculpture. Grab a block of clay to shape using the provided tools and then add your tiny sculpture to the platform. Watch the miniature city come to life over the course of the weekend.

Free and open to all ages. We welcome you to add to the sculpture all hours of Art-A-Whirl® 2025.

California Building – Studio 113
2205 California St NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Map & Directions

Send Email

Indoor
Music
Other
Performance

Craig Harris Music and Multimedia Performance

Cost: Donations accepted

Friday - May 16 · Saturday - May 17 · Sunday - May 18
Friday 5/16/2025 8:00-8:30pm; Saturday 5/17/2025 6:00-6:30pm; Sunday 5/18/2025 4:00-4:30pm

Craig Harris will play music with multimedia projections.

 

California Building – Studio 212
2205 California St NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Map & Directions

612-272-2220 Send Email Visit Website

Family-friendly
Indoor
Other

Finding Home: Women Writers Read

Cost: Free!

Sunday - May 18
Sunday 1-2pm

Women writers read short pieces about Finding home as a child, in Japan, in Africa, and in nature. Susan Armington, Lauri Carlson, Pauline Danforth, Emy Minzel.

California Building – Studio 501
2205 California St NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Map & Directions

6125789655 Send Email Visit Website

Family-friendly
Indoor
Interactive Activity
Music

Legacy Dream Space & Collections – Guided Exploration of the Multimedia Installations

Cost: Donations accepted

Friday - May 16 · Saturday - May 17 · Sunday - May 18
Friday 5/16/2025 6:00-6:30pm; Saturday 5/17/2025 3:00-3:30pm; Sunday 5/18/2025 2:00-2:30pm

Craig Harris will guide visitors through the Legacy Dream Space & Collections multimedia installations, and provide opportunities for people to engage and share in the space.

California Building – Studio 212
2205 California St NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Map & Directions

612-272-2220 Send Email Visit Website

Family-friendly
Indoor
Interactive Activity
Other
Wheelchair Accessible

Make a Dream Box

Cost: Free!

Sunday - May 18
May 18 (Sunday) at 4:00 pm

Hands-on workshop to make a collage box with a dream for your future. Bring a box you love or use one of mine.

California Building – Studio 501
2205 California St NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Map & Directions

612-578-9655 Send Email Visit Website

Indoor
Interactive Activity
Music

Needle Drop Dance in Multimedia Living Room

Cost: Donations accepted

Saturday - May 17
Saturday 5/17/2025 7:00-8:00pm

Gather in the Legacy Dream Space multimedia living room for an hour of visiting, playing old 78 recordings from the 1940s and 1950s and LP records from the 1960 and 1970s, and dancing if the spirit moves you.

California Building – Studio 212
2205 California St NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Map & Directions

612-272-2220 Send Email Visit Website

Family-friendly
Indoor
Other
Performance
Wheelchair Accessible

Reading – Finding Home

Cost: Free!

Sunday - May 18
May 18 (Sunday) at 1:00 pm

Women writers read short stories about finding home in Minnesota, Japan, and Africa.

Pauline Danforth, Lauri Carlson, Susan Armington & more. Painting of “Japanese House on Mallard Island” by Lauri Carlson.

California Building – Studio 501
2205 California St NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Map & Directions

612-578-9655 Send Email Visit Website

picture of quartet including a violist
Family-friendly
Indoor
Music
Performance
Wheelchair Accessible

Shibumi String Quartet

Cost: Free!

Saturday - May 17
Saturday May 17, 3:30–4:30 pm

Live Classical, tango, & perhaps some Beatles music!  Violins, viola, & cello played by Sachiya Isomura, Nobuko & Frank Davis, and Yuichi Kubota

California Building – Studio 501
2205 California St NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Map & Directions

612-578-9655 Send Email Visit Website

Art Demo

Spring Floral Arrangement Demonstration

Cost: Free!

Saturday - May 17
Saturday, May 17, 2025 from 2pm-3pm

Come to Rogue Begonia to learn how to build a spring floral arrangement. We’ll show you how to choose a container, floral stems, and an overall design to make an impactful spring bouquet. You’ll learn best practices for cutting and placing, as well as making your arrangement last longer.

California Building – Studio 201
2205 California St NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Map & Directions

612-998-0235 Send Email Visit Website

Tiny Print Parade Art-A-Whirl Activity
Family-friendly
Indoor
Interactive Activity

Tiny Print Parade

Cost: Free!

Friday - May 16 · Saturday - May 17 · Sunday - May 18
Friday-Sunday or until materials run out

Join Boring House and our friends in the California Building for a Tiny Print Parade! Create your own block print starting in studio 101, and wander through the building to complete all 4 layers of your little artwork.

California Building – Studio 101
2205 California St NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Map & Directions

6515924870 Send Email Visit Website

Art Demo
Family-friendly

Travel Sketching Demo

Cost: Free!

Friday - May 16 · Saturday - May 17 · Sunday - May 18
12 - 1 pm each day

Stop by and take a look at the world of travel sketchbooks. The oldest one is from the the 1970s in West Africa. Others are from travels to France, the North Shore, a farmyard in Wisconsin, and my local Mississippi riverfront neighborhood.

California Building – Studio 406
2205 California St NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Map & Directions

Send Email Visit Website

Events at this Site

Class/Workshop
Ceramic Jewelry Making Workshop

This workshop will introduce participants to ceramic jewelry making—no clay experience necessary! After a brief demonstration, participants will make and glaze a few pair of ceramic earrings and/or pendants.

Sun May 18
2:00pm - 3:00pm

California Building

$40
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