Now in our 12th year!
MPC has divested its main facility
until there is a COVID19 vaccine.
What a challenging time for all of us!
We hope this message finds you healthy and safe.
Let us remind you of the MPC Mission Statement, which still rings true at our 12 year mark:
"The Mpls Photo Center is where photo professionals and enthusiasts alike come together to work and learn, to discover and experience, to create, exhibit and become members of this unique community dedicated to photography and all its media and processes."
We re-opened MPC in late May after the mandatory lockdown. In that time we've been delivering classes, Teen camps, workshops and operating the darkroom and digital lab for the photographers who have ventured out!
At MPC we offer a personal, hands-on experience. Photographers gather here to look, listen, learn, comment, experiment, share ideas, critique, ask questions, and celebrate photography.
During COVID19 we've been forced to postpone exhibits because nobody can come to see the pictures. Our classes and workshops have convened with 2 students, instead of eight. Teen Photo Camp is wonderful, but only 20 brave campers this summer, not 60. MPC Members have suspended their Memberships. Some have lost their jobs, and others can't leave the house.
In hindsight its pathetic to try to outsmart this beguiling pandemic. By definition, entrepreneurs big and small innovate and improvise constantly to make our businesses go. Its what we do! COVID19 looked like just another challenge to conquer at first. Certainly a big one, but winnable. "Stay 6 ft. apart. Wear a mask. Reduce the number of customers." Outsmart it, outmaneuver it, change the hours, shorten the classes, scrub the counters more often.
Regrettably, grunting harder doesn't work.
You see COVID19 is the equal opportunity ravager.
It just eats everything in its path. Not only from a health standpoint, but culturally and politically too. The BIG 10 Conference could not solve it. The MN State Fair. The best restaurants in the Twin Cities with the deepest pockets. How can MPC?
So we're going to row our little boat ashore for a bit. Just until the Megalodon is out of the water, or until there is an actual vaccine. Wrestling this voracious monster with the finite bit of capital we have, and the precious brand equity we've earned is unsustainable.
Our transplant to the Northeast Mpls Arts District two years ago worked well, before COVID19 disrupted our momentum. We love this thriving neighborhood arts community we are now a part of, and it like us too! We are very positive about the future of photography, and our strong brand.
(Just for fun, Google "MINNESOTA PHOTOGRAPHY" and see what happens.)
So we are seizing this difficult, unique moment in history to divest our physical space, and are reinventing the Mpls Photo Center in a form that will work with the "new normal". We don't know what that is yet. Do you? So pick your cliche', we are:
Seeking shelter from the storm.
Keeping our powder dry.
Living to fight another day.
As the world get's safer we will design an appropriate, modern, in-person experience that works to deliver our mission, even if it needs to change a little based on our new world. In this acute-COVID period we will necessarily be more virtual, and offer a streamlined, safe menu of Photo Classes and Workshops, private instruction, and online group events and critiques. We are staging a pop-up Digital Lab featuring Macs, Lightroom, Photoshop, scanners, and printers for our digital members and patrons. Please stay tuned for those details.
To our valued and loyal MPC Members and Guests, we ask that you please bear with us and sustain your support. We need you now more than ever to take our offerings and services forward for you.
We need NEW Members too! Please consider joining us at: https://www.mplsphotocenter.com/member/create.php
We offer deep thanks for your interest and energy and support these past dozen years. We are nothing without you.We look forward to another 20 years with you. Please check our website, Facebook, and your Emails for updates, and progress reports.
Humbly and thankfully,
MPC staff and instructors
Call for Entry!
NordEast
This geographically unique Call for Entry competition is now CLOSED. Thanks to all the great Minneapolis artists that participated. All finalists have been selected and notified. Please check our website for installation and exhibit dates and Opening Reception updates.
CLICK HERE to SEND a GIFTCARD NOW!
