Spring Fling: Join us on April 25 from
6-10 pm to kickstart SooVAC’s 25th year

Celebrate SooVAC's 25th anniversary with an evening of activities by artists and a chance to win art from some of the Twin Cities' most beloved artists.
All to support SooVAC's programming and exhibitions.
Scroll to the bottom to purchase tickets to enter and tickets to win art!
Tickets for Entry: $25; Drawing tickets: $10

Rockstar Artists are generously donating original artworks to be raffled off, and for only $10 ticket a chance, you can afford to win your very own.

PLUS you don't even need to attend, you can buy tickets below for the pieces you want and we'll fill them out for you! And contact you if your name is drawn:D

Works By: Christopher Alday, Hend Al-Mansour, Nancy Ariza, Morgan Barrie, Elea Besse, Zoe Cinel, Tara Costello, Dane Cree, Jeffrey Davis, Jennifer Davis, Mary Gibney, Ruthann Godollei, Christopher E. Harrison, Syed Hosain, Fawzia Khan, Jessica Kitzman, Hakeem Martins, Emma Ming Kayhart, Terrence Payne, Chris Rackley, Amy Rice, Gregory J. Rose, Marcus Rothering, Dietrich Sieling, Rosy Simas, Mic Stowell,

Carolyn Swiszcz, Jocelyn Suzuka Figueroa, Anda Tanaka, Xavier Tavera, Dani Wagner, Forrest Wasko, Michon Weeks, Michelle Westmark Wingard, and Yasmin Yassin

Play games and make art with activities by: Alyssa Baguss, foxes, Meher Khan, Mary Jane Mansfield, Lacey Prpić Hedtke, Nina Martine Robinson, and Ivonne Yáñez

"Get Unstuck" by Alyssa Baguss

Get Unstuck is a participatory activity where visitors create a small spinner designed to help break moments of indecision, distraction, or creative block. Participants write simple actions or prompts on a wheel, decorate it, and add a spinning arrow that randomly selects their next move. Spin it whenever you need a nudge toward something new. No experience needed, just curiosity.

Alyssa Baguss’s practice explores mediated natural environments through drawing processes and interactive creative experiences. She is a 2024–2025 McKnight Fellow for Community Engaged Artists, a multi-year recipient of Forecast Public Art Mid-Career Artist Grants, a 2017/18 Jerome Foundation Fellow for Emerging Artists, and was part of the Minnesota Artist Exhibition Program at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 2019. Her work has been exhibited at the Rochester Art Center, the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, the Minnesota Museum of American Art, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Baguss also serves as the park director at Silverwood Park in St. Anthony. This unique park combines art and environmental education, offering a sculpture walk, an art gallery, and creative classes that connect visitors with the outdoors and environmental science. Under Baguss’ leadership, Silverwood Park has become a space where art and nature intersect, fostering awareness and appreciation for the environment. Her work at the park reflects her dedication to inspiring others to explore and protect the natural world.

@alyssabaguss
www.alyssabaguss.com

"Block print a patch!" by Meher Khan

Carve your own rubber block to print on the provided fabric or your own surface. Pre-carved blocks will also be available for you to print on paper or fabric. Carving tools, rubber blocks, black fabric ink, burnishing tools, and fabric pieces will be provided. Feel free to bring along an article of clothing or other fabric or paper surface to print on.

Meher Khan (she/her) is a multimedia artist with training in printmaking, graphic design, and communications. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Graphic Design and Studio Art, both from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, and obtained her Master of Fine Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2024. Meher’s current art practice centers around identity and her second-generation American experience. Her most recent work incorporates printmaking and textile as material, drawing on their historical context–tied to her Indian lineage–and their place in her current, lived experience.

May 30 and 31, I will be participating in Print Fest with Highpoint Center for Printmaking.

@meherk_art

"Sculptural Bouquets" by Ivonne Yáñez

In this workshop, participants will create sculptural flowers using accessible materials such as paper, wire, and simple hand tools. The activity introduces basic techniques for shaping, assembling, and layering components to build three-dimensional floral forms. Participants will be guided step by step, allowing them to experiment with structure, texture, and color while developing their own unique sculptural flower.

Ivonne Yáñez is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in Minneapolis. Her practice explores the relationship between memory, material culture, and traditional textile techniques through installation, soft sculpture, and wearable forms. She currently teaches at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) and works at the Walker Art Center, as well as with community-based textile programs. Her work has been exhibited in spaces including the Rochester Art Center, SooVAC, Second Shift, Random Access Gallery, and Museo Sebastián in Mexico.
Upcoming exhibitions / events:
Cuerpa, Poder & Ritualidad - Second Shift Saint Paul June July 31 Augist 21
Cuerpa, Poder & Ritualidad - San Luis Contemporaneo May 23 Jun 23

https://ivonneyanez.com
@Ivo_misterio

“Portraits that don't look anything like you!” by Mary Jane Mansfield

A guaranteed fun-filled experience to make you laugh, smile, and love everything about your beautiful self with a portrait created by artist Mary Jane Mansfield. Yours to keep as a souvenir of this wonderful evening with artists and friends.

Mary Jane Mansfield is an Icelandic-American artist living and working in the Twin Cities. Her world is one of creative drawing and sculptural explorations with water and electricity. Whimsical, lighthearted, and sometimes serious reflections on family, life, love, desire, and dreams are at the heart of it all. In April 2026, she will be releasing a chapbook based on her recent exhibition, Quiet Resilience, at Second Shift Studio Space, Nov. 7 - Dec. 4, 2025. In June this year, she will be in a month-long artist residency at Gamli Skolí - The Old School Arthouse on the island of Hírsey, just off the North coast of Iceland. Her creative work has been recognized with awards from the MN State Art Board, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, Forecast Public Art, and an NEA Open Studio Fellowship from Franconia Sculpture Park.

maryjanemansfield.com
@daisy.and.treefrog

"Touch Grass" by foxes

Live plants become instruments in this interactive sound and light installation. Through touch, participants activate notes, textures, and layered audio that changes throughout the experience. Each plant contributes a different voice, and as attendees play together the space fills with an evolving collaborative composition.

foxes (it/its) is a florida-born, minneapolis-based multidisciplinary artist & creative technologist working across interaction design, computational media, and digital fabrication. Its work explores the intersection of informational systems and physical space, drawing inspiration from the delicate balance and unknowable complexity of biological and natural processes. Through installations, objects, and speculative environments, foxes translates mathematical structures into embodied experience with an emphasis on emergent behavior and play. In a moment when technology increasingly mediates and fragments human connection, foxes explores softer, optimistic frameworks centered on curiosity, discovery, and collective meaning-making.

@by.foxes
www.byfoxes.studio

"Shrinky Dink Talismans" by Lacey Prpić Hedtke

Create a Shrinky Dink talisman! Draw a protective symbol or color a flower and then watch it magically shrink it into a talisman or charm.

Lacey Prpić Hedtke is an artist working in textiles, photography, and public art. She has participated in residencies at the Wedding Cake House and Walkaway House and recently had a solo show at Silverwood Park Gallery. She loves hot glueing and Shrinky Dinking. She runs The Future, a shop for witches and weirdos in South Minneapolis.

laceyprpichedtke.com
@laceyprpichedtke

“Crazy Self Portraits” by Nina Martine Robinson

Pick a face shape and some scraps and create a self portrait. Free hand the cutting or use the shape templates provided. Fabric will already be prepared with fusible web and the components will be ironed and embellished with stitching. There will be glue sticks for temporary adhesive and Posca pens to add details.

Nina Martine Robinson is a contemporary textile artist based in Shoreview, Minnesota. Utilizing repurposed clothing and reclaimed fabric to build her sculptural pieces. Robinson deconstructs and reassembles the textiles to create dynamic figurative work that is suspended in space. By manipulating the surface of the fabric, she is able to add texture and movement. These textile sculptures were exhibited in 2025 at The Phipps Center for the Arts, Kolman Reeb Gallery and Art Reach St. Croix in Stillwater, MN. Robinson holds a BA in Studio Arts from Augsburg University and is currently developing a new series centered on clothing as camouflage.

Upcoming Exhibitions include:
May 2026: Artistry, Bloomington MN.
June 2026: Ludington Area Center for the Arts, Ludington MI.
August 2026: Calendula Gallery, St. Paul, MN
October 2026: Outlook Gallery, MCBA, Minneapolis, MN

@collaborativeseamstress

AND we are going old school with a few items...paper auction sheets. BUT these you can only win in person.

“Get Going” by Carolyn Swiszcz, 2026; Watercolor monotype and acrylic on paper, 9 X 12” framed

Carolyn Swiszcz is renowned for making uncanny yet affectionate suburban landscapes, employing a wide range of painting and printmaking techniques, vibrant colors, and distinctive patterns. Carolyn’s love of experimentation has also led her to create songs, music videos, and animations. She publishes a mail-order zine, Zebra Cat Zebra. Look for Carolyn’s paintings and sculptures this summer at Grand Marais Art Colony in the four-person show, “Play.”

@carolyn_swiszcz
https://www.carolynswiszcz.com/

Cornhusk Basket by Rosy Simas; Twined Cornhusk Basket, 2026

Rosy Simas (Seneca Nation of Indians, Heron clan) is a transdisciplinary and dance artist. Simas’ knowledge of her Hodinöšyö:nih family and lineage is the underpinning of her relationship to culture and history—stored in her body and expressed through her work—moving people, images, and objects she makes for stage and installation. Simas’ work weaves themes of personal and collective identity with family, sovereignty, equality, and healing. Simas creates with a team of Native and BIPOC artists. Her work is driven by deep listening. Simas is a 2026 Creative Capital State of the Art Prize awardee, 2025 Forge Fellow, 2025 First People’s Fund Performing Arts Fellow, 2023 Doris Duke Artist, 2022 United States Artists Fellow, 2022 & 2016 McKnight Fellow, 2019 Dance/USA Fellow, 2018 Joyce Award recipient, 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, and 2013 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Fellow. Simas is a 2024–2026 Walker Art Center artist in residence. Her most major project to date, “A:gajë:gwah dësa’nigöëwë:nye:' (i hope it will stir your mind),” is a dance work, immersive visual art installation, and series of community engagement activities anchored in Hodinöšyö:nih views of relationality. A Walker commission, the installation opened in February 2026; the performance premieres May 13–16, 2026; engagement events occur throughout.

@rosysimasrosysimas
rosysimas.com

"They Used to Sell Toggle Switches, LED Bulbs, and Batteries" by Chris Rackley, 2023; Gouache, graphite, and colored pencil on paper, 9 x 11 inches (framed)

Chris Rackley is a multidisciplinary artist based in Prior Lake, MN who works across drawing, sculpture, and video to explore memory and belonging. Rackley earned an MFA in Painting from George Mason University and a BA in Studio Art from Davidson College. He has widely shown his work at institutions including the DeVos Art Museum (Marquette, MI), Boston Cyberarts (Jamaica Plain, MA), Transformer (Washington, DC), and Badischer Kunstverein (Karlsruhe, Germany). Rackley’s solo exhibitions include installations at the Phipps Center for the Arts (Hudson, WI, 2023), Kolman & Reeb Gallery (Minneapolis, 2023), Ridgewater College (Willmar, MN, 2019), and the Rochester Art Center (Rochester, MN, 2015). Rackley is a recipient of a 2024/25 McKnight Fellowship for Visual Artists. His work has been financially supported by a grant from Kolman & Reeb Gallery (2023), a grant from Springboard for the Arts (2020), an Art(ists) On the Verge Fellowship from Northern Lights (2018 - 2019), and grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board (2022 and 2018).

What Holds and What Breaks, a group exhibition featuring the 2024/25 McKnight Fellows, will be on view at the Minnesota Museum of American Art, May 7 - June 7, 2026.

www.chrisrackley.com
@rackleystudio

"The Scribe" by Hend Al-Mansour, 2024; Painting on a panel and gold leafing Framed, 41 W x 31 H inches

Hend Al-Mansour is an interdisciplinary artist whose work celebrates the power and visibility of Arab and Muslim women. Her immersive installations, screen prints, and murals draw on Islamic art traditions — weaving together Arabic calligraphy, geometric design, henna, and traditional Saudi art forms such as Qutt house murals and Sadou weaving. Her practice has expanded to include 2D animation. Al-Mansour's murals can be found throughout the Twin Cities, including the recent Merhaba mural at the intersection of Cedar and Franklin avenues in Minneapolis. She is a McKnight Fellow (2018) and Jerome Fellow in Printmaking (2013) and holds an MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and an MA in Art History from the University of St. Thomas. She has received multiple grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and is a member of Rosalux Gallery and an alumna of A.I.R. Gallery in New York.

www.hendalmansour.com
@hendalmansour

"Prosopagnosia" by Syed Hosain, 2024; Acrylic on canvas framed, 21.25 x 17.1"

Syed Hosain was born in Pakistan and lives and works in Minneapolis, MN. Hosain received a BA and an MA from the University of Karachi, Pakistan, and an MFA from Vermont College of Art and Design. He has received several Minnesota State Arts Board Grants to support his art and exhibited in galleries and museums nationally and internationally, including the Walker Art Center, Jack Tilton Gallery NYC, and the University of Minnesota Morris. As an artist-teacher, he profoundly believes in the power of art-making as a mechanism of liberation and empowerment. He has been committed to bringing culturally sustaining pedagogical practice and healing-centered engagement across school spaces, especially in his native country of Pakistan. Hosain currently teaches at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Most recently, Hosain was the Curator of the Open Door Juried Exhibition at Rosalux.

@syed_hosain

"Cuando el patrón se convierte en una constelación 1 (When the Pattern Becomes a Constellation 1)" By Nancy Ariza, 2025 Screenprint and dry pigment screenprint on cochineal and quebracho dyed paper, chine collé 16 x 20” Framed

Nancy Ariza is a Mexican American visual artist and educator. Ariza draws from her Mexican heritage to explore themes of craft, cultural memory, familial ties, and migration. Through traditional and alternative printmaking, natural pigments, and textiles, her work is grounded in cultural preservation and reclaims, revives, and reinterprets inherited traditions.
Ariza has exhibited at Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, in San Francisco, CA; Janet Turner Print Museum at California State University in Chico, CA; Prospectus Gallery in Chicago, IL; among others. She has received awards from the McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA and National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, IL.
Ariza holds an MA in Education from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, as well as a BFA in Printmaking and BA in Art History from Minnesota State University, Mankato.

www.nancyariza.com
@nancy__ariza

Upcoming Exhibitions + Plugs
2026 Mcknight Fellow at Highpoint Center for Printmaking
What Follows, Fresh Eye Gallery, Minneapolis, MN - April 23 - May 31, 2026
Geometry of Culture, Hecho a Mano, Santa Fe, NM - August 7-30, 2026

Spring Fling is sponsored by 36Lyn Refuel Station, Colorspace Art & Imaging, KNOCK, Inc, Mitrebox Framing Studio, Nightingale Minneapolis, and Preyes Brewing Company.

Click on the Images to buy tickets, and on the piece of art you want to enter to win-we'll fill it out for you!. You can purchase drawing tickets both online and in person the night of the event...

Spring Fling: Join us on April 25 from 6-10 pm to kickstart SooVAC’s 25th year

Spring Fling: Join us on April 25 from
6-10 pm to kickstart SooVAC’s 25th year