Tag Archives: Midwest Mud

Fargo’s newest music venue picks up where another left off

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Story and photos by Shane Maland

MSUM Journalism

A recognizable sound can be heard reverberating from a familiar stairwell on Roberts Street in Fargo.

For music lovers that thought their music was dead and gone from their favorite venue, four of Fargo’s finest in punk and metal music have offered a new refuge. Welcome to The New Direction.

L to R: Jack Stenerson, Chuck Wang and Rusty Steele

The New Direction is the brainchild of artists Chuck Wang, Jack Stenerson, Rusty Steele and Jed Felix. Each a member of a local band, the four had always wanted to open up a venue of their own, but the opportunity took  a while to show itself. Then, they heard that The Red Raven was moving.

The venue still shows its roots

Black paint and show posters still collide with the recognizable stone walls of the main stage room of what used to be The Red Raven.

The New Direction will always host all ages shows.

Today, the coffee room has been transformed into the central hangout room –  complete with seating, a record player and an entertainment center, television and Nintendo 64. It also includes a stereo and a cardboard cutout of Will Smith peering from the window facing the outside stairway.

The sign above the once coffee stained bar reads “The New Direction: All Ages – Always.” That’s the reason for the hangout space. That’s the reason for re-opening the spot in the first place. The New Direction is here for the kids that feel that when The Red Raven left, they didn’t just lose a cool coffee bar and hangout spot; they lost their music as well.

The Raven took away more than coffee

The new location for The Red Raven isn’t suitable for metal and thrash music, so bands that used to have an easy time finding a space to play all ages shows have had a harder time finding a place to play.

“It’s really unfortunate that the Red Raven will no longer be a venue for ‘thrash’ music or loud music of any kind. I hope the owners reconsider or that the efforts to re-open the old space for loud music are successful,” said local fan Brandon Marback after reading of the restrictions found at the new Red Raven location. “I used to go to the Red Raven all the time and it wasn’t for the coffee, books, wall art, free wi-fi or the fantastic atmosphere, it was for the Rock ‘N’ Roll. I wonder where all the high school rockers will be able to play now.”

The fellows at The New Direction are here to help, Brandon.

“All of us book hardcore, metal and punk,” said venue operator Chuck Wang.

The wall of the seating room before you enter the main venue is plastered with band posters.

“We’re going to try and diversify and make a place for all musicians and all artists.”

The New Direction won’t just be for music

Through an employee’s only door at the back of the main music room, The New Direction venue boasts a large room that has since lost its partitioned walls, and instead shows off an open floor plan perfect for an up and coming artists’ studio.

“The idea to utilize this space, we wouldn’t have to find the people to do it because there are already plenty of artists that we’ve discovered that just don’t have studios. So, allowing them to use this space is using up unused space in our building,” said co-founder Rusty Steele.

Local artist Chelsey Dahlstrom is leading the push for a New Direction art studio.

“During the summer, I want to start doing workshops with local kids – screen-printing, Shrinky Dinks, stuff like that,” said Dahlstrom. “That’s the whole point of The New

A sculpture by local artist Chelsey Dahlstrom is front and center in the main room of The New Direction.

Direction, having it open to all ages.”

Dahlstrom is also looking to start workshops for adults throughout the community.

“There are more opportunities now for different artists and different mediums. Midwest Mud isn’t just for ceramics people, it’s for everyone. I want to do that, too. It’s just another opportunity for all ages. Even if they aren’t artists, they’ll still have a place to work. That’s the plan for it,” said Dahlstrom.

The open space used to be an antique shop. It’s fitting that the founders of The New Direction have found their own way to bring back the past that made this venue a staple in the first place.

Erasing the stigma

The venue still faces challenges. They are a self-proclaimed “non-profit” business. Their main income, aside from admission, is all monetary donation. At the end of each month, the venue will host a benefit show for itself in hopes of at least breaking even. But, money challenges aren’t the only issues weighing on the minds of the founders.

The stigmas of punk and metal music, as well as those genres fans, have long been the plank in the eye of many communities around the world. The New Direction wants to change the ideas of many in the community by offering a clean and safe performance venue for kids of all ages in the area.

“We don’t want to have the community look down on us. These are ‘smart punks’ doing something good for the community,” said Steele. “The more the community knows that this is a good thing, the more the city would feel scrutiny if they ever thought of shutting it down.

The venue is gaining respect

The founders are also getting nods from unlikely allies.

“We were just at the bank two days ago and the branch manager came up and said, ‘It’s great that you guys are opening that. My son always used to go to shows and he doesn’t have a place anymore,” said the third New Direction founder Jack Stenerson.

The venue displays a strict no drugs, no alcohol policy.

“We want it to be a very positive space; somewhere where parents can come down and say, ‘My kids are safe here,’” said Wang. “It’s hard to find a place like this in a lot of cities, not just Fargo.  It’s hard to make it happen, but it’s something that we’re working on.”

It looks as if The New Direction is living up to its name.

Edited by Grant Nelson, MSUM journalism major

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Creation and community: Midwest Mud – an artist collective

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Text and photos by Zach Kobrinsky

Additional text by Nishesh Sharma

Public outreach, pickled fawns, costume-craving electricians and full frontal nudity. What do these phrases have in common? Well, they are all necessary ingredients in creating an artist collective.

Midwest Mud (213 NP Ave N) has been around for about a year now, serving as a physical space for artists to create, as well as a community to encourage creativity and public outreach in visual arts.

Amber Parsons is the sole proprietor of the physical space, as well as the founder of the artist collective that resides there. According to Parsons, she created this space out of artistic necessity.

Amber Parsons demonstrates what melted ceramics look like.

Inception of a community
“I needed a space to work after I graduated, and I found this building. I just graduated two months prior to opening this space,” Parsons said.

Parsons believes that Fargo-Moorhead has very few outlets that encourage artistic output outside of the academic arena. You graduate with an art degree from one of our local universities… then what?

“(Creating the space), it was really quick,” Parsons said. “Everybody was shocked. I kept saying I was going to do it, and then all of a sudden I just did it.”

Parsons personally funded the physical space. After that, it was just a matter of finding artists to occupy it for a nominal fee — both to create a necessary outlet for upcoming artists as well as to recoup some of her own financial investment, although she said she prefers not to think about it as a financial endeavor. Creating a collective was and still remains the primary objective.

One of the settings for a modeling session.

The creative value of nude modeling
Nude portraiture has become a standard learning experience for an artist’s education. According to Parsons, not only do the observer/artists gain insight, but the model can gain insight during the process as well.

“I spend a lot of time modeling for the school (NDSU),” she said, “so I’d spend that time kind of organizing my thoughts… either thinking about how I was going to organize it (the collective) or what I wanted to do with it.”

Now the tradition of nude portraiture is being taken to a new level at Midwest Mud. According to Parsons, your typical art classroom nude modeling setup is quite plain and boring. So, the Collective hosts nude modeling sessions involving more elaborate and intriguing staging.


Improving the artists’ network
The ultimate goal of Midwest Mud is improve the F-M art scene at large. There will be another art collective opening up in the near future called The Station. Are these two collectives bitter competitors? Absolutely not. According to Parsons, she has been assisting The Station in the process of establishing itself.

“We’re going to start something called The Artnership,” Parsons said, “and we’re going to try and unite all the studios, like even the Roberts Street Studio. For one, for communicating with one another. Like if I want to do a class here, so we’re not offering the same classes at the same time to give more opportunities to people….

“I actually feel like this place is more about networking for artists. It’s people doing art and stuff, but learning how to use your networking skills is what this place is about really.”

Andrew Hanson, an art student from the area said, “These kind of co-ops are nothing but good news for our community. It gives us a place and a medium to learn to make better art and also provides a chance for us to meet and network with other artists.”

The pickled fawn.

Working with trade
In the spirit of the collective, a lot of what exists within its walls comes from collaboration — from trade, more specifically.

The electrician who did a lot of work on the space, for example, was paid in a roundabout trade.

“I threw my first show for Christy Bakke,” Parsons said. “She helps run Revolver. She’s a fashion major and she didn’t get a senior show, so I threw her a senior show here in trade that she would… my electrician who does all my electrical work — he likes costumes. So I made her trade him for… I kind of made her make him a costume. So I paid him with a costume….”

In addition to the electric upkeep of the space, one of the more notable points of interest Parsons acquired through trade. The pickled fawn pictured above was the result of such a deal. A friend of Parsons, knowing that she had experience as a taxidermist and that she had an interest in such trinkets, gave her the fawn-in-a-jar in exchange for some of her ceramic works.

The graphic designer, Andy Bissonette, who created the Midwest Mud logo was hired through trade as well.

“Almost everything I have here I’ve gotten through trade,” Parsons said. “When you’re an artist, you don’t have a lot of money.” She then laughed at that sentiment.

Parsons demonstrates where the antlers will be placed on her work in progress.

Giving art to the masses
Another goal of Midwest Mud and the artists involved with it is to create more public works. As of right now, the only real public art we see around F-M are the buffaloes sporadically scattered about town.

“The buffaloes aren’t really that satisfying,” Parsons said. “To me, personally, they’re barely a public… they’re weird and they just… they made all these buffaloes, and because they didn’t want anyone touching them, they put them inside of buildings. Stratero has like four of the buffalos… I don’t know, I just feel like public art is meant to be more inviting. You’re supposed to interact with it. That’s something the artist should’ve thought through when they created them I guess.”

In response to the notion that more accessible public art is subject to vandalism, Parsons replied, “When someone’s vandalizing artwork like that, they’re like kids in a China store. Because they haven’t experienced it, they haven’t developed a respect for it. Like my mom, when I take her to gallery openings, she touches everything. But now that she’s been to a few of them she doesn’t pick up the pieces of art (anymore).”

Parsons couldn’t help but chuckle as she reminisced over her mother’s handling of art. “So it’s kind of like training your society to appreciate it a little more,” she continued, “by allowing people to interact with it.”

A painting by Wade Myszka.

Keeping artists focused
In addition to providing space for artists, Midwest Mud and the collective at large also provides motivation for artists.

According to Parsons, “We do critiques here of people’s work. Also I try to have them write contracts for me saying that they’re going to produce this work within this amount of time. Because that’s what you do naturally in a college setting to get motivation, and I find that people really lose that motivation. Self motivation, they have to learn how to do that themselves, but if you give them some sort of structure they’re setting their own goals.”

The contracts Parsons implements are not as severe as they may initially sound. Realistically, the only consequence for defaulting on your agreement is guilt. But according to Parsons, that’s enough to keep a number of artists motivated. The artists involved with the collective also have regular group critiques and meetings to discuss their work.

A painting by Parsons.

Current artists utilizing Midwest Mud space:
- Sara Schawn
- Mike Weiss
- Mike Nelson
- Nichole Lamb
- Tess Peckly
- Amber Parsons