Meet Longfellow artists

It’s hard work. It’s fun. It’s a chance to meet new people. It’s an opportunity for Longfellow artists to meet community residents, other artists and visitors from around the Twin Cities and share their art.
These are all descriptions of the League of Longfellow Artists (LOLA) Art Crawl scheduled for Sept. 20-21, 2025 in the Longfellow neighborhood from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a special art event set for Sept. 20 at 7-10 p.m.
“The crawl as a whole is a creative work we try to help happen (every year),” said Stephen Clark, who co-chairs the event with Lisa Anderson. Both are long-term volunteers with LOLA, which first started in 2009.
“Our mission is to support Longfellow artists at any stage in their creative lives,” Clark said.
This year’s crawl will feature 120 artists displaying art at 60 locations. “We are happy we are now seeing children of showing artists bringing their developing art into the crawl,” Clark said. “These are young adults who grew up seeing their parents participate, and now they are doing it, this year particularly.”
Clark said he became involved with LOLA in 2013 shortly after he moved into the neighborhood. “I read some interviews in the Messenger and Southside Pride with some of LOLA’s founding artists, wanting to keep the enthusiasm going and calling for new volunteers.
“As a new neighbor, I wanted to see LOLA keep going, and I became increasingly involved,” Clark recalled. “Of the current 6-8 core members, as many as half have been active since the mid-teens of 2000. This year we have put out a similar call to let people know that once again we need new contributions. We need individuals who can be in on the planning and organizing, and who can think about how they would like to participate in LOLA.”
Clark said the artists displaying their work for sale this year engage in all sorts of mediums. “Visitors to our website at lolaart.org can scroll down and see square tiles that are organized by different mediums. On those cards it shows the number of artists in each field. There are 41 painters, 20 jewelry makers and 26 mixed media artists.”
Other artwork that will be on display is from book arts, clay, textiles, metal, drawing, glass, photography, sculpture, fiber, recycled, wood, printmaking and more. By clicking on the tiles, a user will find a description of each artist.
According to Clark, the LOLA Art Crawl provides an opportunity for artists to meet with patrons. “It is helping artists connect with their purchasing community,” he said.
“We are so happy to celebrate returning artists and sponsors,” Clark added. “We are so blessed and grateful to have small business owners including Longfellow Grill, Corazon Gifts, New Moon Coffee, Loons Coffee and Groveland Barber Shop,” he said. ”Seward Co-op, Redesign, Northern Clay, Fire Roast Coffee and Moonstone Gifts are newer to us as sponsors.”
Clark mentioned that new artist, Monica Larson, who owns a printing business and is a fine arts letterpress printer, will provide a space across from Turtle Bread that will serve as an artists’ site. The Toolbox will host a hub site that will have space for 10 artists to display and sell their work. “Gwen Partin and Ken Johnson are delightful and gracious hosts who will have a site,” Clark noted.
Clark said the most challenging part of LOLA is to not burn out core volunteers. “We’ve been very successful at meeting our neighbors where they are at, and finding something for everyone to do. People can find a way to participate in between our major events, whether it’s volunteering an hour a month or 10 hours a month,” Clark stated.
“We love to continue to emphasize that the LOLA event is a crawl, decentralized with a wonderful map that shows directions from one collection of artists to another, and in between you will find homes.”

GLASS ARTIST CHRIS MILLER
Chris Miller is one of the participating artists in the LOLA Art Crawl. “I work specifically with glass mosaic,” he said.“I do mostly glass on glass mosaic.”
He said he takes pieces of stained glass and adheres them to a pane of clear glass. The glue goes on white and dries clear. He then grouts and fills in the negative spaces. Finally, he puts a light behind the piece. “The glass pops,” he said.
Miller said he will be displaying his art at his home, both inside and out. “I do a lot of work on old windows, and those pieces will be out in my yard, weather permitting.”
“I also do light boxes building a frame to go over the opening of the box. I do a design on the frame and put a light bulb on. These art pieces will be displayed inside my house. I have two artists in my front yard, as well. One does amazing glass beads. The other paints and does tie dye.”
Miller said he has been participating in the art crawl for all but the first two years. “It is very much a way to meet new customers and it’s a lot of fun. We have been planning for months, and it is a lot of hard work. “
He said he helps with marketing the art crawl,
“Just having people come into my house and yard and say nice things about me – who wouldn’t like that?”

SEAMSTRESS KAREN GRIMM
Karen Grimm is a seamstress who displays bridal and special occasion clothing. Her husband does woodworking, and they will have their art pieces showing at their home. Another artist, a photographer, will join them. Grimm started participating in the art crawl in 2016, and her husband in 2018.
“I love our neighborhood, and it’s a simple process to work out of our home rather than packing up and going to a central location,” she said. “We can bring out lots of things that would be hard to take to another place. “
Grimm said the event has a fun and relaxed atmosphere. “You get to meet a lot of neighbors and a lot of people who come to visit the neighborhood.
Grimm said she does sewing and alterations out of her home business. She said she started sewing as a child. Both her parents and her grandmothers were sewers. “But I didn’t start professionally until about 10 years ago.”
She said she loves meeting neighbors and other artists and new people at the crawl. “It has grown by leaps and bounds,” she added.

PETER GIEBINK PLANS WEBUBO
LOLA Art Crawl participant Peter Giebink said “I do lots of different kinds of stuff. I do a combination of 2D and 3D art and video projections. He and other artists will present an event called WEBUBO at his home on Saturday, Sept. 20 from 7-10 p.m. WEBUBO stands for World-wide Enterprises Beyond Unbelievable Breakthrough Opportunities.
There will be live music, projections, fun and crazy costumed characters, puppets and life-size figures. “All these things come together for an immersive art experience,” Giebink said.
This is his 5th or 6th year of participating in the LOLA Art Crawl. “I create all kinds of video and propaganda to promote the crawl,” he said. “LOLA also has winter shows, and I work with that at Squirrel House.”
He said he was drawn to LOLA because he not only appreciates having his work seen, but he enjoys meeting other artists in the community. Giebink devotes his full time to his art, and also does some freelance photography, video and advertising promotions. “I had a long history in advertising, but I finally escaped from that,” he added.
“Everyone is welcome to our immersive art event Saturday evening,” Giebink said. “It’s going to be a fun and unusual event for LOLA.”
For further information on the LOLA Art Crawl, go to lolaart,org or email longfellowartists@gmail.com.