Night and Day: Murals, Memory and Movement

Presented by Memorialize The Movement

Curated by Leesa Kelly and Amira McLendon, St. Catherine University 2025-2026 Amy Marie Sears Memorial Visiting Curators in Residence

In its largest exhibition to date, MTM utilizes two distinct spaces on campus—the art gallery and The Frey Theater (a black box theater)—as storytelling devices to share the living history of the murals in their collection. The curators explain:

“Night and Day: Murals, Memory, and Movement explores the duality of protest and protection, grief and joy, destruction and creation during the Minneapolis uprising of 2020. Through a curated collection of plywood protest murals and archival materials, this exhibition captures a pivotal moment in the city’s history—one defined not only by resistance, but also by community care and collective action.

These murals are more than just artifacts of a turbulent time; they are living testaments to how communities organized, expressed grief, demanded justice, and protected one another when official systems failed. This exhibit invites viewers to reflect on the layered realities of that summer—what it meant to show up, hold space, and fight for a future rooted in justice.”

Exhibition Dates:

September 6–November 16, 2025

Opening Events: Saturday, September 6, 5–8pm

• Curatorial Talk: 5–6pm in the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery lecture hall | Leesa Kelly, MTM Executive Director, and Amira McLendon, MTM Collections Manager, discuss the ideas, themes and questions behind Night and Day: Murals, Memory and Movement.
• Reception with Interactive Mural Painting: 6–8pm

Additional Programming:

Panel Discussion with Mural Artists: October 14, 6:30pm in the Recital Hall. Free and open to the public. For ASL interpretation or other accommodations, please contact nmwatson@stkate.edu.

St. Kate’s One Read for Racial Justice Book Discussion and Paint to Express Workshop: November 1, 12–4pm in the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery (RSVP here) | Join MTM and the St. Kate’s library for a discussion about Ta-Nehisi Coates’s 2024 book, The Message, while painting miniature murals. The Message is St. Catherine University’s selection for the 2025-2026 One Read for Racial Justice. Free and open to the public. For ASL interpretation or other accommodations, please contact nmwatson@stkate.edu.

The O’Shaughnessy presents Aftermath: November 14, 6:30pm (purchase tickets here) Join us for a performance and conversation. What happens in communities after an incident of police violence? How do we heal and move forward? Led by nationally recognized director and choreographer Dominic Moore-Dunson, Aftermath brings together voices of St. Catherine’s student body and local Twin Cities artists to explore healing, resilience, and collective action through movement and storytelling. 

This project is informed by Night and Day: Murals, Memory and Movement on view in the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery and The Frey Theater at St. Catherine University, September 6–November 16.

This event features a dynamic discussion panel, in partnership with Katie Leadership Impact, that brings together artists, activists, and cultural leaders who are using their voices and their work to challenge injustice, amplify marginalized stories, and imagine a more equitable world.

Image: Papa Young Vision, Silence is Betrayal, Eastside Co-op, 2020, 96”h x 182.5”w
Photos courtesy of Memorialize The Movement.