Looking Back on 20 Years of MPLSART.COM: Katie Garrett's Many Inspirations

Image: Katie Garrett with a selection of her art collection, all pieces made by MN artists, 2025
Art credits: Peter Ronan, Ivy Sendrijas, Sharon Hubbs, Bunny Portia, Kelsi Sharp, Suzie Sorenson, Eric Yevak, Miku, Luis Fitch, Emily Forbes

Welcome to the third installment in our Lookback Series of Q&As with the fine folks who have made MPLSART what is is over the last two decades. Today, current editor Katie Dohman interviewed another Katie: MPLSART's former creative director and owner, Katie Garrett.

In 2014, when the original owners, Emma Berg and Kristoffer Knutson, announced they were closing shop after nearly a decade of operation, Katie and Blaine Garrett jumped in to breathe life back into the site. In 2023, she stepped back from running the site into a non-active role. She currently resides in Brooklyn, NYC, but remains a faithful follower of the scene and collector of art from Minneapolis.

 

---

Katie Dohman: When Emma and Kristoffer announced they were shuttering MPLSART in 2014, what inspired you and Blaine to want to bring it back?

Katie Garrett: We thought it was a valuable resource for the local arts community and I wanted to see it live on. We weren’t the only ones who wanted to keep it going, though. A lot of art-scene folks relied on the site and wanted to help, but no one was able to fully take over operations in the way that it necessitated. Running a website like MPLSART is a ton of work and takes a lot of different skills: design, web development, sales, public relations, etc. Blaine and I were positioned best to not only run it, but help it evolve. Emma and Kristoffer made sure our vision aligned with theirs and we shared values with the original mission: to "Make a scene." 

 

Wall of stickers at the 2015 MPLSART Relaunch party at Public Functionary

 

KD: Why take an arts-focused editorial organization into your hands with very little promise of reward, financial or otherwise?

KG: Art changed my life for the better. Fine art has been a hobby, a career, a commodity, a fun night out, a challenging force, a catalyst for community—it’s given me a wealth of experiences and brain synapses. I wanted to share that inspiration with everyone in the whole metro area.

Art can be hard to access. People don’t always know where to start. MPLSART promotes a wide view of art events—from avant-garde shows in South Minneapolis to delightful openings hosted by art venues further out from the city, there’s something for everyone. The site makes it all accessible.

We also knew it could make at least some money with the right business plan. We wanted to prove that there’s value in promoting the arts, that fine art is relevant economically. And we would prove it through site visits and metrics. We introduced ad space to the site and social property, and revenue has followed, growing slow and steady over the years. The site is also supported by some great member galleries.
 

Paintings by Luis Fitch hanging on the Bold Orange office, 2023

KD: What other rewards came from running the site?

KG: As the site gained popularity, it kept blessing me with opportunities. I helped connect art galleries and institutions that were historically kept from collaborating. I worked with businesses and organizations that make the Minneapolis-St. Paul region one of the most creative places in the country.

I got to make friends with artists, go on studio tours, dip my toes into visual-art curation for local businesses, and threw a few seriously fun parties. I connected two of my personal bubbles when I started curating local art for a local marketing agency where I work as a creative director. I was always blown away when artists such as Luis Fitch and Shelly Mosman agreed to hang their work on our humble walls.

It’s been fascinating to apply principles of marketing I know from my day job to our side-hustle, fine-art business. How important is branding? Can we get more people interested in art? What type of content is most compelling to them? One of my favorite lessons was: when we use an image with boobs, it always outperforms others.

 

Promo for Gamut Gallery's 2020 C4W exhibition "Lush Future" curated by Katie Garrett. Photo by Cassie Garner

KD: What came as a surprise or a challenge?

KG: Owning the site was an experience peppered with challenges. Expectations from the community increased over time. At first, we were just two people approaching it like a passion project in our spare time. At first, it was easy to dismiss the power that the site holds as a culture driver. It was easy to shirk the responsibility that comes with that role. But we wanted to do better. When we got critical feedback from artists and gallery owners and the like, we took it more and more seriously over time as our audience grew. The site became even more important once MNArtists transitioned to just editorial and City Pages closed. We were the only place to find out about exhibitions and we started thinking about it more than just a passion project.

To this day, the community should know that they’re invited to reach out with compliments or criticism. When you connect with the people behind MPLSART, you’ll find passionate, flawed, inspired, regular people who want to collaborate.

My motivation was from a rich variety of sources. An artist who had never hosted a studio visit before could enjoy a bit of spotlight on our Instagram. Local businesses had another outlet to express their support of the arts through advertising. Established and emerging artists alike could count on our writers to show them to the audience in genuine, compelling ways. Knowing this, feeling responsible for this, I felt compelled to keep working. 

 

KD: What is one of your fondest moments from your time working with artists?

KG: One of my favorite contributions to the site was taking photos of Peter Ronan and his queer ceramic art to support the article Liberating Clay From "Craft Shame." Knowing Peter and his work taught me that ceramics can be conceptual, intellectually challenging, autobiographical, and kinky. I’m eternally grateful to him. These are lessons I hold with me to this day. His work helped me learn about myself and the world beyond ceramic art. This shows the wildly expansive nature of fine art and its ability to change hearts and minds for the better. So go read about it and feel your perspective evolve in real time.

Photo of Peter Ronan and his work from the article Liberating Clay From "Craft Shame,” article written by Juleana Enright, art direction and photography by Katie Garrett, 2019

 

KD: What role does art or creativity play in people’s lives—or what do you wish people understood about it?

KG: There’s a stigma that art is not for everyone. It’s a shared insecurity, a fear of judgment, of being bad at something, of things we don’t understand.

”My toddler could do that” 

“All I can draw is a stick figure.”

“I don’t have a creative bone in my body.”

These stereotypes don’t sit right with me. I want everyone to see a role for creativity in their lives. Art is important. Art is silly. Art is emotional. 

We saw a local art scene that could benefit from a far-reaching message that local art is easy to access. You don’t have to have a degree in art history to go to a gallery opening, you can make it part of your night downtown before a Timberwolves game. You can find an upscale event at a museum or a secret art rave in an alley in Northeast Minneapolis.

When you embrace art, it asks you to expand your understanding of expression. Of yourself. Of others. Of the world. If everyone could find a little more creativity in their lives, imagine how much better the whole scene would be. 

Running the site was an art project in itself. The compulsion to make it and keep it alive was the same that drives artists to make things—if nothing else, you just need to see your ideas manifested into the world and see people react to them. It’s as simple as that. ◼︎ 

 

This Q&A is part of series of articles about the fine folks that have helped make MPLSART what it is over the last two decades. Celebrate our 20th anniversary with us September 27th, 2025, at Southside Preservation Society. Please RSVP and we look forward to seeing your lovely faces at the party.