The Rumriver Art Gallery was initiated to support and show local artists’ work. One issue many artists experience is where to show their work as gallery space can be limited, especially to those who are just starting. Our mission with the gallery is to support and show the artwork of local artists. The shows are changed every month, providing many opportunities throughout the year for artists to display their work. The Art Gallery brings the community together and creates a greater appreciation for art. Selected artwork may be available for sale.
Being that we are located in a very old building, there are no elevators or escalators. The only way into the 21 Step Gallery is to climb up 18 stairs. We are currently exploring funding options such as grants and fundraisers to get a chair lift installed for the stairway to make this gallery more accessible for everyone.
If you’ve ever counted the stairs on your way up to visit the 21 Step Gallery, you may have tilted your head in confusion as your count abruptly stopped at 18 steps.
Legend has it that Rumriver Art Center Director Larry Weinberg was CERTAIN there were 21 steps. RRAC Co-founder Susan Yee suggested it was 18.
Susan was correct.
But being the fun, quirky Art Center RRAC is, Larry’s certainty was honored with the title: 21 Step Gallery.
Larry suggests that it remained the 21 Step Gallery to honor Susan’s birthday, which falls on the ’21st,’ and that 21 is a popular and memorable number.
Upcoming Shows
- Jerry Jorgenrud – Spiritus: Saturday, July 13, 2024 – Saturday, August 3, 2024
- Sandy Adler – Celebrate Creation: Saturday, August 10, 2024 – Saturday, September 7, 2024
- Carol Collins: Saturday, September 14, 2024 – Saturday, October 5, 2024
- Emma Ahart: Saturday, October 12, 2024 – Saturday, November 9, 2024
- Holiday Show and Shop: Saturday, November 16, 2024 – Saturday, January 4, 2025
Gallery Hours
Summer Hours (June – August)
Monday – Friday: 9am – 4pm and select Saturdays
Saturday 7/27: 9am – 12:30pm
Saturday 8/3: 11am – 2pm
Saturday 8/24: 10am – 3pm
Closing Friday 8/30 at 12pm
September Hours (9/2 – 9/27)
Mondays & Fridays: Closed
Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays: 10am – 3pm
Fall Hours (9/30 – 12/20)
Monday – Friday: 10am – 3pm and select Saturdays
Someone may be available beyond those hours and if there is a class scheduled on our CALENDAR there may be someone at the Art Center able to assist you. Please call 763-323-8830 or e-mail sales@rumriverart.com first to make arrangements if you need to stop in outside of our office hours.
Current Gallery Show: Spiritus
Rumriver Art Center will present a new gallery show titled: Spiritus. The show’s opening will take place in the 21 Step Gallery (2665 4th Ave, Suite 201) on Saturday, July 13 from 2pm-4pm. The gallery show will feature watercolor paintings by Jerry Jorgenrud. Jorgenrud will be hosting an Artist Talk on Saturday, July 27 from 10am-11am, where he will discuss his life as an artist and his creative process. These events are free and open to the public.
Jerry Jorgenrud lives in Oak Grove with his wife Angie Renee and Frankie the dog.
Jorgenrud has been drawing and painting for all his life. He says “My grandfather had me “paint” his house with water and a brush. I usually work on watercolor paper with watercolor pigment. My artwork is about point: an individual detail or purpose. Line: an action or long natural mark. Movement: an organized objective and the division of the composition. With these three things I can create many different compositions.”
The title of the show is Spiritus: It’s a breath of fresh air, a breath of life, spirit, soul, mind, inspiration, courage and pride. It holds the principals of conscious life. It is the vital principal in humans. It is a calling not a career.
When Jorgenrud starts a piece of artwork he says “I notice the parts that seem to assemble themselves in a coherent way. I think that these “parts” are messages from the collective unconscious.”
Spiritus is an amazing show for all to stop by and see. This show will be on display through August 3, 2024
Next Gallery Show: Celebrate Creation
The 21 Step Gallery of Rumriver Art Center is presenting Celebrate Creation by artist Sandy Adler. On August 10th from 2 pm – 4pm the 21 Step Gallery will be hosting an opening for Adler’s show. On Saturday, August 17th at 11am Adler will be giving a demonstration with oil pastels in the gallery. Individuals are also invited to meet the artist on Friday, August 16th between 2 pm and 4 pm.
Adler has attended Riverdale Community College in Austin, MN and earned an AA degree in Fine Arts, Minneapolis Community and Technical College for an AA in Graphic/Commercial Design, and Crown College for a B.A. in Education. She is currently a practicing and accomplished artist in both fine arts and graphic design. She is Vice President of Heart of the City Ministries, a non-profit organization led by herself and her husband for the purpose of bringing a message, model and experience of multi-ethnic music and unified worship. They also run the Heart of the City Music Factory, a concert and event center located in the historic Old Milk Factory on the Rum River in Anoka. Her oil pastel pieces have been featured in restaurants, businesses and ministries in the Twin Cities area. She has been teaching art since 2001 in area home school academies, co-ops, and after school enrichment programs in the local school districts, with an average of 300 students per year. In 2006 Sandy was the first new applicant ever to win a grant through the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council to bring her oil pastels class into a select group of inner-city schools, in order to provide supplies and instruction to students living at or below poverty level. She has also implemented art programs by providing curriculum, supplies and instruction to impoverished communities in third world countries through three mission trips to Poland, Mexico and Belize.
Sandy enjoys celebrating the beauty and wonder of nature and life through a realistic expression in her oil pastel and watercolor paintings, as well as work in compressed charcoal and pen and ink. Her approach to teaching is to empower and surprise students with what they are capable of as they learn beginning and advanced art techniques almost without realizing it because the process is so much fun!
The exhibition will open August 10th and run until September 7th, 2024.
Past Shows
- Surelle Schewe – The Stories She Tells: Saturday, September 10, 2022 – Saturday, October 1, 2022
- Call for Entry – World of Anime: Saturday, October 8, 2022 – Saturday, October 29, 2022
- Paul Hanson – Portraits in Watercolor: Saturday, November 5, 2022 – Saturday, December 17, 2022
- Sanjukta Mitra – Spiritus: Saturday, January 7, 2023 – Saturday, January 28, 2023
- Danniella Mortezaee – Love Always: Saturday, February 4, 2023 – Saturday, February 25, 2023
- Val Coopet – Faces and Places: Saturday, March 4, 2023 – Saturday, March 25, 2023
- Montana Becker – Prone to Wander: Saturday, April 1, 2023 – Saturday, April 22, 2023
- Kenya Latourneau – Kenya Letourneau’s Kreations!: Saturday, June 3, 2023 – Saturday, July 29, 2023
- Juanita Tatum – Exploring Emotions Through Faces: Saturday, August 5, 2023 – Saturday, September 30, 2023
- Britt Maki – Don’t Be Hasty: Saturday, October 7, 2023 – Saturday, November 4, 2023
- Holiday Show and Shop: Saturday, November 18, 2023 – Saturday, December 30, 2023
- Margarita Stantchevski – Beauty and More: Saturday, February 10, 2024 – Saturday, March 9, 2024
- Joel Springer – Finding My Voice: Saturday, March 16, 2024 – Saturday, April 13, 2024
- Lynelle Kocher – Bits and Places: Saturday, April 20, 2024 – Saturday, May 11, 2024
- MaryLeah Marshall – Themes from Nature: A Collection: Saturday, May 18, 2024 – Saturday, June 8, 2024
- Rachel Coyne – Rock and Rollerskate: Saturday, June 15, 2024 – Wednesday, July 3, 2024