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Minneapolis arts and design center collaborates with Red Wing Shoes for new project

The limited edition collaboration with Red Wing Heritage will be launching Wednesday, Jan. 18 at 10:00 a.m. on the Juxtaposition Arts website.

MINNEAPOLIS — "We are a 28-year-old art and design youth social enterprise," said Roger Cummings, artistic director and one of the founders of Juxtaposition Arts. "We do anything from contemporary art to public art to environmental design."

Juxtaposition Arts has provided mentorship for north Minneapolis youth artists with the help of industry professionals for more than two decades. "A lot of what you see here is what we were doing in high school, we would do flyers, we would do large-scale public arts."

"We created a boot from the ground up," said Cummings. "That goes along with a hoodie, and then an apron made from the same fabric will be auctioned off," he said. "We've been working on that for about 2 1/2 years, and it's from an alumni who was in our class, in 1998, 1999 who went off to Portland to work for Nike for a little bit and came back to work for Red Wing, and I said I always wanted to do some sort of collaboration or capsule release."

Cummings says four teens with the organization took part in the recent collaboration.

"Not just the object that they were creating but the process of the creation the marketing, strategy, the production assistant, and getting young people experience so they can get into the industry," says Cummings.

"One of the many things I credit Juxtaposition Arts with is their mission to provide art and art resources to underprivileged youth - youth that may not get to experience this in their typical school setting," said Aaron Seymour-Anderson with Red Wing Shoes.

Anderson, the current head of brand and creative for Red Wing Shoes, was an apprentice at Juxtaposition Arts more than two decades ago.

He credits his time here for inspiring his career in commercial arts.

"This whole project is full circle," he said. "They are teaching young artists, young creatives hands-on skills, in the commercial arts space, graphic design, textile design, 3-D design."

While Cummings says he's looking forward to the collection dropping Wednesday, he's looking toward expanding his non-profit in this north Minneapolis community.

"We are finishing up a three-story building that will be a part of an overall campus on Emerson Avenue and Broadway so we'll be opening that on May 5, and ready for people to open and celebrate with us," said Cummings.

The collection will be available online Wednesday at 10 a.m. on the Juxtaposition Arts website here

All proceeds will go toward the nonprofit.

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