World Art Day, featuring Dessa

World Art Day is an international celebration of art in all forms. It is celebrated on April 15  - Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday - to promote awareness of creativity worldwide. Celebrate this day with the University Collaborative Ambassadors for Northrop (U-CAN) on campus! Experience interactive art displays and creative happenings at Northrop. Then, revel with essayist and rapper, Dessa, who will talk about art and perform her world-renowned music.

TICKET INFO DESSA CONCERT: FREE for U of M Students. Student Tickets available for reservation beginning Feb 19; 2/valid I.D. Tickets on sale to the general public for $20 beginning March 11. *All seating is general admission

All other World Art Day activities at Northrop are free and open to the public. 

TIMELINE 12:00 Noon – Kick-Off Noon—6:00 pm – Interactive Art Murals/Art Stations 2:30 pm– Student Film Series 5:00 pm– Open Mic (4:30 Registration) 7:00 – Dessa Lecture/Concert

ONGOING EVENTS Art Stations: Stop by any of the Northrop study lounges for a free, creative outlet! Channel your elementary school days with coloring projects or let out your inner sculptor with our clay station! Plus, fold paper cranes at our origami station, create magnetic poetry, and much more!

Interactive Art Murals: Take part in something big! Color your own piece of our student-designed murals located on the Northrop Plaza and inside Memorial Hall.

Student Group Stations: Color in a student designed coloring book with WAM Collective, see a light show on the plaza from Tesla Works and join in conversation with Small World Coffee Hour. Plus, hang out with our Radio Sponsor, Radio K!

FEATURED EVENTS Student Film Series, featuring MinneCinema 2:30 pm, Best Buy Theater Stop in to see student  films!

Wording Out!, An Open Mic, featuring Ivory Tower 5:00 pm, Best Buy Theater U of M students from all performance areas are invited to showcase their love of words. All are welcome to this Open Mic!  Registration and Social Hour: 4:30 pm; 5:00 pm: Open Mic

MORE ON DESSA Dessa is a rapper, a singer, and an essayist with the Doomtree collective—the ascendant Minneapolis hip hop crew. She's made the Billboard Top 200 list as a solo artist (for Parts of Speech) and as a Doomtree member (for All Hands). She's made a career out of bucking traditional genre designations--she's rapped at Lollapalooza, arranged for full choir, and co-written classical works for orchestra. As a writer, she's contributed to MPR, the Star Tribune, literary journals around the country, and has published two short collections of her own. Dessa splits her time between Minneapolis, New York, and a fifteen-passenger tour van.