MCAD skyway filled with love letters as part of new installation

MINNEAPOLIS – What once was an empty skyway at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design is now covered with love—literally.

MCAD's newest art exhibit creates an interactive pink sky for travelers that pass through. The 110-foot ceiling is covered in about 4,000 pink biodegradable bags filled with literal hand written love notes.

"This has been the biggest, most intense installation, but it's been a blast," MCAD alumni Kendal Dickinson said. "I think it's been incredible to come to fruition as an empty skyway and now its 110 feet of pink balloons."

The installation took about 200 hours. It's part of a collaboration between MCAD students, faculty and artist, Maren Hassinger. Hassinger is known for her site-responsive and iconic pink work "Embrace/Love." Her work is reimagined at MCAD and titled "Love (for Minneapolis)."

"This concept has been realized by Maren in several museums. It was called Embrace/Love. Pink plastic bags suspected with a love note. When it came to MCAD we knew it would mean customization," MCAD Director and Curator Kiesha Williams said. "We switched from plastic to a biodegradable material. We decided to customized love notes for whatever love mean to people. As you walk through you here, you'll see love, you'll see incredible drawings because MCAD. You'll see some really quirky funny messages that will just put a smile on your face."

After the exhibit is over, all the bags will be crocheted into sleeping mats and donated to a local shelter.

"Allowing Maren and the students to come to this compromise and use this biodegradable material that will not sit in an environment and then eventually degrade, has been a really beautiful source of discussion and compromise," Williams said. "And is the true heart of what MCAD is."

The exhibit is part of the Great Northern Festival. "Love (for Minneapolis)" will be on display until Feb. 5. 

"It's really gratifying I think," Dickinson said. "Most often when I'm working on an installation, we get to close off the gallery because it's a proper work zone, but as I've been installing to see people stop and take moment and try to read each note—yeah, that's been really special."