About
Mike Klein
The creative process fascinates me as much as the creation of artifacts. As a public artist, I’ve seen the power of collaborative art to make room for difficult conversations, to clarify community priorities, to promote dialogue, and to heal. Through #ArtIsMyWeapon, I've worked to creatively address violence and to explore peacebuilding by drawing together artwork and my work as a professor of Justice and Peace Studies.
In more personal artwork, I appreciate the tensions between identity and agency, aesthetics and politics, and human connections to nature. My most recent work is focused on sculptural forms that stand in the intersections of nature, identity, and culture.
I live and work in Saint Paul, Minnesota (USA) on the ancestral and contemporary homeland of the Mdewakanton Dakota people.
CV
Education
1990 BA Studio Arts, Theology - University of St. Thomas
1998 MA Educational Leadership - University of St. Thomas
2009 EdD Leadership - University of St. Thomas
Dissertation on the May Day Parade, Heart of the Beast Theater
Grants & Awards
2022-23 - Artist in Residence, Sustainable Communities Partnership, University of St. Thomas
2019 - Springboard for the Arts, Cultivate Grant for Light Rail Placemaking
2019 - Faculty Research Grant “Democratizing Culture: A Pedagogy of the Arts for Social Justice”
2018 - Engaged Scholar, Sustainable Communities Partnership, University of St. Thomas
2012 - Faculty Research Grant “Rituals of Democracy: First Bank System Visual Art Program”
2007 - Bush Leadership Fellow, Doctoral research on In the Heart of the Beast Theater's May Day Parade
Recent Exhibitions
2024
"Land Acknowledgment" 50th Annual Northern Lights Juried Art Exhibition, White Bear Center for the Arts, White Bear Lake, MN - Award of Excellence, Purchased
2023
"Little Free Book Burner" Technicolor Truth Exhibition, Purchased for permanent collection, Grace Trinity Church, Minneapolis, MN
"Bdote Forest Eye" Faces of Our Community Exhibition, Uniquely East Side Festival, Solidarity Street Gallery
“We Are All Downstream” Juried selection, Delano, MN Sculpture Walk, year-long installation, Purchased for the City of Delano
“Witness v.” Art is My Weapon XI – Unburden Yourself exhibit, Cargill Gallery, Minneapolis Central Library, Minneapolis, MN – Purchased by Richard Moody Collection
“Cultural Conveyance” Juried selection, 49th Annual Northern Lights Exhibition, White Bear Center for the Arts, White Bear Lake, MN - Purchased
"Bdote Forest Eye" Juried selection, Light and Shadow Exhibition, Wailoa Center, Hilo, Hawai'i
"Foresteye 1" Juried selection, Frames Within Frames Exhibition, Praxis Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
"Cultural Conveyance" Juried selection, Arts North International 28, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hopkins, MN
2022
"We Are All Downstream" Sustainable Communities Partnership, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN
“Cultural Conveyance” & “Our Ancestorship” Resilient Generations Exhibit, Solidarity Street Gallery, St. Paul, MN
“Grounded on Submerged History” Minnesota State Fair Art Exhibition, St. Paul, MN -
Second Place in Sculpture Category
“Dakota, Hochunk, Anishinabe, Settler” Mississippi River Stories Exhibit, Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, Minneapolis, MN
“Our Ancestorship” Juried selection for 48th Annual Northern Lights Exhibition, White Bear Center for the Arts, White Bear Lake, MN
2021
"We Are All Downstream" Resiliency Flows Juried Exhibition of Public Sculpture on the Mississippi Riverwalk, City of Dubuque, IA
2021
“Art is My Weapon X” Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2020 “Same Boat?" Public Sculpture, Brooklyn Park, Cultivate Grant through Springboard for the Arts
2019 “Art is My Weapon VI” Homewood Studios, Minneapolis
2018 “Art is My Weapon II” Homewood Studios, Minneapolis
2017 “Art is My Weapon I” Gamut Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Murals
2016 “An Allegory on Multiple Intelligence Theory” St. Mark’s Catholic School, St. Paul, MN
2013-2015 “Neighborhood Leadership Mural I-III” Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, St. Paul, MN
2006 “Close the SOA!” School of the Americas Vigil, Columbus, GA
2004 “Home and Away” Project Achieve Federal Level IV High School, St. Paul, MN
2003 “Quiltmakers Gift” Highland Park Elementary, St. Paul, MN
2002 “West Side Pride” Jane Addams School for Democracy, St. Paul, MN
2002 “Sunset” Highland Park Elementary, St. Paul, MN
2001 “African Dancers” Selma Youth Development Center, Selma, AL
2000 “Volunteers Feed the World” Open Arms of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
1999 “Rivers and Bridges” Jane Addams School for Democracy, St. Paul, MN
1998 “Legends of Boxing” Selma Youth Development Center, Selma, AL
Selected Publications (Academic work related to art and community)
Klein, M. (2024). "Art Is My Weapon" article on integrating art pedagogies into peacebuilding by making art together, Peace Chronicle, Spring edition, Peace and Justice Studies Association.
Klein, M. (2022). “We Are All Downstream” Image of public sculpture and prose poetry, Peace Chronicle, Spring edition, Peace and Justice Studies Association
Klein, M. (2018). “Pluralistic Identity Construction in the “I am from…” Activity”, in (Ed.) Brookfield, S. (Ed.) Teaching Race in the Classroom. New York: Oxford.
Klein, M. (2018). Folk Schools as Models for Contemporary Democratic Peacebuilding.” Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, 13:3, 70-85.
Klein, M. & Shoholm, D. (2017). Neighborhood Leadership: Celebrating twenty years of the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation's Neighborhood Leadership Program (NLP). St. Paul, Minnesota: Praxia Books.
Klein, M. (2017). North Shore Coloring Book, St. Paul, MN: Praxia Books.
“Regional Favorite” and best seller of 2017 at Drury Lane Book Store, Grand Marais, Minnesota.
Klein, M. (2016). Democratizing Leadership: Counter-Hegemonic Democracy in Communities, Organizations, and Institutions. Counter-Hegemonic Democracy and Social Change. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Klein, M. (2015). "Popular Film and Peace Studies: Conscientization In and Through Film." In Finley, Connors & Wien (Eds.) Teaching peace through popular culture. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Klein, M. (2013). “Cell phones, t-shirts and coffee: Codification of commodities in a circle of praxis pedagogy” Peace Studies Journal special edition: The Business of war and peace, and the potential for education to play a transformative role, 6(1) 31-45.
Klein, M. (2013). Teaching a peace of my mind: Exploring the meaning of peace one story at a time. An educators' guide to: Noltner, J. (2011). A peace of my mind. St. Paul, Minnesota: Praxia Books.
Art Courses at the University of St. Thomas
Spring 2024 "Making Art for Social Justice" Justice and Peace Studies Course with Nikki McComb of Art is My Weapon
Spring 2023 "Art for Social Justice" Aquinas Scholars Honors Seminar with Damon Shoholm
Fall 2021 "Art for Just Water" Aquinas Scholars Honors Seminar with Sandy Spieler
Fall 2019 "Leadership & Storytelling" Aquinas Scholars Honors Seminar with Damon Shoholm
Spring 2020 "Art for Social Justice" Aquinas Scholars Honors Seminar
Spring 2017 "Art for Social Justice" Aquinas Scholars Honors Seminar
Spring 2011 "Art for Social Justice" Aquinas Scholars Honors Seminar