ART-A-WHIRL

About 15 years ago David Felker and a group of Northeast Minneapolis artists held meetings in his then International Gallery space located on the second floor of the historic Thorp Building on Central Ave NE, with the intent of starting an art crawl that would include all of Northeast Minneapolis. The name Art-A-Whirl was stumbled upon one night when one of the meeting attendees returned from the 2nd floor Thorp restroom, where at the time located across the street was a business that went by the name Whirl Air Flow.

The Whirl Air Flow sign, complete with tornado logo, visible from the restroom window sparked the name of what has now become one of the Midwest's largest open studio art crawls with more than 700 participating artists, drawing in more than 35,000 visitors each May. Visitors from all over flood Minneapolis to experience the art and culture of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District.