(PHOTOS) Hopkins Artist Oversees State Fair Art Show

“Ring!” goes the phone, and Jim Clark trots over to answer it. “Please!” says a judge, and Clark swoops in to hoist a painting. “Help!” cries an artist, and Clark hurries over to tweak a wall hanging.

That’s the life of the fair’s fine arts superintendent just a little more than two weeks before the Minnesota State Fair kicks off. The 36-year-old Clark was a staffer at the fair’s fine arts exhibition 17 years ago. Now the Hopkins resident oversees the entire 100th anniversary show, and he couldn’t be happier.

“I must’ve done something right,” Clark jokes.

The job is a good fit. Clark, himself, is an artist. He has a degree in art and teaches classes at the Hopkins Center for the Arts—although he's never had a work exhibited at the Fair.

Clark consciously dialed back the size of this year's show to give the works more room to breathe and to allow for a special exhibit celebrating the 100th anniversary.

But the show is still massive. Jurors selected about 350 pieces from the 2,000 or so works submitted.

Today, representatives of various civic organizations are busy winding through the many walls of art—trying to decide which works they should award with a special prize.

With a show on this scale, simply displaying the works is an endeavor. Clark looks for “sympathies” between pieces—playing off a painting against a textile, for example—that make a wall about more than just the individual works that hang on it.

“We want to mix scales so that the show, itself, becomes a work,” Clark says.

Workers didn’t start hanging the pieces until early August, but Clark began planning the show in September 2010.

“I guess I was more nervous about preparing,” Clark says. “There was a long time of preparing—a long time, months and months.”

His first job was to find practicing artists, recognized as masters in their field, to serve as jurors for one of the eight competition classes. They didn’t have to judge until after competitors finished submitting their works July 31.

In the meantime, Clark had to line up a special exhibit to commemorate the fair’s anniversary. He had to find pieces from important artists in Minnesota’s history, including former fine arts superintendents. 

“Our goal is to present the best work and thoughts of Minnesota artists,” Clark says.

A couple weeks out from the fair, that special anniversary exhibit is not yet complete and further details remain to be finalized. Clark isn’t worried, though.

“I’m pretty honored to be in a line of superintendents that have made significant contributions to art in Minnesota,” Clark said. “There is a great quality of dynamite work.”

“Ring!” goes the phone, and Clark hurries off to answer another question.

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