Past Projects
Diver has been working with artists of multiple disciplines across sectors to embed all kinds of art into the public realm since 2015.
Performance Art
Since 2021, Diver has created original performances for venues across the Twin Cities. Rooted in queer culture, these shows blended humor, identity exploration, and urges for radical changes in how we live in our bodies and communities. Diver worked with Margot Bassett Silver for a decade channeling Sharyn, a celibate folk singing lesbian with a cable access tv show Karyn and Sharyn and the Care and Share Show. From there, they went on to work with performance artists Maren Ward, Masanari Kawahara, Ellen Marie Hinchcliffe, A.P. Looze, and others. Their work was presented at The Walker Arts Center, Bedlam Theatre, Intermedia Arts, and other Minneapolis punk DIY spaces of the early 2000's.
Poetry Mobile
In 2015, Diver worked with sculpture Adam Croft to transform a golf cart into a mobile poetry-writing studio. Strangers were invited to hop on and decide if they wanted a poem for themself or as a gift to give to someone they love. The Poetry Mobile rode around south Minneapolis for five years where Diver wrote hundreds of poems at street fairs and community festivals. The vision originated through Pillsbury House + Theatre's Arts on Chicago Initiative.
Minneapolis 2040
In 2017, Diver and Visual Artist Mike Hoyt created a Mobile engagement tool for the Minneapolis community economic and planning department (CPED) to increase participation in the Minneapolis 2040 comprehensive planning process.
Return the River
In 2018, Diver worked with visual artist Mike Hoyt to create a site-specific performance ritual at St Anthony Lock and dam as part of Northern Lite's Illuminate the Lock commissioning program. Diver told the story of a unique bond formed between a young girl and a paddlefish that led to a collective act of liberation of the great Mississippi's water. Composer Dameun Strange created a soundscape and songs sung by Ritika Ganguly.
Shelter in Poetry
During the 2020 duration of Shelter in place in Minnesota, Diver received a Forecast Public Art Mini-Grant for Hope to be able to connect with people every day through poetry. People signed up for a session and Diver talked with them over the phone about a person in their lives they are missing or loving. After the conversation, Diver put the phone on speaker so they could hear the typewriter work while they reflected on the person. When the poem was finished, Diver read it to them out loud, we often cried, and then the poem was put in the mail to the person that inspired it. Diver continues to write poems to people over the phone and sends it to them in the mail to this day. Contact them if you are interested in receiving a poem.
