Red Eye is a multidisciplinary creative laboratory that supports the development and production of boundary-breaking performance work.
Theo Langason (Photo: Mimi van Amerongen)
Emily Gastineau (Photo: Nellie De Boer)
Red Eye is a vital artistic lab that supports the rigorous artistic inquiry of Minnesota artists from a broad spectrum of experiences and expression. Artist-run and intentionally modest in size, Red Eye encourages experimentation, foregrounds process, and is advocating for systemic change for the contemporary performance community in the Twin Cities.
Red Eye provides crucial in-depth developmental opportunities, incubating the next generation of creators and making space for artists to reexamine creative process in a new light. Rooted in the core tenets of experimentation, collaboration, critical discourse, Red Eye serves as a platform for the Twin Cities’ multi-faceted contemporary performance community, a space for profound shared experiences that ignite connections between people and ideas.
Developing
new work
For over three decades, Red Eye has supported over 1,000 artists and presented over 200 shows, including work by Christina Ham, Sibyl Kempson, HIJACK, Rosy Simas, Marcus Young, Lisa D’Amour, Emily Johnson, and many more.
Collectively led
by artists
Red Eye was founded in 1983 and was led for 35 years by Steve Busa and Miriam Must. Since 2019, Red Eye has been led by a collective of Co-Artistic Directors.
Values
All of Red Eye’s work emerges out of the following long-term values:
Equity, Inclusivity, Care
Red Eye will cultivate a hive for artists pursuing radical exploration, especially those with historically marginalized identities. Red Eye will lead with invitation, hospitality, action, accessibility, and kindness.
Artists as Leaders
Red Eye will be led collaboratively by working artists and will engage artists in all aspects of decision-making. Red Eye values the multifaceted knowledge, experiences, and expertise of artists.
Thoughtful Risk
Red Eye is committed to ongoing experimentation, artistically and organizationally. Red Eye will encourage artists and audiences to converge around daring inquiry and critical discourse, toward challenging the status quo and expanding our understanding of ourselves, the world, and our potential for change.
Artistic Process
Red Eye recognizes the importance of process and will remain nimble and responsive, supporting artists’ shifting needs in a changing world. We will honor and prioritize an awareness of process in all of our work.
“Red Eye is so palpably artist-led, artist-driven, and artist-centering. Those values and the actions that they foment are greatly needed in Minneapolis, and deeply felt by all us artists who feel seen and supported and uplifted by Red Eye as a community space.”
— Red Eye Artist
“There’s a value placed on artists helping other artists create their work, through feedback, support and encouragement.”
— The Star Tribune
“I had so much room to play, so much room to experiment. I faced failure, I faced challenges. I was experimenting with so many relatively new elements to me. I have always felt this with Red Eye, that one’s creativity can run as wild as one desires.”
— Red Eye Artist
Fire Drill (Photo: Theo Goodell)
Annika Hansen, Nakita Kirchner, Anusha Ramaswami, Nicole Stumpf, and Abigail Whitmore (Photo: Isabel Fajardo)
Hayley Finn (Photo courtesy of the artist)