Nigel Parry, Downtown St. Paul Voice—St. Paul native Rachel Wacker is a figure artist who exhibits under the name Dolan Cyr. After receiving a bachelor of arts in studio art from the University of Notre Dame in 1999 she wasted no time establishing a studio practice and has spent the last 18 years developing an extensive resume as both a curator and community art facilitator. She has lived in Lowertown for the last seven years, first in the 262 Building and today in the Northern Warehouse Artist Cooperative.

Wacker has co-produced numerous exhibits and events in the Twin Cities. Most recently she worked on a project that filled parks and other public spaces in Lowertown with messages of love and hope. “100 Love Signs for Lowertown,” was sponsored by the St. Paul Saints and organized by a loose collective of local artists called Rage to Order.

In 2015, Art Space and the Saint Paul Art Collective conducted a Bush Foundation grant feasibility study and discovered that Lowertown boasts the highest concentration of artist live/work studios in the United States. Yet despite Lowertown’s history and reputation, there is a surprising lack of visual indication that hundreds of artists live there. In 2015, Rachel was a key organizer of “Inside Out: Lowertown,” a photo project that papered the brick walls of the neighborhood with 176 portraits of members of the creative community, giving a face to those who live in the buildings.

When the JAX building closed, Wacker and other long-time residents organized a New Orleans-style wake to draw attention to the ongoing gentrification of the neighborhood. To grasp the impact of the JAX closing, consider that just one tenant, Ballet Minnesota which has relocated to the West Side, used to host classes more than 100 students every Saturday. Now all the parents that used to drop off their kids for classes no longer spend that hour patronizing Lowertown eateries and establishments, a significant financial blow to the neighborhood.

“I’m concerned about the loss of art space and the affordability of art space, but there’s something really unique about Lowertown,” said Wacker. “Even as much as things change, I see it attracts the same kind of people and I’ve heard similar stories of fears during the last wave of development in the 1980s.

“Lowertown seems to attract people that want to be in a place that’s a little bit funky and a little bit different,” she added, “and I know that hasn’t stopped a lot of places around the country from changing, but I do hope that we might be small enough and unique enough down here that we will continue to attract those people.”

For the upcoming Northern Spark overnight arts festival, taking place June 10 along the Green Line, Wacker is organizing a project called “Domination Corporation: Proudly Homogenizing America since 1984” to draw further attention to gentrification. The installation will mimic a city block that progressively closes its doors to artists. The multi-disciplinary event will feature Lowertown actors, musicians and dancers.

Wacker and other collaborators started organizing pop-up art events in 2010 and their work attracted the attention of community organizations and businesses, who now hire the group to facilitate public art experiences.

“When you think of public art, you think of a big statue but there’s another component called social practice art, which uses the arts as a moment in time to have a conversation about something,” she said. One local group she collaborated with, Works In Progress, created a project called the Water Bar, which examines the issues of water cleanliness, where water comes from, and the politics around water.

This summer, Wacker will begin her second season as the community art program director for the St. Paul Saints.

“When the Saints started looking into moving into the community they did a lot of groundwork to figure out what the community was like,” she said. “They actually made a lot of effort to get to know people and figure out how to be good neighbors. They got a lot of feedback from the art community here. They realized that many in the neighborhood were worried about being displaced so they made a conscious decision to work with artists and find out ways to bring art into the ballpark.”

The Saints have proven they weren’t merely giving lip service to the community.

“They pay artists to host exhibits, which are switched out every two months,” said Wacker. “Games see a variety of pop-up activities, either pre-game or during the game. I design something for people to interact with, and then I bring in a professional artist as the backbone for that activity. I use all the tools I learned from organizing with artists down here to find opportunities for community members.”

Wacker also advises the Saints on permanent public art purchases and assists the team in finding ways to sponsor local art activities. Two vendor spots are permanently reserved for artists in the ballpark and a page on the Saints’ website advertises artist openings and highlights recent featured artists.

“I’m choosing to focus on the businesses and people who are coming down here who still have the idea of participating in a funky and interesting community,” said Wacker. “The feedback I’m getting from events such as the ‘100 Love Signs for Lowertown’ and the JAX Wake is that people love it. They feel these things are signs of the neighborhood they love. And that’s a good thing!”

Wacker will present her work in Studio 420 of the Northern Warehouse during the St. Paul Art Crawl April 28-30, and at “Art on Armitage” in May in Chicago, Ill. She is also be featured artist in “Muse/A Journal” Issue 4, coming out this summer. Wacker’s art can be found at mnartists.org/rachelwacker.