Fri, May 27, 2011, 12 pm –Sun, Jun 26, 2011, 12 pm Concourse Gallery Image The Women’s Art Institute has presented the Summer Studio Intensive at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design since 1999. This rigorous three-week program for women artists focuses on issues that arise through the combination of open studio work, inspiring conversation, and critique with guest artists, curators, and art historians. Over the course of several weeks, the Women’s Art Institute participants create and present a portfolio of work based on an exploration of selected questions framed out of the group exchange. Two of last year’s participants, AK Garski and Sarah Kass, were selected to serve as teaching assistants for the 2011 Summer Studio Intensive. Garski is currently a double major in Studio Art and Women’s Studies at St. Catherine University in St. Paul. Kass is a recent alumna of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, with fine arts focus in drawing and painting. In addition to the Summer Studio Intensive, on an annual basis, the Women’s Art Institute sponsors a lecture series and a retreat at Grand Marais Art Colony. The Women’s Art Institute is sponsored by the Continuing Education Department at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and the Department of Art and Art History at St. Catherine University, with scholarships funded in part by individual donors and family foundations.