TRAFFIC ZONE

TZCVA is housed in a restored six-story Chicago-style limestone warehouse located in the North Loop neighborhood at 250 Third Avenue North, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55401. The Traffic Zone building is of significant historic and architectural interest and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).[2]Erected in 1886 for the Moline, Milburn and Stoddard Company as a warehouse for storing farm machinery and implements, the building was expanded two years later and converted into a commercial bakery operated by theNational Biscuit Company (Nabisco). From 1951 to 1992, it housed an appliance parts business. In 1992, the warehouse was purchased by Artspace Projects with financial assistance from the City of Minneapolis, theMcKnight Foundation, the Dayton Hudson Foundation, the General Mills Foundation and other funders. Extensively renovated by LHB Engineers & Architects (Minneapolis), the restored warehouse re-opened in 1995 as the Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art.

Members of the TZCVA cooperative have included an eclectic, international mix of painters, photographers, printmakers, conceptual artists, sculptors, book artists, and ceramicists. Many are past recipients of fellowships and grants from the McKnight Foundation (Minneapolis); the Bush Foundation (St. Paul); the Jerome Foundation(New York & St. Paul); the Minnesota State Arts Board (St. Paul); the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, (New York); and the National Endowment for the Arts (Washington, D.C.).

As part of its community-oriented educational mission, TZCVA sponsors workshops, classes, presentations, and quarterly exhibitions of contemporary art by local, national, and international painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers, book artists, and installation artists. Organized by co-op artists and guest curators, these exhibitions are presented in the Traffic Zone Gallery, the cooperative's ground floor exhibition space. TZCVA also hosts semi-annual "Open Studio" events to allow members of the community to meet co-op artists and view and purchase artwork in a studio setting.