Northland Digitization Project: Archiving Local Histories of Artist Organizing

We are a grassroots team of artists, archivists, and scholar activists documenting the 30-year history of a Minneapolis based radical print collective. From 1979-2009, the individuals who ran Northland Poster Collective designed, printed, and distributed thousands of posters which shared messages of progressive, left, and radical social movements. Responsive to events and organizing struggles of the moment, the full scope of themes and calls to action represented in Northland’s print archive reflect three decades of social movement history across the late 20th and early 21st century. In relationship with many other artists, community leaders, and national political organizations, Northland posters became widely recognized among organizers across the Twin Cities and the United States for distinct visual style and unrestrained political messaging.

During the 2026-2027 Hub Residency, we will continue our work to digitize Northland poster archives, conduct oral history interviews, and organize public history and printing workshops in collaboration with local artists and activists. In times of rising fascism, our goal is to demonstrate the critical role that artists and collectives such as Northland played in shaping the social and visual landscape of movement organizing history, and to activate Northland archives in support of liberatory political, creative, and scholarly work today.