In-Progress artists Kazua Melissa Vang and Dhoua Hli Vue will lead Highland Middle School students in creating meaningful video stories centered on their family histories and cultural identities two days a week June - July. Students will explore storytelling as a tool for self-expression while learning how to plan, film, and produce video content. The program emphasizes creating media that respectfully and authentically honors each student’s identity.

This activity is sponsored in part by Saint Paul Public School’s Flips Side Program and the Best Buy Children’s Foundation. For more information please send an email to: info@in-progress.org.

6.2.26

News just came to us about the passing of Stephan Johnson - media artist - free spirit, father, friend and so much more. Stephan had been a practicing artist with In Progress for about 10 years. He was often hard to contain - like a creative tornado - working overtime and making the most of every opportunity he could grab.

For much of his time with In Progress, his health was precarious, as he had kidney disease and diabetes. He spent weeks on end in the hospital, which often made it difficult for him to hold on to work. He would often live unhoused, he had a hard time keeping a job…it was a rough and difficult life to live. Through it all he fought to stay connected to his son and to create art.

We are glad for the times we had with Stephan and we ask that all of you that knew him, remember him with love and kindness in your heart.

–Kristine Sorensen

6.2.26

We have made a lot of progress on Angela’s first song during this writing exercise!

We discussed her favorite artists, like Taylor Swift, to use as inspirations and to study how they tell stories through music.

– Juno Vue / Studio 213 / Saint Paul

5.29.29

I came into the studio for a bit to edit the website. Whenever new artists wish to receive mentorship, they submit a form and are interviewed. Afterwards, a profile is created on our website that covers their creative journey (if discussed on the form) and what they hope to learn moving forward.

I added a couple of these profiles today and denoted which names from the spreadsheet already had pages made.

–Kaia Perez / Studio 213 / Saint Paul

5.27.26

We reviewed financials for creating a song by looking at costs in our local indie artists community. This includes beat production, vocal recording, mixing and mastering, and basic terms and conditions to consider.

We also talked about cues to look for when finding a freelancer that is suitable for artists. In the current market, there are a lot of skills, which means various terms & conditions, rates, and skillsets offered for music-related services.

We were able to narrow down a price range that an indie artist should consider for cost and quality.

Great discussions!

–Juno Vue / Studio 213 / Saint Paul

5.20.26

Welcome to In Progress, Dr B!

In this session, we covered the initial studio training on equipment. This included computer and speaker usage, along with specifics regarding our recording equipment.

Dr B will be aiming towards growing her skills in podcasting.

–Juno Vue / Studio 213 / Saint Paul

5.20.26

Tsuking has ambitions of becoming a media artist focusing on short film and music.

Today, we went over tools for post-recording editing, and settled on Adobe Premiere and Logic. We also reviewed the importance of getting the most ideal audio during the filming stage, and how that affects the intended outcomes and possibilities while editing.

–Juno Vue / Studio 213 / Saint Paul

5.20.26

This week, IP artist Juno Vue met with Koungla. They walked through setting up a personal mic and discussed the purpose of the microphone shield.

Juno also went over how to record vocals in Logic, explaining the purpose of setting proper gain for various vocal levels.

–Studio 213 / Saint Paul

5.14.26

In this session, mentor TJ Lor had Marion focus more on landscape portrait photography. They explored further with manual settings, slowly learning how to create a focused image.

–Studio 213 / Saint Paul

5.10.26

We have a new mentee joining InProgress, someone who currently interns at the studio.

Marion is an upcoming photographer with a unique vision and style of photography. Today, we worked on how to use a camera in manual settings.

Welcome, Marion!

–TJ Lor / Studio 213 / Saint Paul

5.10.26

Today, we had the pleasure of working with Shaq. It was his first session working with Lightroom so we spent some time covering the basics and discussed the possibilities of creating a great photo.

–TJ Lor / Studio 213 / Saint Paul

5.8.26

Digital Journeys mentorships are taking place everywhere!

TJ Lor has begun working with one of our newest young artists, Noah Dyner. Noah is a visual artist and an aspiring photographer.

He is willing and excited to learn, and I have no doubt that TJ will give him the training he needs to take great photos.

–Kristine Sorensen / Studio 213 / Saint Paul

5.8.26

We had a great artist talk with photo journalist Chris Juhn at our 2nd of 3 artist talks.

He has been photographing the ICE occupation since November and has often found himself in the most difficult of situations through taking heroic photos. Chris presented to a group of roughly 20 audience members in a talk facilitated by IP artist Bhavana Goparaju.

We learned so much about the role of photographers in recording our histories, thank you Chris!

–Kristine Sorensen / Studio 213 / Saint Paul

5.8.26

Hey everybody, please help us in welcoming two new Collective artists, Johnny Vang and Michelle Vohs!

They both have a keen interest in photography and are working to take the first steps in establishing their business. I got to meet with them and have a good discussion about their first steps as entrepreneurs.

They will be meeting with some of our other mentors soon, so please make sure you say hello when you see them!

–Kristine Sorensen / Studio 213 / Saint Paul

5.8.26

The first flowers of the year from Ghia’s Garden.

–Kristine Sorensen / Studio 213 / Saint Paul