Rifle Sport Gallery

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Rifle Sport Gallery opened in 1985 in the Block E segment of Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. It is considered one of the points of origin for the Minneapolis art scene.

The gallery was located on the second floor of a 2-story building located at the corner of Hennepin Avenue and North Sixth Street, across Hennepin from City Center. The gallery was only accessible by a long flight of stairs, behind a blue entrance door on Hennepin Avenue. The gallery was a part the intersection of vagrants, drunks, artists, musicians, punks, patrons, and passerby of the North Loop neighborhood in Minneapolis.

In the three years it was open, around 130 artists, musicians, and performance artists used the space. Artists from around the country had early work in this gallery, and of most of them consider it an unforgettable place. In the mid 1980s, the art scene in Minneapolis was booming. Economic prosperity of the Upper Midwest region, as well as substantial corporate sponsorship, gave local and recently graduated artists an opportunity to expose and sell their work.

Rifle Sport Gallery was one of many galleries downtown, but it stayed open late into the night. The building that housed Rifle Sport was demolished with the rest of Block E in 1988, and remained a parking lot until the entire block was redeveloped in 2001. The gallery lived on after the demolition, moving near Loring Park, but was closed after a year run. The former site of Rifle Sport Gallery is occupied by the second floor of a Borders book store.

Some argue that the name "Rifle Sport" had been taken from a local band without permission. The band Rifle Sport established the name 4 years prior (in 1981) and played in First Avenue, among other places. Rifle Sport Gallery's memorial website claims the name was created because the former occupant of the space was a shooting arcade gallery. In fact, the rifle arcade featured rifles, and it is likely that both the band and the gallery got their name from the former occupant.

[edit] Musicians

The Slime Clowns, The Swabs, Ting Kong, Lies Inc., King Paisley

[edit] Artists

Shannon Brady, Phillip Johnson, Michael Joo, Ruthann Goddellei, Jan Elftman, Frank Gaard, Melissa Stang, W. Joe Hoppe, Julia Scher, The Slime Clowns (Zingo & Bloppo), Steve Grandel, Mann Hawks, Robert Grassel