Wing Young Huie is an award-winning photographer who has received international attention for his many projects that document the changing cultural landscape of his home state, Minnesota. Huie’s photographs have been exhibited at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Minnesota Museum of American Art, the Asian American Arts Center in New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and are presently featured in the traveling exhibition Race, organized by the Science Museum of Minnesota. Huie has been the recipient of a McKnight Photography Fellowship and a Bush Artist Fellowship and in 2000 was named “Artist of the Year” by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Two books have been published based on Huie’s images: Frogtown: Photographs and Conversations in an Urban Neighborhood and Lake Street USA - Huie’s best-known work and one of Minnesota’s most significant public art projects in recent memory.
The Joyce Award supported Public Art Saint Paul to commission Huie to create University Avenue USA, a six-mile outdoor “gallery” of hundreds of photographs that documents neighborhoods along University Avenue. Huie spent 28 months photographing the everyday lives of citizens in the various neighborhoods connected by this singular street. In 2010, the photographs were part of a six-month-long public exhibition, with images projected on store windows along University Avenue in 12 locations. During the exhibition, Huie hosted outdoor community events with photographs projected on portable screens set up in open spaces.
Established in 1987, Public Art Saint Paul works with public agencies and private institutions to commission new public art works; clean and restore historic works of public art; produces an annual outdoor sculpture exhibition; hosts youth arts education programs; and presents workshops and forums that explore place-making ideas of citizens, artists and designers.