“Move over, Cannes, Minneapolis might just be home to the greatest film festival ever.” —Huffington Post
Minneapolis, July 17, 2015—The cats go marching into the home of the St. Paul Saints, CHS Field, at the 2015 Internet Cat Video Festival.
This year’s event, held on August 12, will be hosted by radio personality Barb Abney of Go 96.3 radio station, voted the Best Radio Personality in the City Pages Best Of: Reader’s Choice poll.
The fourth installment of the Internet Cat Video Festival features a new selection of videos curated by Will Braden, the creator of the Henri Le Chat Noir videos and recipient of the festival’s first Golden Kitty (People’s Choice) Award. Film critic Roger Ebert called Henri 2, Paw De Deux “The best internet cat video ever made” and The Huffington Post, in reviewing Henri 3, Le Vet, called Henri “almost like a feline Serge Gainsbourg, just without the singing, or the alcoholism, or the public scandal. Or maybe he’s not like that at all. Maybe Henri, is, as he so eloquently states in his latest film, his ‘own cat.’”
The 2015 Internet Cat Video Festival also includes a myriad of cat-related art activities and photo ops and an opportunity to learn more about local animal resources with the festival’s community partners prior to the screening.
Golden Kitty 2015 Nominees and Voting
Me-Yow! The time has come to choose the Golden Kitty: The People’s Choice Award for the 2015 Internet Cat Video Festival. This year’s festival, curated by Will Braden, creator of Henri Le Chat Noir has a host of meow-nificant internet cat videos! Which will be the audience favorite?
Watch, Then Vote for the Winner!
Out of thousands of cat-ivating clips, here are the five nominees for the 2015 Golden Kitty. Only one will win, and you get to decide!
And the nominees are…
“Pavlov’s Kitty”
“Back Off!!”
“Cat Behavior Finally Explained”
“Brain Freeze”
“Hover Cat”
VOTING CLOSES on JULY 31st at MIDNIGHT.
The winners will be revealed at the 2015 Internet Cat Video Festival on Wednesday, August 12th. And remember, just because you may not see your favorite video on this list, doesn’t mean that it’s not in the reel or we don’t have something special planned for it.
Until then, watch, deliberate, and vote! To vote visit the Walker blogs.
Internet Cat Video Festival
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Gates open to Cat-themed activities at 6:30, screening 8:30–10 pm
CHS Field
360 Broadway, St. Paul, MN
Tickets
$10 ($8 Walker members); $6 ages 6–12; free for ages 5 and under with paid adult. Tickets are available at walkerart.org/tickets or by calling 612.375.7600.
Seats in the stands and on the field are first-come-first-served. Tickets will be available during the event from the CHS Field box office.
Cat Video Festival Event Details
Schedule
6:30–8:30 pm feline-themed activities throughout CHS Field
8:30–10 pm Internet Cat Video Festival screening
Reel
This year’s event reel is programmed by Will Braden, creator of Henri, Le Chat Noir, and winner of the first Golden Kitty (People’s Choice) Award. The new reel will feature approximately 100 cat videos culled from nominations by the public within the categories of Comedy, Drama, Animated, Musical, Action, Vintage, and Documentary.
Golden Kitty Award
The winner of the Golden Kitty Award (as voted on by the public) will be revealed at the end of the night.
Refreshments
Food and beverages are available from CHS Field vendors during the Festival.
Cat Is Art Spelled Wrong Book Preview
Cat Is Art Spelled Wrong, a new collection of essays inspired by the CatVidFest, will be available for the first time ever at this year’s festival. The book asks fourteen writers to address not just our fascination with cat videos, but also how we decide what is good or bad art, or art at all; how taste develops, how that can change, and why we love or hate something. It’s about people and technology and just what it is about cats that makes them the internet’s cutest despots. Contributors include Sasha Archibald, Carl Wilson, and David Carr. Attendees of the CatVidFest can bring home a special, limited edition laser pointer along with their book purchase.
Art Activities
Prior to the screening of the festival at dusk, the Festival will feature several cat-themed artist projects throughout CHS Field including In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater, Ed Vogels’ The Secret Music of Cats, We Have Cats–Live Roaming Cat Comedy Improv, Meow Moves Yoga, a create-your-own cat headpiece activity, a giant cat mural, the Flying Cat Art House and Susan Gainen: Whimsical Wildlife Documentarian. The event also features cat face painting.
Cat Video Festival Artists
In The Heart of The Beast Puppet and Mask Theater: Roaming Cat Puppet
Me-Yow! A Roaming Cat Puppet
In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre uses water, flour, newspaper, paint, and unlimited imagination to tell stories that explore the struggles and celebrations of human existence. Drawing inspiration from the world’s traditions of puppet and mask theatre and its lively roots in transformative ritual and street theatre, HOBT creates vital, poetic theater for all ages and backgrounds.
Each year, we produce a season of original plays and tour productions; create specially commissioned pageants throughout Minnesota and beyond; and teach puppetry and pageantry through residencies and workshops to youth, students and teachers, and communities.
In addition, each spring HOBT creates and wholly produces the beloved, fantastical May Day Parade and Pageant, celebrated by tens of thousands in Powderhorn Park.
http://www.hobt.org
The Secret Music of Cats – Ed Vogel
Join Maker and Piano Lab originator Edward Vogel in this one of a kind of activity exploring the sound of your cat’s name! Match your name to notes on a keyboard by creating your own color coded score. Name scores will be played and collected for sonata.
Vogel says, “I build and facilitate participatory art installations that employ fundamental ideas from math to music to physics to physicality. The aim being to share a hands on and more experience that provides insight into how ideas are discovered and understood by individuals and communities.”
http://www.mplscreates.com/playing-around-with-ed-vogel/
We Have Cats – Live Roaming Cat Comedy Improv
If your cat worked a day job, what would it be? Discover the answer to that and other feline comedy mysteries with We Have Cats: Live Roaming Cat Improv! Need we say more?
We Have Cats consists of Kristen Pichette, Jordan Bainer, Pat Tracy and Anna Tobin. “Using the audience story as inspiration, we then weave a colorful and playful set through montage. Our improv is both witty and character heavy. We work to create an environment on stage that is completely supportive and enables us to make bold and unapologetic choices. Our shows are thematic, consistently re-visiting scenes and characters. Above all, we love playing with each other and we believe this joy is contagious with our audience members.”
Facebook: We have Cats Improv:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=isMBD_us_1A
“Meow Moves” Yoga – Jes Rosenburg (Gorilla Yoga)
We’re not going to let you sit on your tails all night long or be cat-atonic. Now that you have had some cat nip it’s time for some purr-fect yoga inspired cat poses. Curl, stretch, claw, catch your own tail, and pose like the best of our furry friends.
Jes Rosenberg is a self-described the cat’s meow. A Yoga, Meditation, and Wellness Consultant she is a leader in the industry and committed to helping others live an inspired life.
Rosenberg makes it her mission to ‘Breathe, Stretch, Play. Make NAMASTE a part of every day!’ When she’s not teaching or spending time with friends and family you can usually find her coordinating inspiring, fun, out-of-the-box community fundraising events for Gorilla Yogis, stretching her soul in a yoga class, meditating with awareness under the moonlight or designing Super Stretch Kid’s Yoga top 100 health and wellness kid’s yoga app graphics on the computer in her funky, urban-hippie abode in Mpls, MN.
A recovering product designer for corporate America, Rosenberg has been teaching yoga for over 15 years and is a 500 E-RYT & 200/500 RYS certified instructor in a multitude of disciplines [even Chair Yoga for the office!] and comes from a strong lineage of amazing mentors. She teaches at yoga events worldwide, is a national educator, a teacher’s teacher, who has been practicing yoga since a teenager. Her passion for mindfulness and movement has allowed her to cultivate a unique blended teaching style that offers students inspiration to tap into the pure potentiality of the breath. She is a true ‘purveyor of the oxygen cocktail’!
Rosenberg’s talents have been recognized in numerous print publications including the Star Tribune, Mpls St. Paul Magazine and Yoga Journal. You can connect with her on instagram, Facebook or learn more about Rosenberg on her website.
www.JesRosenberg.com
Art Start’s Art Scraps Artists – Cat Head Pieces
CAP-tivating Cats! Join ArtStart’s ArtScraps Artists and create your own unique cat cap/headpiece using all sorts of funky and fun repurposed materials from ArtScraps! Then settle in for a Purr-fect evening of Cat Videos.
The mission of ArtStart is to inspire artistic creativity and illuminate the connections among people, ideas and the environment through engaging artists, children, families, and communities in quality arts education experiences.
Website: http://www.artstart.org
Yuya Negishi – Giant Cat Mural
Japanese Mural Artist Yuya Negisihi creates a giant one of a kind mural in honor of the Internet Cat Video Festival and you get to help!
Yuya Negishi is a Japanese visual artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was born in Showa Village, Gunma, Japan and relocated to Minneapolis in 2010 where he has been spreading his unique blend of culture and style in a variety of artistic mediums ranging from the intimate SUMI ink drawing to large scale murals, always drawing inspiration from the memories and sensations of growing up in the Japanese countryside and his exposure to contemporary western culture.
http://www.yuyart.com
Jessie Lawson – Flying Cat Art House
Meet the prolific Flying Cat Art House Artist Jessie Lawson and take a look at some of her unique cat-creations!
Artist Statement: I am an academic by training, with a Ph.D. in English literature, whose late-blooming career as a visual artist has been an unexpected gift. In my mid-fifties I began painting hybrid creatures that are partly human, partly something else. They are often catlike, which is why I adopted the name Flying Cat Arthouse for my studio. My creatures are often intensely engaged with one another across the species divide. A dog and a deer share a meal; a cat dances with a bird; a stag lifts up a small possum; mouse-girls wearing raccoon masks lie in bed with their pet cats. These creatures visited my imagination suddenly and vividly. My first such visitation was a white cat in a yellow dress, which inspired a not very good painting of what was for me a very compelling creature. I’ve gone on to translate these creatures into other media: collages, shrines, art dolls, even a deck of cards.
After retiring from my day job in 1999, I started concentrating on making and showing my art. In 2010 moved to Minneapolis, where my work can be found at several places around town. I can be found most regularly at Vine Arts Center, an organization of which I’m a member, with a gallery located at 2637 27th Avenue South.
Although technically I am self-taught, my work reflects a lifelong study of the arts. Influences range from medieval manuscript illuminations to early modern painters such as Matisse, Picasso, and the German Expressionists. I try to learn from the artists whom I admire by echoing what they have done, as a form of homage. They afford lenses through which I can look at the creatures of my own imagination. In the end, my broadest commitment is this—I believe in imagining better worlds, representing them in art, and working to make our environment more closely resemble our vision of what might be.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Flying-Cat-Arthouse/173497756031273
Susan Gainen: Whimsical Wildlife Doumentarian
Meet Whimsical Wildlife Documentarian Susan Gainen and her wonderful world of animals. Gainen is a Whimsical Wildlife Documentarian and occasional abstract painter. She lives on a path and flyway frequented by creatures who stop at her studio, sit for portraits, tell their stories, and eat her snacks. Her cat Max is Muse, Model, and Snacks Manager. Were it not for the facts that both the creatures and the snacks are metaphorical, her snacks budget would be the size of a small South American country. She has taken responsibility for the whimsical wildlife of Saint Paul, her adopted hometown. Among the creatures she paints are Saint Paul’s Cave Creatures (in the Lost Cave Paintings of Saint Paul), Backyard Roosters, Panda & Frogs from the Hidden Bamboo Forest, Wild Parrots of the Grim Winter of 2013, Tiny Wild Hummingbirds, Penguins, Owls, & Parrots, Feminist Hens Leaving the Hen House, and the acapella group, 3 Cats & 11 Flamingos.
She has written and illustrated three books: Meet the LLLamas, The Backyard Roosters of Saint Paul, and The Small Friends’ Chronicles.
http://www.susangainenartist.com
Community Partners
Learn More about Animal Resources and Welfare
The festival will include representatives from several local community resources to help educate attendees about cat related issues.
Animal Humane Society – Make a Cat Toy for Your Favorite Feline
Visit the Animal Humane Society at Internet Cat Video Festival and make a toy for your favorite feline!
About the Animal Humane Society: As the leading animal welfare organization in the Upper Midwest, Animal Society is committed to engaging and serving local communities of people and animals. Through its locations in Buffalo, Coon Rapids, Golden Valley, St. Paul, and Woodbury, AHS cares for nearly 24,000 animals every year.
In addition to adoption, surrender, and rescue, AHS provides programs and services that compassionately serve all stages of an animal’s life, including competitively priced pet boarding and more than 40 training classes each week. A newly expanded Pet Helpline (952-HELP-PET) provides caring, compassionate advice and resources to help solve any animal issue.
AHS also partners with Kindest Cut to provide low-cost spay and neuter surgeries, wellness services, and dental care to cats, dogs and rabbits belonging to families with limited means, and to nonprofit rescues and shelters. Sterilization surgeries are available via a fully equipped mobile surgical unit, serving over 25 communities in Minnesota and Western Wisconsin, and at the Melrose Animal Clinic at Animal Humane Society’s Golden Valley location.
AHS educational and outreach programs foster humane values and animal responsibility. Humane educators present programs at Twin Cities schools, offer summer camps for youth, host a youth club, and more. A new outreach effort in Frogtown and East St. Paul engages underserved communities with community-based education and free or low-cost services for their pets.
Animal Humane Society is proud to participate in the Internet Cat Video Festival. Stop by the AHS booth to find out more about the programs offered and how you can get involved, or visit
animalhumanesociety.org.
Website: http://www.animalhumanesociety.org
Twin Cities Pet Rescue–Kitty Plinko
Take a pause and try your paws at Twin Cities Pet Rescue’s game of Kitty Plinko!
About TCPR: Founded in March 2009, Twin Cities Pet Rescue’s mission is the rescuing of companion animals in need – often rescuing and serving animals overlooked by other organizations.
TCPR is a volunteer-run, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All of our rescued animals stay with loving foster homes until they are adopted and receive veterinary care, high quality nutrition, basic training and love while waiting for their fur-ever families.
Website – http://www.tcpetrescue.org/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pages/Twin-Cities-Pet-Rescue/275955027363
Twitter – @tcpetrescue – https://twitter.com/tcpetrescue
Instagram – https://instagram.com/twincitiespetrescue/
Saint Paul Saintly City Cat Club–Saintly City Cat Club Archives
Browse the archives of the Saint Paul Saintly City Cat Club and learn about this unique organization!
Mission Statement: The Saintly City Cat Club, Inc.
was founded in 1974 to:
•Gain from the experience of others.
•Have and provide educational opportunities for ourselves and other cat lovers.
•Encourage ethical breeding.
•Hold cat shows and promote interest in and knowledge of purebred cats.
•Support organizations engaged in the care, welfare and health of cats.
Saint Paul Saintly City Cat Club Website: http://saintlycitycatclub.org
The Twin Cities Cat Fanciers
The Twin City Cat Fanciers is one of the oldest functioning clubs in The Cat Fanciers’ Association, Inc. The club was founded in 1938 and, except for a few years during WWII, has been holding shows annually with an occasional bi-annual event.
Twin Cities Cat Fanciers Website: http://www.tccfcatshow.info
Caring For Cats
Caring for Cats, Inc. is an all-volunteer, no-kill shelter and foster network for cats and kittens located in North St. Paul, Minnesota. Our shelter provides a home-like “catmosphere” for approximately 40 cats and kittens. We have about 30-40 cats and kittens living in foster homes at any time.
Over 90% of our shelter cats and kittens continue to find homes on an annual basis. In 2011, we took in 121 cats and kittens and found loving homes for 128 of our feline friends, including some who had been with us for one or more years.
We are organized for charitable and educational purposes to help cats.
Website: www.Caring-for-Cats.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Caring-for-Cats/112774052078197
Animal Ark No Kill Shelter
Animal Ark is a Minnesota-based animal welfare organization. We embrace and follow a no kill philosophy in our work to rescue, rehabilitate, & rehome 800 of Minnesota’s lost and homeless companion animals every year. Animal Ark Shelter, located in Hastings, Minnesota, operates as the heart of the rescue effort, while the Thrift Store in St. Paul provides an enjoyable shopping experience, crucial support for the shelter, and community involvement. Founded in 1977, Animal Ark is a 501(c) 3 non-profit Minnesota corporation.
Website: http://www.animalarkmn.org
Internet Cat Video Festival FAQS
Tickets are required.
Seating is available in the stands or on the outfield. No reserved seating; all space is first-come, first-served.
Bring blankets to sit on; chairs are not permitted.
Please leave all pets at home, including cats and dogs. Due to the venue’s rules, animals are not allowed at this event with the exception of service animals. Most kitties would probably rather stay at home anyway.
Costumes are encouraged!
No outside food or beverages are allowed, but there will be plenty of choices at the event.
The event will be ASL interpreted.
Wheelchair-accessible seating available. For more information about accessibility, call 612.375.7564 or e-mail access@walkerart.org.
In case of rain, this event will be held Tuesday, August 25. Original tickets will be honored.
Transportation & Parking
CHS Field is conveniently located off of I-94 and Highway 52 at 360 Broadway Street, St. Paul, MN 55101. Driving directions and information about bus or light rail transportation are available here: http://chsfield.com/getting-here. Or ride your bike. Plenty of bike racks are available at CHS Field.
There are many parking lots and ramps in the Lowertown area. For details, check the CHS Field parking map at http://saintsbaseball.com/game-day-experience/parking.
Join in the Festival via Social Media
#catvidfest
Twitter: @catvidfest
Facebook: Walker Art Center, #catvidfest
A Brief History of the Internet Cat Video Festival
In August 2012, the Walker Art Center planned a small experiment as part of its outdoor summer programming on Open Field, the greenspace adjacent to the museum. What if there was an evening dedicated to the Internet phenomenon of cat videos? Would anyone come to watch videos that they could easily view by few clicks at home or work? How would this solo hobby translate to a public setting?
Word of the event quickly spread internationally via social media and the press, including coverage as varied as The New York Times, the BBC, Japanese television, Australian talk shows, Brazilian newspapers, CNN, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Cat Fancy, Slate, Time, CHEEZburger, and many more. The result was some 10,000 people (and a few celebricats) gathered on the hillside at the Walker, enjoying the first Internet Cat Video Festival—together. Subsequent installments—at the Minnesota State Fair Grand Stand (with Grumpy Cat and Lil Bub, among other special guests) and back at Walker’s Open Field last year—attracted similar crowds, and the overwhelming success of the event has led to international tours of the program.
Internet Cat Video Festival Select Media:
“On Thursday evening the Walker Art Center, one of the nation’s most prominent institutions of contemporary art, hosted the inaugural Internet Cat Video Film Festival here. An estimated 10,000 people turned out for an event that was, from its inception to its closing credits, an online meme made flesh (and fur).” — The New York Times
“Organized by the world-renowned Walker Art Center, the festival is proof positive that you don’t need to sit in front of a computer all by yourself to enjoy a good Internet meme.” — Today.com
“Intended only as an experiment at first, the festival became a stellar example of togetherness in the Internet age, a place where people fond of viewing cat videos, one of the most universally popular online time-wasters, could gather IRL (in real life) for communal enjoyment of the same thing on a giant screen.” —Star Tribune
“We know what you’re thinking: Why am I not in Minneapolis right now at the first Internet Cat Video Film Festival watching the best clips of cats chasing laser pointers, purring and ignoring the camera?” —Mashable
“Proof that cats really do rule everything around us” —Timeout New York
The festival, for all its admitted silliness, does spring from an intriguing conceptual premise: Essentially, organizers wondered, can a phenomenon that is so manifestly “of the Internet” translate into “real life”? And can a genre that is consumed almost entirely by individuals, on their personal, intimate screens, be appreciated in a mass setting? Given the success of the festival over its three-year run — it’s now so popular that it tours outside Minneapolis and has spawned copycats (heh) all over the country — the answers to both
questions are, apparently, yes.’ —The Washington Post
Host Barb Abney
Abney is a radio host with over twenty years of experience. She has been a fan of cats since birth! She was raised on a farm in rural Ohio where she was surrounded by farm cats. Over the years, the one thing that always remained part of her life was cats. Her current brood consists of 9 year-old Gary and three year-old Zod. Abney is from the Cincinnati, Ohio area originally, but has lived in Minneapolis since 2006 when she took a job with Minnesota Public Radio’s alternative station, 89.3 The Current. In February, Abney took the
8 am–12 noon show on air at Go 96.3.