Minneapolis, March 11, 2016— The Walker Art Center is discontinuing its
Internet Cat Video Festival and donating its archive of select photos,
planning documents, promotional materials and assorted cat-themed
ephemera to the Minnesota Historical Society. “The Walker’s ingenious
Internet Cat Video Festival is a Minnesota original, a unique example of
popular culture in our recent history,” said Lory Sutton, MNHS chief
marketing officer. “At the Minnesota Historical Society, we preserve and
make available a wide range of materials chronicling our state’s history and
culture. The Cat Video Festival materials will join items in our collections
ranging from Bob Dylan’s 1960 Party Tape and Minnesota’s 1849 Territorial
Seal to a significant collection of beaded Ojibwe Bandolier bags and
500,000 printed works, including a copy of This Side of Paradise dedicated
to MNHS by F. Scott Fitzgerald.”
The Walker has hosted this homage to internet celebricats for the past four
years and now hopes others will be inspired to create similar events. In
August 2012, the Walker 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? The result: a crowd of over 10,000 assembled
to share a night of community and wonder on the Walker lawn.
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. Subsequent installments—at the Minnesota State Fair Grand Stand in 2013 (with Grumpy Cat and Lil Bub, among other special guests),
back at Walker’s Open Field in 2014, and at St. Paul CHS Field last
summer—attracted similar crowds, and the overwhelming success of the
event has led to international tours of the program.
Now the Walker is focused on creating new artistic and programmatic
experiences for community to gather, enjoy art together, get inspired, and
be surprised in the newly renovated Minneapolis Sculpture Garden in the
summer of 2017 2017 with 20 new sculptures, including 6 site-specific
commissioned artworks.
Olga Viso, Executive Director of the Walker, comments, “We never could
have imagined the cultural phenomena that our Internet Cat Video Festival
experiment inspired. It’s been invigorating to share the Walker’s core
mission of experimentation and community engagement on the world stage.
We look forward to seeing how that same spirit can inspire audiences to
experience new artworks and programs at our renovated campus and
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.”
The cat videos showcased in the Festival remain available for viewing on
YouTube.
Things We Learned from Hosting the Internet Cat Video Festival
–People crave communal experiences.
–Cats will not participate in a step and repeat.
–Grumpy Cat is really quite lovely.
–A butter sculpture of a cat starts to melt in about the length of time of 15 cat
videos in the Minnesota summer heat.
–Internet communities can flourish off-line.
–Furries will come.
–Cats are big in Japan.
Internet Cat Video Festival History
2012 Festival
August 30, Walker Art Center
Golden Kitty Winner: Henri 2, Paw de Deux
Lifetime Achievement Awards:
Kittens Inspired by Kittens by blakekelly0
Surprised Kitty by rozzzafly
Keyboard Cat by chuckieart
Golden Kitty Nominees
Henri 2, Paw de Deux by Will Braden
Nyan Cat by saraj00n
Maru Slides into Boxes by mugumogu
Cat Mom Hugs Baby Kitten by dragomimet86
Nonono Cat by MrDron059
TwoTalkingCats by TheCatsPyjaaaamas
Dubstep Cat by xga66erx
2013 Festival
August 28, Minnesota State Fair Grandstand, St. Paul
Golden Kitty Winner: Original Grumpy Cat
Hall of Fame Awards
Keyboard Cat
Kittens Inspired by Kittens
Maru
Lil Bub Sounds
Boots and Cats
Nyan Cat [Original]
Henri, Paw de Deux
Golden Kitty Nominees
Original Grumpy Cat
Catalogue
Cat In A Shark Costume Chases A Duck While Riding A Roomba
Cat Licks Vacuum Cleaner
Kitten Meets Hedgehog
2014 Festival
August 14, Walker Art Center
Golden Kitty Winner:
8 Signs of Addiction created by Rob Moore.
Golden Kitty Nominees
#5 – Milo Wanted Attention
#4 – Jedi Kittens Strike Back
#3 – Gotcha
#2 – An Engineer’s Guide to Cats, 2.0
#1 – 8 Signs of Addiction
2015 Festival
August 12, CHS Field, St. Paul
Golden Kitty Winner:
Cat Behavior Finally Explained created by
Alana Grelyak and Michael Gabriele.
Golden Kitty Nominees
Pavlov’s Kitty
Back Off!
Cat Behavior Finally Explained
Brain Freeze
Hover Cat
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