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To help you navigate the festival’s over 120 activities, we’ve invited a few people to make a list of projects they don’t want to miss. They simply made a selection using the site’s My Night feature (and then we added their lists as a filter on the artist list called “My Night Highlights”). Follow in their footsteps, or make your own!

This list comes from Lara Roy, the Director of Continuing Studies at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and mom to Emerson (age 9) and Milo (age 4).

My Night: Northern Spark with my two young boys

The Bell Museum, Capturing Insects
My two sons, ages 4 and 9, love bugs (what boys don’t?) and I think this activity at the Weisman will be a great introduction to Northern Spark and to staying up late.

Raptor Center, All About Owls
The boys love going to the Raptor Center, and we’re always excited when we see a hawk or an owl flying above. Here we can get an up close look as part of Northern Spark.

Tetsuya Yamada and Clive Murphy with U of M students,
Pizza/Colliope

We’ll take a look at this fantastic contraption while at the Weisman, and maybe grab a slice as we head over to the next zone.

Keetra Dean Dixon, Swing Hall, Swing All
A super fun installation in the skyway at MCAD (my place of employment). A cool way to show the boys that art installations can be interactive and fun. Plus an excellent way to make Mom’s workplace seem cool!

HOTTEA, letting go
Since I’m rarely without a knitting project in hand, and Grandma’s a big “yarn bomber”, it will be great to show the kiddos this elaborate yarn installation. We can look for other yarn bombs around town after being inspired by this one.

EXCO: Experimental Community Education of the Twin Cities,
Sparkler Conversations

The little guys love sparklers and fireworks, it will be fun to show them incorporated into an artwork- plus I can’t wait to see what words they choose to make!

Asia Ward, Body Pong
As the night gets later and later it will be important to keep the kids involved with some cool interactive stuff- this project that comes movement with the concept of a video game is just the thing.

Robin Schwartzman,
THINK AND WONDER, WONDER AND THINK

The Stone Arch Bridge is always awesome to visit, it feels in some ways like the hub of Northern Spark, and I’d like to chat with the boys about the festival and how these words connect.

Acoustic Campfire & Bedtime Stories at the Walker Art Center
A nice way to round out the night before heading home to bed.