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Paddy Mittag-McNaught ’20 came to St. Olaf College with the goal of preparing himself for a career in architecture.

In addition to completing a major in studio art, he designed an individual major in architecture and sustainable studies. He worked as a teaching assistant in the Art Department, was a monitor in the wood shop, and was heavily involved in the Music Entertainment Committee.

At the end of his senior year, he applied for the St. Olaf Emerging Artist Program. Modeled after “artist in residence” experiences, the program offers budding artists and curators a dedicated studio space, a stipend for art materials, and the opportunity to display their work at several gallery shows throughout the academic year following their graduation.

The program was pivotal for Mittag-McNaught, who is now completing the final year of his Masters of Architecture degree at Yale University. 

“The opportunity to have a full year where I could expand on a developing body of work drew me to apply,” Mittag-McNaught says. “The program itself exceeded my expectations at the time. We were given a lot of freedom and were able to have three gallery shows.”

Since beginning his graduate program at Yale, he has built an entire house from start to finish, conducted architectural conservation research in Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy, and has worked as an architect for Estudio Pedro Reyes in Mexico City.

He credits the Emerging Artist Program with helping pave his path to this success. The program provided him with the time and space to develop a portfolio of work that he used in his applications to competitive graduate programs. 

“More importantly, it gave me time and space to find my own identity in my work and my own methodology,” he says. “Successes, failures, whatever the case, I owned it all and learned from everything. I continue to use these lessons today, even if the medium has changed.” 

For nearly 40 years, the Emerging Artist Program has provided St. Olaf graduates with a yearlong opportunity to prepare for further studies in the visual arts or a career as a working artist. The Emerging Artists also mentor undergraduate students and contribute to the St. Olaf, Northfield, and wider Twin Cities art communities. 

Each year, four to six St. Olaf graduates are selected by the Art Department faculty to participate in the program, which allows them access to the Art Department’s facilities, including the foundry, kilns, and printmaking studio. Those selected for the program are self-motivated artists looking for an intensive experience to prepare them for a professional future rooted in the visual arts. 

This kind of program is unique among undergraduate institutions and invaluable for aspiring professional artists — as much so now as when it was established nearly four decades ago.

Creating an art apprenticeship program
The Emerging Artist Program started with faculty member Arch Leean. Leean came to St. Olaf in 1964 after a 15-year career in Hollywood animation that saw him contribute to several eminent studios, including Disney and Hanna-Barbera. Drawn to teaching, he decided to continue his career at St. Olaf, where he was hired by Art Department founder Arnold Flaten and eventually became the department chair. By 1978, Leean had helped grow the department to include five faculty members. That year he hired Wendell Arneson to fill a nine-month sabbatical opening. After three months, Arneson was promoted to a full-time faculty member. 

Leean had recently implemented a new foundational course program in the Art Department that covered sculpture, drawing, and black and white design. After the program’s first year, Leean added a course in color design. Arneson was the first to ever teach the course. 

“It was an amazing gift,” Arneson says. “I’d never taken that course. It didn’t exist where I’d been, or even at the graduate level, but I helped invent it.” 

The foundational program accelerated art students’ learning and drew non-majors into the program. Encapsulating St. Olaf’s liberal arts experience, many students who took the foundational course series decided to double major in art and another area of academic interest. With the success of the foundational courses, the number of art majors more than tripled in four years, from 10-12 majors a year to 35-40 by 1982.

This growth allowed the department to move from its space in an old 1950s dormitory to what is now the Center for Art and Dance. With the Art Department’s growth and access to new resources, Leean proposed the idea of tapping into the department’s alumni network and hosting an artist-in-residence each year to provide additional mentorship to students. For three years, the department hosted working artists who were alumni of the college, including Star Tribune illustrator L.K. Hanson. But it quickly became clear that convincing working artists to take time off from their regular gigs wasn’t sustainable. The proposed alternative? Pivot the model to recent graduates instead of working artists. Thus, the Apprenticeship Program was born. 

Focused on providing Art Department graduates with mentorship opportunities and the chance to build their portfolio during the year after graduation, the structure of the Apprenticeship Program promised Oles a rewarding, hands-on experience — but its success was not guaranteed. 

At first, the program was funded by one of the college deans. When that funding was no longer available, Arneson wasn’t sure where to turn. Then he happened to have lunch with a former student, Steve Carpenter ’82, with whom he had stayed in touch. Carpenter had joined a signage design company in the Twin Cities after graduating and had gone on to start his own signage business. Arneson explained the power of the Apprenticeship Program.

“I would’ve given anything to have had that available to me,” Arneson remembers Carpenter saying. “So, well, I’ll pay for it.”

Newly married and with a fledgling business, Carpenter provided funding for the emerging artists for the next 20 years. In 2011 Carpenter and Arneson, along with their spouses Julie Wellman and Beth Christensen, established an endowed fund for the Apprenticeship Program, with additional gifts from alumni and other supporters of the program. The Leean Carpenter Art Apprentice Fund — named in honor of Leean, who died the year the fund was established — has been supporting the program since.

Launching careers in the arts
Since its inception, the Emerging Artist Program has had an immeasurable impact on many St. Olaf graduates. Mary Reid Kelley ’01 majored in studio art with a minor in women’s studies and ran cross country and track during her time on the Hill. During her year in the Emerging Artist Program, she appreciated the flexible structure and the access to studio space, which provided the time and space she needed to develop a portfolio and affirm her commitment to art as a career. 

“You must do the thing that you were born to do, and you must face the question of what that is at some point with no intermediary material. No assignment, no class, no one you’re trying to please,” Reid Kelley says.

While the program provided plenty of solitude to work on her art, it also gave her “encouragement, respect, and the knowledge that people you spent the last few years studying under think you are worthy of this investment,” she says. 

After her apprenticeship year, Reid Kelley went on to earn her MFA from Yale, and she is now a full-time award-winning artist. She collaborates with her husband, Patrick Kelley ’91, on black-and-white short films that explore different historical and mythological narratives through humor and collage. Their videos have been exhibited at galleries and museums across the world, including the Hammer Museum, the ICA Boston, SITE Santa Fe, Tate Liverpool, and Kunsthalle Bremen. In 2016 Reid Kelley was selected as a MacArthur Fellow by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Commonly known as “Genius Grants,” these prestigious awards are given to creative individuals as an investment in their work and potential.

Jane Becker Nelson ’04, who now serves as the director of St. Olaf’s Flaten Art Museum, says her time in the Emerging Artist Program played a pivotal role in helping her discover a passion for exhibition curating.

“The Emerging Artist year jump-started my vocational discovery,” she says. “It opened doors to jobs at the Walker Art Center, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Groveland Gallery, and Seattle Art Museum.”

Becker Nelson went on to earn her master’s degree in art history at Queen’s University in Ontario, eventually returning to St. Olaf to oversee the Flaten Art Museum — where she works with many students who are curious about careers in museums and archives.

“One of the best parts of my job is coaching our team of 20 student employees. The job gives them a chance to put theory into practice, hone their skills, and dabble with future career interests — just like I needed to do,” she says.

St. Olaf Associate Professor of Art and Art History Peter Nelson ’04 also credits the Emerging Artist Program with helping prepare him for a full-time career in the arts.

“It gave me the time and space to develop my work and work ethic, which really prepared me for graduate school,” he says.

Now he’s working to continue to grow the program for current and future students. When Nelson joined the Art Department faculty in 2013, he noticed that the structure of the program hadn’t been updated or evaluated in years. He collected feedback from participants and learned that many thought the term “apprenticeship” wasn’t the right fit; thus, the program was renamed as the Fifth-Year Emerging Artist Program, and simplified last spring to the Emerging Artist Program. 

Participants also provided feedback that they wanted more opportunities to display their work outside of Northfield. When Nelson participated in the program, there were two gallery shows for the emerging artists at the Northfield Arts Guild and Flaten Art Museum — and these were still the two gallery opportunities available when he became a faculty member. He was instrumental in adding a gallery show in the Twin Cities. After several years of exhibitions at Public Functionary and Truckstop Gallery in Minneapolis, last year the artists displayed work at the Q.Arma Building in northeast Minneapolis during the May Art-a-Whirl festival — the largest open art studio tour in the country, which will celebrate its own 30th anniversary in 2025. 

“It helps our recent graduates connect professionally to other artists, curators, and audiences in the Twin Cities,” says Nelson, who is also helping to formalize the networking and mentorship experiences of the program in collaboration with the St. Olaf Piper Center for Vocation and Career. 

The Work of Art certificate program, facilitated by the St. Paul-based organization Springboard for the Arts and offered in collaboration with the Piper Center, is one such example. The program provides a professional development curriculum that is designed to teach business skills to artists in all disciplines. In addition to one-on-one career consultations with the Springboard’s Artist Consultants, Emerging Artists can attend a series of workshops on topics that include career planning, grant writing, pitching work, website basics, and e-commerce.

The Piper Center’s Twin Cities Arts Connections Program also provides an opportunity for Emerging Artists to network with St. Olaf alumni who are working in a variety of arts-related careers. Aside from these specific programs, the Piper Center is always a resource for Emerging Artists, from guidance in the job search to support through the application process for jobs and further education. 

Faculty members in the Art Department also offer another layer of mentorship and support for the Emerging Artists. Anda Tanaka ’12, who participated in the Emerging Artists Program herself, returned to campus to teach printmaking and drawing courses.

“I am excited to return to the Art Department, where I began my journey as a professional artist and bring with me the many lessons learned and connections made during my time as a student and Emerging Artist,” Tanaka says. 

As a student at St. Olaf, Tanaka majored in music and studio art and was part of the St. Olaf Band, St. Olaf Jazz Band, and the cycling team. After completing the Emerging Artist Program, Tanaka worked part-time cleaning and doing printmaking for an artist-run house cleaning startup in Minneapolis while continuing to make and show her artwork. In 2019 she began an MFA program at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. She moved back to Minneapolis during the pandemic, where she completed her MFA at Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2022 and apprenticed at Highpoint Center for Printmaking. She credits the Emerging Artist Program with helping prepare her for the life of a working artist. 

“I applied to the Emerging Artist Program because it was an incredible stepping stone from undergrad to establishing my own studio practice,” Tanaka says. “It did just that: I became accustomed to working a part-time day job while maintaining a studio practice and an arts community.”

The community aspect of art has always been key for Tanaka, and the Emerging Artist Program helped her cultivate relationships that are still important to her today. 

“My main takeaways from the program are my relationships with my artist peers and mentors,” Tanaka says. “I remain close with my cohort and the professors I worked with. These relationships offer friendship, artistic support, and a professional network.”

Lewis Colburn ’05 also valued the sense of community and professional support that the program provided. 

“My cohort of fellow apprentices have become lifelong friends. While I’m now in Philadelphia, and they are all in the Twin Cities, we’ve kept in touch over the years, and reconnected in earnest during the pandemic,” he says. “It’s wonderful to have a network of creative folks that I shared such a formative time with, and for that, I’m deeply grateful.”

Now the head of the Drexel University Department of Art and Art History, Colburn majored in Russian language and studio art at St. Olaf and sang in the Viking Chorus and Chapel Choir. Having initially planned to study art in preparation for a career in architecture, Colburn fell in love with the art of sculpture during a class with Professor Emeritus of Art and Art History Irve Dell. The Emerging Artist Program was a perfect next step to prepare for graduate studies in sculpture, which he completed at Syracuse University. He has since shown his work internationally and participated in several artist-in-residence programs.

“I think the program provided an incredible transition to grad school, and to the difficult balancing act of being an artist in the world. The combination of studio access and the pressure of exhibitions was very valuable in establishing an open-ended but disciplined studio practice, which has served me well over the years,” Colburn says.