Registration is open to fathers of Minneapolis Public Schools students to participate in Fa(r)ther Paint, a day-long program about the art of fatherhood taught by Minneapolis artist Sean Garrison.
Registration is open to fathers of Minneapolis Public Schools students to participate in Fa(r)ther Paint, a day-long program about the art of fatherhood taught by Minneapolis artist Sean Garrison. Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Registration is open for an art-based retreat for fathers of children attending Minneapolis Public Schools. 

Fa(r)ther Paint will be held from 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3 and Sunday, Aug. 4 in gallery 332 in the Northrup King Building at 1500 Jackson St. NE, Minneapolis. Both days have 15 spots available. Registration ends July 27. 

Facilitated by local artist seangarrison and sponsored by Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), the day includes individual and group painting sessions, discussions about fatherhood and emotional expression and an intro to journaling exercises that encourage daily communication with children. No prior art experience is required. 

The program is free. Those who participate receive an art briefcase filled with art supplies, three art journals to complete with their children, a $200 stipend if they attend the full session and the painting they complete during that day. They also will participate in a group mural that will be displayed at MPS. 

Art can be a conduit to communicate and connect with children, seangarrison said. The class looks to teach fathers new ways to express themselves, bond with their children and connect with other fathers in the community.

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“If you can create beauty where you thought none existed and give it to your child, that’s saying exactly what you want to say if you could say it perfectly,” seangarrison said. “Because art – when I create – that’s the most perfect thing I could ever do because it’s born in between my shoulders and not between my ears.” 

Every father’s relationship with their children is different, seangarrison noted. Some live in the same home as their children. Some don’t and many fathers have been socialized to be reserved and not show emotion. Every experience is unique. 

“How can we help these men celebrate themselves, communicate and communicate with other men and talk about some of the challenges and some of the joys – but then illustrate this thing through art?” seangarrison said this is the question this inaugural class looks to ask. 

If the class is successful, seangarrison hopes to take it to other school districts and regions. He believes it is a way to connect in new ways. 

The artist pointed out that fathers know better than most that a handmade gift is special. A father of three daughters, seangarrison’s youngest is 15 years old. When she was three years old, she gave him a turtle she made out of a paper plate. 

“That sat shotgun with me for three years,” seangarrison said. Until, when she was six years old, she gave him a stuffed turtle called “Little Sean,” which he still keeps in his art studio in northeast Minneapolis. 

“So during all my shows, Little Sean is on side (of the) stage to keep her close to me,” seangarrison said. 

Father of four and MPS teacher Matt Branch was one of the first parents to sign up for the class. Branch has worked with seangarrison in the past and been a spectator at many of Garrison’s shows. He first met the artist during a live painting to music for the family of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man killed by a police officer at a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center. 

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“It was just beautiful. I’d never cried publicly before. I’d never seen something so – something that I didn’t understand, but at the same time I fully understood it, and I was like, ‘this is art,’” Branch said. 

Branch said, as an adult, he has been inspired by seangarrison’s work and has witnessed its impact first-hand. As Branch’s children have grown, he’s watched them become artists as well, a gift he says he wants to help nurture. 

“I’m looking forward to opening myself up, being a little more vulnerable,” he said. “Art was never one of my strong suits in school and something I maybe even pushed back on. I was closed minded and maybe didn’t really understand all that art was and what it entailed and the power behind it.”

Winter Keefer

Winter Keefer

Winter Keefer is MinnPost’s Metro reporter. Follow her on Twitter or email her at wkeefer@minnpost.com.