MINNEAPOLIS, March 8 (UPI) -- Minnesota is set to open the world's first Water Bar that will feature a full-fledged bar that will serve exclusively water products. 
 
 The Water Bar began as a pop-up art project in 2014 as a collaboration between artists Shanai Matteson and Colin Kloecker of Works Progress Studio. The bar serves local tap water to increase awareness about problems concerning water quality. 
 
 "Water Bar is an itinerant open space for the generation of conversations and connections around the life-sustaining, precarious, communal activity of drinking tap water," the bar's website states. "We invite Water Bar visitors to engage with one another, as well as with project collaborators, who tend bar and share their knowledge of water and water issues." 
 
 The project is set to open its first brick and mortar location in its home state of Minnesota in order to combine with an art studio and hopefully extend its reach. 
 
 "The most important thing is that we're actually combining the Water Bar with a public studio, which we're thinking of as an art sustainability studio and incubator, intended to build local projects with other artists and designers, all about water and environmental sustainability at the local level," Matteson told MinnPost. 
 
 The bar employs the motto "Water is all we have," and allows visitors to sample flights of tap water free of charge, so they can taste the difference between private well water and public tap water. 
 
 Matteson added that Water Bar's primary focus is to change the public perception that Minnesota and other areas are free from water problems simply because there's an abundance of natural water in the area. 
 
 "People think Minnesota doesn't have any water problems, that we have so much water because we're the land of 10,000 lakes," she said. "Water is not something people think about, but we have potential water shortage problems and water quality problems, like what's going on in White Bear Lake. And across Minnesota, most people get their drinking water from groundwater sources, and those are not immune to pollutants." ||||| Hot on the heels of the new vegan butcher shop comes another groundbreaking self-negation. Within a month Northeast Minneapolis is going to have the first full-fledged water bar of its kind, an establishment where you can sit and drink a variety of local tap waters to your heart’s content. Their delightful motto: “Water is all we have.” 
 
 Though I can’t help but chuckle, the Water Bar is no joke. It’s the culmination of work from a team of Minneapolis social practice artists who specialize in community engagement, and the idea is to start calling attention to the importance of communal water systems. For the next year they’ll be serving Twin Cities waters to the masses and, they hope, starting conversations that could not be more fundamental to our everyday lives. 
 
 ‘This is water’ 
 
 The late writer David Foster Wallace famously used the parable of the fishbowl in a commencement speech [PDF]. Here’s Wallace’s joke: 
 
 There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?” 
 
 Wallace went on to discuss culture and kindness, but he could have talked about underground pipes. Just as a fish cannot see the water all around it, the first rule of infrastructure is that it’s almost always invisible. We tend to take our infrastructure for granted. That is, until it breaks. 
 
 “People think Minnesota doesn’t have any water problems, that we have so much water because we’re the land of 10,000 lakes,” Shanai Matteson told me. Matteson and her partner, Colin Kloecker, run a Minneapolis-based social practice art organization called Works Progress Studio, and the Water Bar is their brainchild. 
 
 “Water is not something people think about, but we have potential water shortage problems and water quality problems, like what’s going on in White Bear Lake. And across Minnesota, most people get their drinking water from groundwater sources, and those are not immune to pollutants,” Matteson told me. 
 
 For the record, the tap water in Minneapolis and St. Paul comes from the Mississippi River — after a visit to each city’s treatment plant, where it is filtered and disinfected. That said, though it takes a discerning palate, you can taste differences between waters from different places. 
 
 “We do tasting flights,” Matteson explained. “There are subtle differences in how the water is treated; for example, private well water is not really treated in the same way. Sure, it’s tested and safe to drink, but it tastes different from city water. And we travel to other places and you can really tell where water isn’t quite so abundant or where cities don’t have the same level of treatment methods in place.” 
 
 The water bar’s brick-and-mortar migration 
 
 Like the Steam Plume Project I wrote about a few months ago, the idea for the Water Bar came out of an art and science collaboration organized by Public Art Saint Paul, which had focused on starting conversations between artists and scientists. In particular, the group worked around the Mississippi River, asking questions about how it relates to the Twin Cities’ physical and social environment. 
 
 Courtesy of Works Progress Studio The organizers of the Water Bar hope to start conversations that could not be more fundamental to our everyday lives. 
 
 As they learned more about the river, Matteson and Kloecker began to think more carefully about water. And thus the water bar was born. 
 
 The premise is pretty simple, really. 
 
 “The Water Bar is a bar that serves local tap water. We give it away for free; it’s primarily Minneapolis tap water, but we’ll have other local metro area taps, some rotating taps, maybe some time tap waters from other parts of MN. The idea is to help people talk about their connections to tap water,” Matteson said. 
 
 They’ve taken the project all over the state, and around the Midwest. And now, kind of like a food truck that finds a permanent home, the Water Bar project is moving into a shop on Central Avenue just off Lowry. Having a permanent home will allow the project to expand its reach. 
 
 “The most important thing is that we’re actually combining the Water Bar with a public studio, which we’re thinking of as an art sustainability studio and incubator, intended to build local projects with other artists and designers, all about water and environmental sustainability at the local level,” Matteson told me. 
 
 The first step though, is to recruit some bartenders. Works Progress is going to wrangle experts on the water system from various capacities — engineers, city employees, environmental experts, students — who will be trained in some of the basics of the Twin Cities’ water system. Their job will be to pour the drinks, and start the watery conversations. 
 
 (The tip jar will go to water-related charities, I am told.) 
 
 At the intersection of art, place, and water 
 
 Northeast Minneapolis is famous for lots of things: the sometimes awkward marriage of churches and bars, lots of diversity, the Mississippi River, beautiful parks, and a burgeoning art and local brewing scene. It turns out that a water bar on Central Avenue might bring all of those things together. 
 
 “Sure, it is like the vegan butcher, but it’s bigger,” Adelheid Koski, the president of the Holland Neighborhood Improvement Association replied when I joked with her about the name. (For the record, the Holland Neighborhood runs from just East of Central Avenue half way to the Mississippi, embracing the neighborhoods on either side of Lowry.) 
 
 “There’s always this talk about technology or the green economy, about getting artists involved. Well, this is a way to bring artists along as your neighborhood changes. People think of artists as being in studios with paintings or sculptures, as not necessarily being a part of the bigger community. But here it’s about community building,” Koski said. 
 
 A segment from TPT Rewire’s “TV Takeover” gives an idea of what to expect at the Water Bar. 
 
 Through the collaboration with the Holland neighborhood, the Water Bar will be occupying a newly remodeled space on Central Avenue for the next year. And if it works, they’re going to be serving the ultimate in watered down drinks for some time. (Works Progress is currently writing grants to keep the Water Bar going into the future, and there’s a GoFundMe page where you can help support the project.) 
 
 “Putting it on Central Avenue, this is a way to bring this to the next level,” Koski told me. “Right on Central, where 90 percent of Northeast will travel. At any given time during the week you’ll have artists engaging kids, older people, middle-aged people, white, black, Latinos. It’s right there. It can’t be more visible.” 
 
 I love imagining the look on the face of bewildered passers-by first noticing the words “water bar” hoisted above the narrow storefront. Then going inside to see a bar, some stools, and a bartender waiting to serve all-you-can-drink free water. 
 
 If you really need a beer instead, Fair State Brewing is just a block or so away. But in the meantime, enjoy the Twin Cities’ finest local taps. And feel free to chat with the bartender. That’s the whole point. ||||| A taproom for tap water and art-sustainability incubator. Help make it happen in Minneapolis! Give to the Water Bar & Public Studio 'SIP' fund and help us open our doors this spring. 
 
 
 
 #WaterBar #SIPfund #WaterIsAllWeHave #NEmpls 
 
 
 
 
 
 What is Water Bar? 
 
 Water Bar began in 2014 as a public art project, a pop-up bar that serves local tap waters and is staffed by artists, water researchers, sustainability educators, and other community residents. Here's a video from our opening night on Twin Cities Public Television's TV Takeover program: 
 
 
 
 
 
 Over the past two years this pop-up Water Bar has served local tap waters to over 30,000 people in Minnesota, Arkansas, Illinois and North Carolina - sparking conversations about the importance of local water to lives and communties, and helping to equip people to engage with complex issues that stem from our collective attitudes and approaches to environment - issues like water pollution and scarcity, land use and urban development, climate change, and environmental injustice. 
 
 
 
 In just under 2 years, we've also directly engaged over 60 volunteers and interns as Water Bar water tenders. These everyday experts help care for and communicate about water and the ways it shapes and is shaped by human culture. 
 
 
 
 We want to bring Water Bar back to our Minneapolis neighborhood. 
 
 Through partnerships with neighborhood and environmental organizations, University researchers, and other artists and advocates, we have the opportunity to open a storefront Water Bar & Public Studio in northeast Minneapolis. This social space will be convivial and creative, serving water (for free), and serving as a hub for neighborhood art and sustainability events, programs, community-led classes, and more. 
 
 
 
 Before we can open our doors, we need to hear from our community. 
 
 We've identified a space near Central and Lowry Avenues, we're lining up partnerships and building public program collaborations, but we need to know who else wants to see the Water Bar happen in Minneapolis. Give if you can, share if you can't, and please be in touch if you want to get involved! 
 
 
 
 Give to the Water Bar SIP (Studio-In-Progress) Fund! 
 
 The Water Bar SIP fund is our way of showing that a place-based, collaborative art and ecology project can thrive in Minneapolis with broad community support. Importantly, donations will help to cover the costs of opening the space and gathering the supplies we need to start activating it right away. 
 
 
 
 
 
 What will the SIP fund support? 
 
 
 
 (1) A Water Bar 'Taproom' - Where water is all we have, and water is always free. During regular taproom hours, anyone can visit for a free glass of Minneapolis tap water. Water Bar will also feature “limited edition” pours of other local and regional tap waters, inviting guests from those communities to share their own water stories. 
 
 
 
 These waters will be served by volunteer water tenders from partnering environmental and community organizations, schools, and local advocacy groups - they will provide information about the sources of these waters, related environmental issues and campaigns, and ways that visitors can get involved and take action. 
 
 
 
 All of this water will be free to drink, but any tips given to bartenders will help to support the activities of visiting organizations and campaigns, providing seed funding for those existing neighborhood and community projects - or new ones developed at the bar. 
 
 
 
 (2) Creative community space - for thinking, making, doing, and dreaming. Creative and accessible public programming will invite audiences from in and around northeast Minneapolis to gather, contemplate, connect and create together. Water Bar programming will be arts-based and cross-disciplinary, amplifying art and creative culture that introduces ecological thinking, absent narratives, local and neighborhood environmental justice issues, and environmental science research that is regional and global in scope. 
 
 
 
 When events are not scheduled, the space will be open for meetings and informal coworking. Water Bar will feature free water and free wi-fi, a small library of books and other reading materials, a rotating exhibition program of artwork by visual and media artists from our community, and a calendar of related programs and events across the Twin Cities. 
 
 
 
 (3) The first public art and sustainability incubator in Minneapolis - placed in northeast, but tapped into regional and global research and organizing. In addition to public programs planned by Water Bar artists and partners, the Public Studio will be a platform for others within and beyond the neighborhood to research, develop, or create their own artworks, public events, and environment-focused programs. This will happen initially through partnerships, and eventually, through an open studio and apprenticeship program. 
 
 
 
 As we grow the space, we'll fundraise and add new resources and offerings, including opportunities for research and art-making residencies, for anyone to teach or take classes, and for art-making on site and in our broader neighborhood. 
 
 
 
 Our goal is to enable innovative art and design ideas, practices, and projects that support equitable public engagement, education, and sustainable design-development for water quality at the neighborhood and city level. 
 
 
 
 How will we fund Water Bar once it is launched? 
 
 We're in the process of developing a core group of partner organizations, and together with our partners, are raising operational and project-based support. We are also looking for investors who can make a larger investment in this social enterprise project. 
 
 
 
 In addition to this support, we'll be earning income by continuing to offer the pop-up Water Bar to outside groups for a fee (Interested? Sign-up here!), employing artists and neighborhood residents as Water Bar tenders and educators, and by renting our space for meetings and special events. We will also sell products and services developed through the Public Studio - including publications, media projects, and workshops for groups interested in utilizing art and creativity to engage their own community with water and environmental issues. 
 
 
 
 Neighborhood SIP fund for art-environment projects 
 
 After covering the costs of operating the studio, any profits will be redistributed to community-generated projects through the establishment of a neighborhood SIP fund for art and environmental innovation and engagement - managed by a rotating group of artists, scientists, and other community residents. 
 
 
 
 Help us launch this project! 
 
 To receive updates about the Water Bar project, sign-up for the Works Progress Studio newsletter. 
 
 
 
 Find us on Twitter: @works_progress 
 
 Instagram: Works Progress Studio 
 
 And Facebook: Works Progress Studio 
 
 
 
 About Works Progress Studio: 
 
 We're a public art & design studio whose collaborative projects catalyze relationships between people, place, and environment - helping to enable new possibilities for artistic expression, civic imagination, and participation in public life. We've been around in one shape or form since 2010. 
 
 
 
 Led by multidisciplinary artists Colin Kloecker and Shanai Matteson, Works Progress engages an expansive network of artists, designers, organizers, researchers, educators, advocates and other creative people to realize imaginative public art and design projects that are rooted in place and purpose. 
 
 
 
 Say hello@worksprogress.org / worksprogress.org ||||| OK, cool it with the eye-rolling. 
 
 Word of a water bar opening this month in northeast Minneapolis no doubt has prompted a snarky skepticism among those who figure, “Crazy hipsters,” and read no further. 
 
 Granted, it is a bar that will serve tap water — even flights of tap water — for no charge. Free. Gratis. 
 
 The Water Bar isn’t a business, but an art installation by the Works Progress Studio, the brainchild of Colin Kloecker and Shanai Matteson. The studio’s stated goal is to engage a network of people from designers to researchers to advocates to create “public art and design projects rooted in place and purpose.” 
 
 Little wonder, then, that several of their projects revolve around the Mississippi River — our hydrologic aorta. 
 
 The Water Bar concept began in 2014 as a pop-up public art project, traveling around the region with local tap waters served by artists, water researchers, sustainability educators, and other community residents, according to its website. This will be the first one with a permanent location. 
 
 The goal is to spark conversation about local water, and how we might better engage complicated issues of water pollution and scarcity, land use and urban development, climate change and environmental injustice. 
 
 Its tagline is clarity itself: Water is all we have. 
 
 Unconvinced? Two words: Flint, Michigan. 
 
 The Water Bar will open later this month along Central Avenue, just off Lowry Avenue. Check water-bar.org for updates.
– You could sit at home and drink your own tap water, or you could visit Minneapolis' Water Bar and drink tap water in the company of others. Shanai Matteson hopes you'll choose the latter option. Yes, Minneapolis will soon be home to what UPI calls the world's first "full-fledged bar that will serve exclusively water products." But you can "cool it with the eye-rolling" and comments about "crazy hipsters," notes the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Water Bar will be an art installation and all water will be free. Back in 2014, Matteson and Colin Kloecker opened a pop-up water bar through which artists, water researchers, and other community members served tap water to more than 30,000 people in Minnesota, Arkansas, Illinois, and North Carolina. Water Bar will be a permanent extension of that project, though a GoFundMe page notes an opening date has not been set. "Water is not something people think about, but we have potential water shortage problems and water quality problems," Matteson tells MinnPost. After tasting water in different areas, she says it became clear "where water isn't quite so abundant or where cities don't have the same level of treatment methods in place." Staffed by engineers, city employees, and environmental experts, Water Bar will be "a place to talk, to quench your thirst, to inquire, and to share personal stories and reflections," and sample different tap waters, according to the bar's website. The bar will also be combined with "an art sustainability studio and incubator, intended to build local projects with other artists and designers, all about water and environmental sustainability at the local level," Matteson says. (One business sells New York tap water for $2.50 a bottle.)