A new gallery, Form + Content, opens today, March 1, in the North Loop at 210 North Second Street inside the Whitney Square building, with an opening reception this Saturday, March 3, 5-9 p.m. We wondered whether this was a risky venture to try to return art to the area that had been so profoundly changed by the Target Center and its aftermath. We also found their claims to be a different kind of art gallery intriguing, and were particularly curious about the manifesto on their Web site, www.formandcontent.org: “We value art as a catalyst for critical thinking. We value integrity and the artistic process. We aspire to link personal expression to broader social contexts.”

So we sat down with four of the members -- Howard Oransky, Jil Evans, Leah Golberstein, and Jim Dryden -- to have a conversation about what this new artists’ co-op gallery is all about, why they chose this location, and to learn more about how they think about art.

Their opening show, Trace Elements, is curated by Doryun Chong, assistant curator of visual art at Walker Art Center, and includes works by all the gallery member-owners as well as guest artists. The show will be on display through April 5.

Q: Just a few years ago it seemed clear that the old downtown warehouse/arts district had been completely destroyed by the sports crowd and its aftermath--that’s why the artists moved to Northeast! Yet, here you are opening a gallery on North Second Street and Second Avenue, and you’re not even lonely there. Is there a North Loop arts revival going on?

Howard: We looked at a lot of different areas including Northeast Minneapolis; it felt like gallery row, which is good in a way. In this area there’s a lot of activity, it crosses different cultural areas: Open Book, the new Guthrie, the new downtown Library, a new design studio . . .

Jim: There are several other galleries reopening. I think there is a renaissance, not just art, but a cultural and residential one.

Jil: I think the fact that Lunds and Whole Foods are putting grocery stores downtown is making a big difference. I used to live downtown and we had to drive for miles to buy food.

Howard: I like the idea of our space being part of a larger cultural development, not just gallery number six among 20 galleries.

Leah: In this neighborhood we have a number of architects, Odegard [rug studio], CAVE paper, Corazon gifts and art, a number of Yoga schools.

Jim: We really felt that this area suggested an audience to us.

Q: Minneapolis surely must have more galleries per capita than most major cities. So, why another gallery? I know the press release talks about seeking to “create a new model for an art gallery” that includes interdisciplinary programing and “moving the definitions and practice of culture forward in new and lively ways.” Please explain what you mean by that, with examples.

Howard: I think we have a gallery shortage in the city. We have the largest number of theater seats per capita. Minneapolis is a remarkable outlet for the performing arts -- it’s an international model for supporting the performing arts. But I would say there’s a shortage of venues for visual artists.

Jil: When I moved here in the mid 1980s I was really pleasantly surprised by the number of artists and galleries. We have more artists than we have spaces to represent them.

Howard: It’s been easier for me to get my work seen in New York than in Minneapolis. There is a tendency for people [art buyers] to assume that all the good stuff is in New York. Los Angeles is an example. It used to have few galleries -- an arts ghost town -- now there are galleries everywhere.

Leah: Each artist will have the freedom to use this space; some will curate shows rather than show their own work. Members have freedom to use their time as they like, they may have readings, events.

Jil: We’re also interested in starting a reading series with local writers.

Jim: I’ve been working on starting a GLBT writing group. I’ve been talking about having a show of GLBT work.

Leah: Every five weeks the gallery will be transformed, possibly dramatically. I’ve wanted it to be a very exciting nontraditional gallery, which goes beyond the membership of the gallery.

Howard: I listen to these people talk and I think, wow, I’m going to be a part of that. This is absolutely unorthodox in an artist-member co-op gallery. It’s [usually] all about “gaining exposure for my work.” Including people outside our group is very outside of the artist cooperative gallery model.

Leah: Not just visual artists. Art, period.

Q: How will you develop enough of a following to keep it going? Can you be sure that those buyers of downtown riverfront condos will buy original local art?

Howard: One thing that’s going in our favor is because we are all contributing a monthly allowance, all of our operating expenses are paid by the owners. We could sell nothing and the space won’t be in jeopardy. Making money is nice, we’d like to make money, but that’s not the defining thing about the gallery.

Leah: That’s why we chose this space that we can afford, not a storefront. We’ll have signage on the outside of the building, and a large sign above the door. We transformed the space ourselves, there was an orange wall and a grey carpet.

Jim: A nasty grey carpet.

Howard: The stereotype of artists is that they’re poor money managers; as soon as they get some money they’ll blow it on art supplies. We’ve been really responsible to ourselves.

Jim: [Member-owner] Camille Gage often says that the gallery is her art project. The gallery itself is a big part of what we’re trying to do, what statement we’re trying to make.

Q: Tell me about this inaugural show. It looks like you have a couple of guest artists and a guest curator as well as all the members showing. I can see showing all the members together initially as a way to introduce everybody, but why the guest artists?

Howard: [It is unprecedented] that the members are having an outside curator choose the works, even which of the member artists works to show . . .

Jim: . . . and the presentation of the space -- we’ve given up all the gallery [to the curator].

Howard: Doryun said, “Let’s put these walls over here.” I didn’t like it, but I let it go.

Jil: The two guest artists were original founding members with us; they couldn’t commit to staying involved.

Jim: We wanted to honor their involvement.

Howard: That’s one more example of how our group is showing a different approach.

Q: Are you at all concerned that your frequent comments on how your gallery and collective are different will be perceived as a criticism of other artists and artists’ co-ops?

Leah: No. Hopefully this will encourage and support other artists.

Jim: Minneapolis needs another gallery because we’re creating a different kind of gallery.

Leah: This model suits our needs. There are other models.

Howard: And a number of us are mature artists. Clarence [Morgan, one of the founding members who is now a guest artist,] said, “Having an exhibition space is not that important to me.” We have shows. We’re not desperate to get our work out there. For an artist who hasn’t had exposure, the other model is valid.

Jim: By inviting someone else in to the opening exhibition, we’re showing that we don’t have a competitive attitude.

Q: It appears that the next show is all paintings by Jil Evans. Is that the format for future shows -- one artist at a time?

Jil: By the time we got the lease, fixed up the space, etc., I didn’t have time to curate an outside show. I had a body of work ready to show, so I said I would go next.

We wanted longer shows, five weeks instead of three and a half. We set up a rotation of two years, which includes three outside-curated shows and one for each member, who may show their own work or not.

Leah: There’s a level of trust. We’re not going to restrict what each person does, they can do whatever they want.

Q: Let’s talk about the name, and the manifesto on your “about” page -- this isn’t about art for art’s sake, I take it! I had an art teacher in college who had doubts about art with a message, he thought using art to “say” something risked spoiling the art, like it became secondary to the message. So, I would like to know how you see that, how you think the art can act “as a catalyst for critical thinking” without becoming the servant of that role.

Howard: I probably disagree [with the college art teacher]. There’s interesting art and uninteresting art, good art and bad art; there’s art for art’s sake that’s beautiful and art for art’s sake that’s not good.

There’s political art that’s beautiful and political art that’s bad. The only thing that I’m against in art is proscription. Art is about freedom. As soon as I hear the word “should,” that’s the moment I start to get skeptical. The one thing art can offer the world is this little bit of freedom in your brain. “Art with a message” is or isn’t beautiful.

Jil: I get kind of bristly when I hear “art for art’s sake”; I think it’s impossible to make something that doesn’t have content. When I first started working with abstraction, I found it perplexing that you would define some art as insular. Art is carving out a little space of freedom.

Leah: It’s about the process. This whole gallery is about process.

Howard: How art is received in my mind is almost entirely contextual. One of the arguments about political art is that it’s not beautiful. That’s a generalization that I get skeptical about.

Jil: There’s a tradition that ties beauty with truth. It’s not popular right now. It’s a Platonic idea to say that what is beautiful is true and what is truthful is beautiful.

Howard: Beauty occurs whenever you stop observing the world in the normal way. to experience something from a different point of view, that moment is a very liberating experience.

Jim: This is a piece of what this group came together to do, to have these kinds of discussions. We’re looking forward to these conversations about what art is and why we’re making it -- we have been preoccupied with practical things like getting the space ready.

For more information about Form + Content Gallery, visit their Web site, www.formandcontent.org, or call 612/436-1151.