Minneapolis marked the state’s 150th anniversary with a banner installation featuring its diverse citizens. The project, called Speaking of Home, featured portraits by photographer and SEGD merit award-winner Nancy Ann Coyne. Coyne focused on 23 natives and immigrants who have made Minneapolis their home.
Portland Color (Portland, ME) output Coyne’s images on 22, 13 x 10-in. Fisher Sheer banners with its HP Scitex XL1500 solvent dye-sub 130-in. printer and Practix OK130 heat-transfer press. The banners were custom-cut and framed within a downtown Minneapolis skyway from late summer to mid-fall. No lamination was required. The banners were hung using Velcro attached to both the banner and glass.
When the first wave of European immigrants came to the area, Minnesota was still a territory, home to Dakota and Ojibwe tribes and French fur traders, and the resulting diversity is evident in the installation. Speaking of Home’s website states that 120 languages are spoken by the children in the city’s school system.