Rivers are the lifeblood of landscape, as necessary to a healthy environment as iron is within our bloodstream. River of Iron: Pouring the Mississippi focuses on the importance of the Mississippi watershed within our lives. From its headwaters in Lake Itasca, to its delta in Louisiana, the Mississippi stretches from the Western Rockies to the Appalachian mountains in the East. The great tributaries of the Mississippi including the Yellowstone, Missouri and Platte Rivers in the West, the Illinois, Ohio and Tennessee in the East, and the Red River and Arkansas in the South were cast river by river throughout the night of Northern Spark, beginning at the mouth of the Mississippi in the Gulf of Mexico.

Forecast Public Art, Artist Interview: Produced by Nicole Brending

Intimate Immensity Wrought - Essay by Diane Mullin, Senior Curator, Weisman Art Museum, MN

Poured at the foot of the Weisman Art Museum on the banks of the Mississippi River, this project was funded by a McKnight Public Artist Professional Development Grant/Forecast Public Art, an Imagine Fund Special Event Award/ University of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. Collection of the Weisman Art Museum.

Additional support from the Weisman Art Museum,University of Minnesota Foundry, Steve Brunsberg and St. Paul Neighborhood Network, Northernlights.org, XYZ Lab and U-Spatial/ University of Minnesota and Nelson Minar. Iron artists included regional sculptors specializing in cast iron process and students at the University of Minnesota including, Aaron Becker, Keegan Buffington, Meagan Daus, Corey Devorak, David Everett, Paul Gill, Veronica Glidden, Skye Goedert, Chris Groth, Jeff Kalstrom, Scott Kamlah, Will Lakey, Samantha Leopold-Sullivan, Brighton McCormick, Deetle Nelson, Jane Powers, Cassie Rebman, Dawn Schott-Klotzbach, Marie Schrobilgen, Woody Stauffer, Amber White, and Bobby Zokaites. Pour image by Heidi Bohnenkamp, Weisman Art Museum.

Dedicated to my husband, Maris Strautmanis.