Intermedia Arts Minnesota

The history of Intermedia Arts Minnesota evidences a complex succession of administrative and programmatic changes. The organization began in the early 1970s as a video equipment and production resource center of the University of Minnesota and grew to become an independent corporation which distributes, commissions, and exhibits video art.

Initially, the resource center was formed in 1973 as University Community Video under the Minnesota Student Association Telecommunications Corporation by the combination of the Video Access Center of the West Bank Union and the Cable Video Project of the Minnesota Student Association. Funded by student fees, University Community Video provided training, equipment, production facilities, and broadcasting opportunities for students interested in telecommunications and documentary video production. In January of 1975 the MSA Telecommunications Corporation was renamed the University Student Telecommunications Corporation (USTC). Part of the corporation's original mission included plans to own, manage, and operate both radio and cable television broadcasting facilities on the University of Minnesota campus. As a result of further restructuring in the latter part of 1980, University Community Video absorbed what was previously its governing body, USTC. At that time plans for campus broadcasting facilities were eliminated in favor of a mission which fostered the appreciation, understanding, and creation of video and related media arts.

In 1985 the corporation was renamed UCVideo, Inc. Impetus for separation from the University began during this same year when the Minnesota Student Association decided to phase out student fee funding of the corporation by 1989. On April 23, 1987, UCVideo legally separated from the University and was renamed Intermedia Arts of Minnesota, Inc. As expressed in its articles of incorporation, its purposes are "to foster and advance artistic and cultural expression through new forms, mediums, and technologies; and to further public appreciation, understanding and involvement in these arts." With this new independence, the corporation shifted its emphasis from video as a documentary form to video as an interdisciplinary and experimental art form.

After outgrowing its previous space, Intermedia Arts purchased the Bee-Line Automotive Building at 2822 Lyndale Avenue, Minneapolis. The divserse neighborhood and persistent arts community was a good fit for the organization.

Historical information was taken from the collection.

From the guide to the Corporate records., 1971-2004., (Minnesota Historical Society)