Hatching the Egg
3-Minute Egg is “The Twin Cities arts seen” — the nation’s first daily video blog devoted to a local arts community, profiling Twin Cities artists and their work in every discipline — theater, dance, visual art, music, literature, spoken word and interdisciplinary art.
The Egg’s creator, producer and host is Matt Peiken, former staff arts writer at the St. Paul Pioneer Press and managing editor of the Walker Art Center’s magazine. Peiken spent 21 years on the staffs of daily newspapers before joining the Walker in 2007. On September 15, 2008, three weeks after leaving the Walker, he debuted 3-Minute Egg.
During our first regular season of programming (September 2008 through June 2009), 3-Minute Egg produced more than 170 videos — more than all other Twin Cities arts media outlets combined.
In June 2009, 3-Minute Egg also evolved into a weekly program on the Minnesota Channel of Twin Cities Public Television. Six to seven of our daily Eggs go into every half-hour episode. Our online videos (we call them Eggs) also appear on our Facebook fan page and occasionally on the Web site of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. All our Eggs are available and searchable in our online archives, and anyone can embed our videos directly into their own Web sites at no charge.
Fertilize the Egg
3-Minute Egg stands on four legs of potential funding — grants, sponsors, donors and presenting partnerships with established media organizations. Please support this work by donating or, better yet, sponsoring an Egg. You and your business can have a presence in our online and/or televised Eggs for as little as $20. Even the smallest of arts organizations and independent artists can get in on the action. Attract awareness and customers in a way that isn’t possible with any other local media source. Go here to learn more.
3-Minute Egg operates as a sole proprietor LLC and is privileged to have IFP-Minnesota as its nonprofit fiscal agent, allowing 3-Minute Egg to apply for foundation grants and accept tax-deductible donations. Please consider donating to 3-Minute Egg. Peiken shoots, edits, hosts and produces every video himself — you can see where every dollar goes each and every weekday — and even the smallest of donations helps keep the Egg cooking. Just click this link or press the DONATE button in the column on the right, which takes you to IFP-Minnesota, the Egg’s fiscal sponsor, where you can donate through PayPal.
Egg Mission
3-Minute Egg is unique locally and nationally. We focus our lens on Twin Cities artists and arts happenings in every discipline — dance, theater, visual art, music, literature, slam poetry and alternative performance. We also work in service to the artists we profile and the broader arts community by allowing anyone, at no charge, to embed our videos onto their own Web sites. Many organizations and independent artists do just that, using our videos to quickly and easily show the public what they do.
During our second season, we hope to generate financial support to take our camera outside the Twin Cities to report and produce series of Eggs from Grand Marais, Lanesboro and other strong rural arts communities in Minnesota. If you’d like to support this project, please email Matt Peiken at matt(at)3minuteegg.org.
Subscribe for free!
You can view 3-Minute Egg on many platforms, including iTunes (we look great on the iPod), Facebook, Miro, blip.tv and, of course, this site. Content is always free. Just subscribe — all your options are in the column on the right — and have a fresh Egg delivered to your online doorstep every morning, Monday through Friday. Your subscription boosts our numbers, which makes us more attractive to potential sponsors. So please take a moment right now to subscribe — remember, it’s free!
The Egg Menu
In our Egg basket, you’ll find local arts and artists across the spectrum of disciplines:
- tEGGSt – Literature/books, poetry, spoken word
- Sunny Side Up – Visual art and film
- The Yolk – Theater, dance and comedy
- Egg Whites – classical music, choral music and opera
- Hard-Boiled – Rock, jazz and hip-hop
- Scrambled – Episodes featuring artists and events touching on two or more artistic disciplines
- EGGstra! EGGstra! – News and other items of note away from the video screen.
Be an Egg
Do you have an arts event or happening 3-Minute Egg should know about? Peiken focuses on Twin Cities artists and locally created work, with a soft spot for ambitious emerging artists beneath the radar of mainstream attention. Email press releases to NEWS(at)3MINUTEEGG.ORG.
Matt,
Loved the party last week! We had a great time. Do you ever cover any of the events at local colleges and universities? I attended the annual Ford Lecture today at the University of Minnesota. The speaker was N. Scott Mommaday, Pulitzer Prize winner in literature. Fantastic speaker. Lots to think about. We get down to St. Olaf College fairly often to hear some wonderful artists, some young, some very experienced. They’re doing a silent movie event next week–Lon Chaney Sr.’s inimitable “Phantom of the Opera,” with organ accompaniment. Location: Boe Chapel
You are now part of my RSS feed reader. I really look forward to seeing more stories from you!
Greetings from Taos, NM!
Great-looking site, Matt!
Way to go!!!
Drew
Matt,
I want to thank you for the nice filming and editing you did for my little interview (St Paul Art Crawl Part 2). I’ve gotten good feedback from family and friends. Would it help you in any way if I asked them to respond directly to your site?
Barbara
Thanks for the enjoyable and informative interviews. I like seeing bits of the artists’ work, too. You have some perceptive and thoughtful spots. Thanks. M T
P.S. Of course, I especially liked seeing my sis Barbara. She sounded good, too.
Hadn’t clicked on “about” before. Love the menu choices!
Dear MAtt,
Very nice to see your segment of the SteppingStone show, RAINBOW CROW. Some have said that since actors aren’t paid it isn’t ‘legitimate’ theater. Thank you for your insightful, fine video review.
Many years ago, Peter Vaughan (from the Trib) and I had an interesting discussion about why reviews are written about music theater without mentioning the music or the composer. I’m not complaining, simply curious, but the music for ‘Crow’ was so integral to the show, I’m wondering why there was no mention of it in your video. Rhiana, by her own admission, was so unsure of how to proceed with this aspect of the production (the genre was not entirely familiar ground for her) that we wrote a good deal of the music and lyrics while in the same room. While not an unpleasant experience, it did underscore the relevance of the composer/lyricist to the final product. Dominic omitted any musical reference in his review as well. Can you enlighten me why this is so?
Regards,
Gary
Hi Gary … thanks for writing and being a follower of 3-Minute Egg. In response to your question about the (lack of) mention of the composer, it’s important to note that 3-Minute Egg doesn’t “review” (i.e., pass judgment on) productions, productions or shows. Rather, the Egg profiles and spotlights artists and their work. I agree that, with an original musical production, a reviewer should at least mention the composer and certainly deliver a more full assessment if the music is critical to the work. With “Rainbow Crow,” I wasn’t aware of the music’s prominence before heading to rehearsal, and I didn’t see it (or hear it) while I was there as key to the story. I was interested in this particular playwright. Perhaps with a show in the future, I can profile the collaborative aspect of playwright and composer. Please alert me to an opportunity down the road, Gary. Thanks!
- matt
Matt, I was going to a meeting at our church, Pilgrim Lutheran, last night, and I heard wonderful Renaissance music coming from the sanctuary. I found The Rose Ensemble rehearsing there. What a great group! They were rehearsing for their December concerts. The dates are on their website:
http://www.roseensemble.org/
Matt,
I’ve been so impressed with your 3minuteegg project. The quality of your work is amazing and you are doing a wonderful service to the arts community. This EQ piece is outstanding. You’ve captured the excitement of the evening and the quality of the work. Thank you from all of us at the Loft.
– Jocelyn Hale
Too bad you are not in Kansas.
Matt, Congratulations on getting 3 minute egg on tpt. Thanks for your on going work with 3 minute egg. You are doing a great job.I love being able to see what is going on in the coming week. Thank you, Lauie Van Wieren
Matt – Words are not enough to express my gratitude to(and, for) 3-minute egg. I can’t tell you how many times the question of “why am I doing this?” or “who am I doing this for?” has through my head over the years — and then to see a video which celebrates everyone’s hard work … what you provide is invaluable on so many levels.