Most poets seem to limit their greatest bursts of creativity to their writing, but Minnesota-based poet and force of nature Todd Boss (check out his new website) seems to come up with ingenious ideas for public poetry projects almost once a year — and given his background as an arts administrator, he then makes them happen, too. He’s really committed to bringing poetry to the people. He of course co-founded Motionpoems, of which he is still Executive and Artistic Director. In 2012, he worked with Swedish visual artist Maja Spasova on a large-scale public art project in the Mississippi River, Project 35W, which included audio stations and a print supplement of the associated poems in the local newspaper. Then there’s this:

https://vimeo.com/103811378

“Arrivals & Departures at Saint Paul’s Union Depot” has a page on the Motionpoems website. Let me paste in the first part of the announcement (minus some of the formatting):

A   L   L           A   B   O   A   R   D

F O R   A   M A J O R   M O T I O N P O E M S   P U B L I C   A R T   P R O J E C T 

“Arrivals & Departures at Saint Paul’s Union Depot”

C O M I N G    |     S T .   P A U L      |      O C T   1 0 – 1 1 ,   2 0 1 4

Motionpoems and public artist Todd Boss present “Arrivals & Departures at St Paul’s Union Depot,” a colossal 3D poetry film installation that will magically transform the facade of one of St Paul’s most impressive landmark buildings.

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This is the first of an annual projection.

NOW CALLING FOR POEMS by US poets. DEADLINE Nov 30, 2014.
Click here to enter.

We selected a handful of original poems by Minnesotans (theme: “Arrivals & Departures”) from a statewide call for poems (CLOSED), then commissioned Minnesota film teams to turn finalist poems into short films to fit digitally mapped 3D templates of the building.

In Oct 2014, we’ll project the films onto the screen-filled facade of St Paul’s historic Union Depot to loop at 5-minute intervals like trains, with accompanying audio from lawn-area speakers, during the St Paul Art Crawl, October 10-12, 2014.

The artistic vision for this project is to celebrate Union Depot’s renaissance as a rail hub with an act of place-making that will reclaim the space in the hearts and minds of all who experience it.

Read the rest (including the 2014 winning poems by Brian Beatty, Robert Dougherty, Mike Rollin, and Linda Back McKay).

Todd Boss, meanwhile, isn’t resting on his laurels. Next spring, Minneapolis-Saint Paul residents will get to experience the Wee Cinema:

https://vimeo.com/104415198