Voices X Will Make its Mark in Dubuque

Runde Auto Group is excited to once again be a sponsor of Voices From the Warehouse District and they are very excited about Voices X.

This year marks the month-long art exhibition’s 10^th anniversary, and Voices X is set to be bigger and better than ever.

“We really wanted to focus on things that we haven’t had before — more installation artists and more digital media artists,” said Janice Roerig-Blong, exhibition coordinator of Voices X.

There will be 14 exhibiting artists, including local, regional and some from as far away as Seattle and New York, as well as three guest artists. 

Gene Tully, the founder of Voices, will also be exhibiting his work this year.

“He hasn’t (exhibited) since I think the first or second Voices,” Janice said.

One of the pieces created by Tully, a Dubuque metal artist, features two crushed cars with a giant metal X sandwiched between them. It represents the Roman Numeral 10, and was created to commemorate the 10^th anniversary of Voices.

Michael Perry

Another notable event will feature a spoken word performance by New York Times bestselling author Michael Perry.  Perry is a Wisconsin writer whose essays and nonfiction have been in publications including The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Outside, Runner’s World and more. He is the author of books like “Population: 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time,” “Truck: A Love Story,” “Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting,” and more.

Art Slam, a timed painting competition that has become a staple of Voices, will see some changes this year.

“We have five student teams and four professional teams this year and we are using models as the subject to be interpreted,” Janice said. “We always gave a theme, but now there will be models. I think it will be an interesting way for the audience to see how things are being interpreted instead of trying to read the artist’s mind, they are actually seeing what that artist is seeing.”

The teams will be competing for two $1,000 prizes. Art Slam will be at 7 p.m. on Sept. 20.

Other events include a meditation session, artist walk around, drum workshop, beer brewer’s competition, open gallery times and more.

The theme for Voices X is Make Your Mark.

“The theme from the very beginning was Find Your Voice,” Janice said. “Each year we’d try to have a different theme, like Break the Paradigm … but the main theme has always come back to Find Your Voice. In 10 years, we feel like we have started to find our voice, and we are hoping the community will come in and help us make that mark too.”

Voices X opens at 7 p.m. on Sat., Sept. 6.

“Opening Night for Voices X is probably the most sexy, innovative, fun event that Dubuque has,” Janice said. “Opening Night is a wild, crazy, huge event. But what people should really come for afterwards is all of the events that cater to different audiences, but really to just come in and see the show and experience artwork that they won’t get to see anywhere else unless they travel to New York or Seattle or those other places.”