Minnesota artist Aaron Dysart will be a "city artist" for Minnesota's capital city, St. Paul, starting in April 2016. He will work closely with Amanda Lovelee, the other "city artist" in a two-person department within the Office of Financial Services which is housed in St. Paul City Hall. Their jobs are funded through Public Art Saint Paul (PASP), a quasi-public nonprofit organization that works closely with city agencies.

The 11 year old "City Artist" program integrates artists into the city's bureaucracy where they cook-up unusual ways to incorporate arty activities or content in otherwise mundane city maintenance or building projects. With the "Everyday Poems for City Sidewalks," for example, city artists arranged to have poetic phrases and verse pressed into sidewalk concrete, bringing a whimsical tone to unexpected urban sites.

An adroit arts bureaucrat, Dysart has worked in the field for 14 years. He's been affiliated with PASP since 2008 when he was picked as a "Sustainable Art-Making Fellow." Next he got a PASP fellowhip in a "City Art Collaboratory Program" which in turn led to participation in the "Plume Project," a four-artist endeavor of St. Paul's District Energy department.

Before that Dysart had a 2010 grant from Forecast Public Art, another Twin Cities nonprofit that advises on art selection, placement and process in public parks, squares, government buildings and such. He's gotten other grants and awards from Franconia Sculpture Park (2007, 2012) and the Minnesota State Arts Board (2013, 2015).

Dysart's work has also been shown at the Northern Spark Festival, Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Institute of Art, among other Minnesota institutions. He earned a MFA in sculpture from the University of Minnesota and a BFA in the same field at the University of Montana.