Rifle Sport Gallery

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Rifle Sport Gallery opened in 1985 in the Block E segment of Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. It is considered one of the points of origin for the Minneapolis art scene.

The gallery was located on the second floor of a 2-story building located at the corner of Hennepin Avenue and North Sixth Street, across Hennepin from City Center. The gallery was only accessible by a long flight of stairs, behind a blue entrance door on Hennepin Avenue. Many people had issues with the place: it was "filthy", some considered the artists conceited, The name "Rifle Sport" had been taken from a local band without permission. Rifle Sport Gallery's memorial website claims the name was created because the former occupant of the space was a shooting arcade gallery. The band Rifle Sport established the name 4 years prior (in 1981) and played in First Avenue, among other places. The gallery was a part the intersection of vagrants, drunks, artists, musicians, punks, patrons, and passerby of the North Loop neighborhood in Minneapolis.

In the three years it was open, around 130 artists, musicians, and performance artists used the space. Artists from around the country had early work in this gallery, and of most of them consider it an unforgettable place. It was demolished with the rest of Block E in 1988, and remained a parking lot until the entire block was redeveloped in 2001. The former site of Rifle Sport Gallery is occupied by the second floor of a Borders book store.