Patrick Scully Papers

Patrick Scully is a well-known performance artist in the Minnesota arts environment who has performed nationally and internationally to wide acclaim. After receiving his BA degree (double major in German and biology) from the University of Minnesota in 1976, he began his professional career. He has worked as program director for the Twin Cities Young Audiences, as office manager for Remy Charlip’s International All Stars in New York City, in a variety of positions at the Science Museum of Minnesota (his final position there was as Head of Visitor Programs), and at fabrik/Potsdam as director of internal communication and structure and long range planning.

He is best known as a performance artist which he has been doing since 1980; between performance art, dance, and more formal theater pieces, Scully's work has been featured on Minneapolis stages for over four decades. He was a member and co-founder of Contactworks Dance Collective from 1976-1980 with responsibilities for teaching, choreographing, performing and company bookings. In 1986, he founded Patrick’s Cabaret and has held all possible positions during his time there. He exited as the Cabaret’s Artistic Director in October of 2001, leaving behind a healthy performing arts center committed to fostering the work of local artists. In addition to his work as a dancer and performing artist, Scully has also produced film works and events such as the Minneapolis Boat Ballet. Patrick Scully's foremost works include the dance pieces Unsafe/Unsuited, Blankets of Love, and Kyrie, and the performance pieces Too Soon Lost, Queer Thinking, Queer Notions, Thrive!, and Leaves of Grass. He has received many grants and fellowships including the Intermedia Arts/McKnight Interdisciplinary Artist Fellowship, the Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellowship, numerous MICA/MDA/McKnight Foundation Choreography Fellowships, a Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship (the first for openly gay-themed work,) and a Minnesota State Arts Board Individual Artist Grant.

In addition, Scully has been an outspoken advocate for the rights of GLBT Minnesotans and HIV positive individuals since the 1970s, through the establishment of Patrick's Cabaret as a groundbreakingly queer-friendly space in the 1980s, to his direct confrontations with the City of Minneapolis, the Science Museum of Minnesota, and others regarding institutionalized homophobia.