State of the Arts Blog

Cat Video Festival draws 10,000

Despite the hot weather, last night more than 10,000 people attended the Walker Art Center's first ever Cat Video Festival.

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Photo courtesy Walker Art Center

The festival featured dozens of videos of cats, real and animated, doing things that people find irresistibly cute or simply bizarre.

The people's choice award, the Golden Kitty, was presented to William Brandon, creator of Henri 2, Paw de Deux.

Chosen by online voting, Henri 2, Paw de Deux will be broadcast during the season finale of Animal Planet's My Cat From Hell on September 8 at 8 pm EST.

Videos were submitted to the festival from around the world in the categories of Comedy, Drama, Foreign, Animated, Musical, Documentary, Art House, Honorable Mention, and Lifetime Achievement.

So what should we take away from the fact that the Walker's most popular events involve either rocking out to bands (Rock the Garden) or watching cat videos that have gone viral on the internet? How do you generate the same level of enthusiasm for the art inside the building?