Stuart Flake is a Minneapolis-based designer who contacted us about doing a custom tin of tea for attendees of the 2009 McKnight Artist Fellows award reception.

The McKnight Foundation does good work, which we at Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea support. They “believe that the arts cannot flourish or enhance community life without the ideas, energy, and drive of individual artists, and that artists cannot make these contributions without unfettered creative time.” So they established the McKnight Artist Fellowships. They give out grants so artists can do art. Yay art!

We exchanged ideas and themes with Stuart and the talented lads at Aesthetic Apparatus. We decided to merge the creative process and the process of brewing tea: “Brew Tea. Make Art. Change World.”

The tins look great, the black tea tastes damn fine, and anecdotal evidence suggests they were a hit.

We’re proud to have had the opportunity to work with Stuart and the McKnight Foundation. And congratulations to the 2009 McKnight Artist Fellows.

Photos by Kathryn Andrews