Leading up to the Northern Spark event on June 9, 2012, artist HOTTEA (Eric Rieger) worked with MIA staff and volunteers for four weeks on his site-specific installation, letting go. His biggest project to date, the yarn creation filled the Target Wing rotunda with thousands of strands in varying hues of red, oranges, and yellow. HOTTEA designed his project to work within the complex architectural details of the Target Wing rotunda. The result was a physically light but beautiful, space-filling volume. On the ground floor, visitors were encouraged to sit or lie on the grass and look up into the sun-colored cascading strings. Visitors could also stand in the middle and be surrounded by the gradient colors that filled the entire space. During the month it took to construct and install letting go, HOTTEA, MIA staff, and volunteers measured, cut, and knotted an estimated 14,000 strings of colored yarn to plastic fencing material, from which they dangled. Comprising almost 400 skeins, the total length of yarn used in letting go was 82 miles, about as far away as Mankato is from Minneapolis.