Walk in the door of Minnesota Museum of American Art’s new exhibition, “String | Felt | Theory,” and you’re assaulted by color. Just left of the entry way, Liz Miller’s “Sublime Retaliation Scheme” is suspended from the ceiling by thin wires — draped garlands of vivid felt work, like a Michael’s-made wedding arch waiting for a [...]
Minnesotans are in for a rare treat this weekend, weather permitting*. Minnesota Opera is offering an Opera Under the Stars series of free outdoor concerts, beginning with a performance on St. Paul’s Harriet Island Friday evening. Saturday night, the show will move to Minneapolis and the Lake Harriet Bandshell; on Sunday, Shattuck-St. Mary’s School in [...]
Here’s an intriguing opportunity for St. Paul artists: Springboard for the Arts (a Knight Arts grantee) just announced a call for submissions of illustrations for “Lowertown Sketchbook,” paying homage to the city’s storied district (hat tip to Pamela Espeland’s fabulous “Artscape” column over at Minnpost for bringing it to my attention). Three winning designs will [...]
Have you heard of St. Paul-based writer Wang Ping’s “Kinship of Rivers” project? It’s an ongoing interactive public art endeavor intended “to build kinship among communities along the Mississippi and Yangtze, and bring awareness to the river’s ecosystem through art, literature, music, food and installations of river-flags made by river communities.” Spurred by a decade [...]
Twin Cities Public Television (tpt) recently announced the launch of Open Air, a new initiative intended to deepen audience engagement and diversity and to broaden the reach and variety of local programming – through original web-only and broadcast material, as well as live events. The station hopes to partner with the local arts community to [...]
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (a Knight Arts grantee) returned home to the Ordway the weekend of May 24, 25 and 26, after several post-lockout concerts in neighborhood venues around the Metro area. The show featured a world premiere commission by German composer and conductor Matthias Pintscher (who also led the orchestra), preceded by an artfully [...]
I’m going to swap my journalist’s hat for that of an advocate today, but it’s in the service of a good cause (and one, full disclosure, in which I’m a participant as part of my day job with mnartists.org): Northern Spark, the one-night-only, nuit blanche-style, public arts festival will be held in St. Paul’s Lowertown [...]
In my experience, local artists are pretty savvy about tapping Minnesota-based resources for funding, creating and showing work. And that’s for good reason: thanks to our taxpayer-funded Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and a bevy of independent foundations and arts-focused philanthropic programs with roots here, artists have relatively abundant opportunities for institutional and state-sponsored support. [...]
Minnesota History Center’s annual vintage dress-up party, RetroRama, is this week. This year’s shindig isn’t themed on a specific time period, but rather “classic” fashion: “a perfect pair of jeans, an heirloom hand knit sweater, a gorgeous belt burnished with age, or vintage khakis. …your grandmother’s little black cocktail dress, or [for him]… a great [...]
History Theatre’s musical take on the troubled marriage of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, “This Side of Paradise,” is well-timed to take advantage of the renewed interest in this 1920s and ’30s “it” couple ginned up by Baz Luhrman’s extravagant new silver-screen adaptation of “The Great Gatsby.” Like the movie, the play revels in Jazz [...]
