Thanks for the great revisit of the art scene in 1980s. At first I thought it was just another nostalgic article, but it got better as I read through it. Then I remembered that someone (Churchill?) once said something about studying history. If we don’t know our history, we are destined to repeat it. (That’s … Read more
I was glad to see Cathy Madison’s “look back at a gritty underappreciated decade” of the Minneapolis art scene in the 80s. I’m pleased that she acknowledged that the “first-gallery bragging rights went to the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota,” WARM Gallery, as it was then known. I was disappointed that the rest of the … Read more
Cathy Madison’s “We went crazy for a decade” [July] was a truly pleasurable trip down memory lane—a guilty pleasure, at that, recalling for me the days of fashionable poverty and gallery internships. I spent my student loan money on trips to Chicago and New York, bounced back and forth between the U’s fine arts department … Read more
There’s no telling what might be on the table at this tête-à-tête hosted by the splashy new Central Library, but a lively, rambling conversation is all but guaranteed. University of Minnesota Professor Charles Baxter has written a batch of widely acclaimed books of poetry as well as prose (including The Feast of Love, a National … Read more
While school’s out, young trapezists around the Cities can finally get about the business of putting on a proper circus. Showcasing the acrobatic prowess of Circus Juventas’ most advanced performers, Pazzanni, a production based on the famed carnivales of sixteenth-century Venice, promises to be a locally grown Cirque du Soleil-style spectacle—one whose tickets are far … Read more
Cooper has been the plucky executive director of the Minnesota Fringe Festival for the past five years, bringing the beloved assemblage of offbeat theater back from the brink of financial despair and growing it into the largest non-juried performing arts festival in the country. (There are now fourteen of them nationwide, and about fifty-three Fringe … Read more
You have to appreciate the forthrightness of a sculptor like the Belgrade-born Mojsilov, who joked with a reporter a few years ago that his art is mainly about “turning rocks into expensive rocks.” To be sure, this show, which includes works from recent years along with maquettes and photos of large-scale public commissions, demonstrates that … Read more
Wabasha is a mighty fine place to see an eagle. The city is a ninety-minute drive south of Minneapolis on U.S. Highway 61—yes, Dylan’s Highway 61—one of several old settlements wedged between the five-hundred-foot bluffs and the Mississippi River, built in deference to the commanding geography. Originally established as a fur-trading post in the 1820s, … Read more
After winning the DFL endorsement at the Fifth Congressional District Convention in May, Keith Ellison has come closer than any black person (or Native American, Latino, Hmong, or Somali, for that matter), to representing Minnesota in Congress. If he wins the September 12 primary in the overwhelmingly Democratic Minneapolis, about the only thing that could … Read more
My husband and I recently went over our wills. This was pretty easy for me, since I don’t actually own anything of value. In fact, the only thing I am leaving my husband is a postmortem “honey do” list. The first thing on that list is to throw away all of my notebooks and journals. … Read more