Earlier this month, I heard Diane Ragsdale speak at a Twin Cities metro-wide Arts Learning Xchange symposium for arts administrators, artists and arts advocates in Minneapolis’ scenic Nicollet Island Pavilion by the river. A writer and scholar with a background in both arts administration and funding, Ragsdale is best known for her public speaking and […]
Article · July 23, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
Reviewers just aren’t sure what to make of award-winning author Amy Leach. And she is hard to pin down; her wry, outrageously inventive nonfiction pieces have earned her comparisons with writers as diverse as Emily Dickinson, Lewis Carroll, Thoreau. Reading her debut book, “Things That Are,” a collection of short essays on science, philosophy, cosmology […]
Article · July 18, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
When guests board the Jonathan Padelford Riverboat on Harriet Island for the “River City Revue” this Wednesday night, they’ll be greeted by the lively, New Orleans-style jazz of the Southside Aces brass band, who’ll continue playing throughout the evening from the boat’s top deck. The “Revue” is a joint project by many of the same […]
Article · July 16, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
Ann Marsden, 55, a lifelong St. Paulite and photographer of record for Twin Cities actors, musicians, writers and artists for 30 years, died this weekend. Two years after her initial diagnosis, she succumbed to cervical cancer on Sunday evening with loved ones by her side, according to press reports. Marsden has been a fixture in […]
Article · July 11, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
In the space of just a few months in the depths of the Great Depression, from December 1933 to June 1934, the newly formed and short-lived Public Works of Art Program (PWAP), using taxpayer funds, directly commissioned in excess of 15,600 pieces of art from 3,749 American artists and craftspeople. E. Dewey Albinson, “Northern Minnesota […]
Article · July 9, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
My soon-to-be-first grader is tackling the St. Paul Public Library’s summer reading program, so we’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time at our neighborhood branch since the school year ended. I know I’ve written about my love of the library system’s civic programming here before, but it bears repeating, particularly now that so many […]
Article · July 5, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
We don’t have Taste of Minnesota’s gaudy July 4th blow-out anymore, it’s true, but the City of St. Paul has its own plans again this year for a splashy civic fireworks display along downtown’s Mississippi riverfront area. If you’d like to bring the family, grab a blanket and a few lawn chairs, because Harriet Island […]
Article · July 2, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
Vintage photo courtesy of the Twin Cities Rare and Antiquarian Book Fair From rare collectibles worth thousands to used paperbacks going for a couple of bucks a pop, this weekend’s Twin Cities Rare and Antiquarian Book Fair at the State Fairgrounds looks promising. It’s the largest rare book show in the Upper Midwest, and this […]
Article · June 27, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
Now in its 14th year, the Twin Cities Summer Jazz Festival has a downright dizzying line-up of musicians in store, on the mainstage and in satellite venues scattered throughout Downtown and Lowertown. Since 2009, when the city of St. Paul wooed the festival to relocate the performance hub to Mears Park, attendance has also blossomed: […]
Article · June 25, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
Photographer Wing Young Huie’s gallery, The Third Place, holds a monthly salon you should check out. Thus far, the venue has hosted conversations with painters and performers, photographers, musicians and community activists. These aren’t just sit-listen-and-leave affairs either; participants make a night of it, chatting over food and drink after the discussion, joining in on […]
Article · June 20, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler
There’s big news afoot over at the Minnesota Museum of American Art (MMAA): Kristin Makholm, director of what has for three years been a ‘museum without walls,’ announced last week in a series of interviews with area media outlets that MMAA has found a brick-and-mortar home – at least for the time being. After years […]
Article · June 18, 2012 by Susannah Schouweiler