In an interview for PEN.org, published just before Christmas 2013, novelist Alexander Chee made an off-the-cuff remark about the pleasures of writing aboard a train, saying, “I wish Amtrak had residencies for writers.” Chee’s quotable sentiment made the rounds on Twitter, where it was picked up and given a head of steam by freelance writer […]
Article · March 31, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
“You” by Morgan Thorson: L to R, Genevieve Muench, Morgan Thorson, Max Wirsing and Jessica Cressey. Photo: Farrington Starnes Last weekend, “You,” a new work by choreographer Morgan Thorson, debuted at Bedlam Theatre in Lowertown. Actually, Saturday’s opening was a doubly special night, as Bedlam’s performing director Maren Ward reminded us at the close of the show, […]
Article · March 26, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
A team of Minnesota artists and supporters heads to the capitol for the 2013 Arts Advocacy Day. Photo courtesy of MCA Our state is known nationally for its progressive civic and philanthropic funding for the arts – but such generous public support doesn’t happen by accident. We have the benefit of particularly effective arts advocates […]
Article · March 24, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
Photo of Netta Yerushalmy courtesy of “5.2×3.4” series. If you follow contemporary dance, there’s an intimate performance coming up this weekend you should know about. Writer and curator Sandra Teitge, a recent transplant to Minneapolis-Saint Paul from Berlin, has begun a new art and conversation series in the re-purposed space of what used to be a […]
Article · March 19, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
The Bindery Projects’ new exhibition, by New York City-based artist Sreshta Rit Premnath, is rooted in fundamental, literal questions about bodies in space: “Why am I here? What is this existence, this right to be, that precedes or exceeds property?” “Plot” blends poetics, sculpture, moving and still images in wide-ranging rumination on issues of ownership, […]
Article · March 17, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
Community art creations for Artify, an Irrigate-funded project in St. Paul. There’s been a lot of big news coming out of St. Paul’s Springboard for the Arts of late. Last month, Springboard was awarded a $500,000 grant as part of the Knight Foundation’s new $8-million arts initiative in St. Paul. On March 4, Springboard’s executive […]
Article · March 12, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
Women’s Art Institute is celebrating 14 years of artists’ collaborations and workshops with an exhibition and book of interviews, both titled “How to Be A Feminist Artist.” Since 1999, Patricia Olson and Elizabeth Erickson, artists and educators at St. Catherine University and Minneapolis College of Art and Design respectively, have offered an annual four-week, intensive […]
Article · March 10, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
Photo by Teresa Boardman. Courtesy of Creative Commons license On February 24, Park Square Theatre (a Knight Arts grantee) announced a new partnership (PDF) with three Minneapolis-based companies: Theatre Pro Rata, Sandbox Theatre and Girl Friday Productions. The “producing partnership” will mount shows for Park Square’s new Andy Boss Thrust Stage over the course of […]
Article · March 5, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
Minnesota History Center has a charming kids’ program underway this January, February and March — just the thing if cabin fever’s been getting to your little ones. Once a month, the Big Wow Family Variety Show (formerly Global Hotdish) offers 90 minutes of multicultural performance — comedy, acrobatics and dance, music, art and storytelling from around the […]
Article · February 19, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
I have a confession. I’ve been following the peripheral shenanigans coming out of Sochi – the security concerns and journalists’ hotel horror stories, funny Putin-in-triumph photos – with far more relish than I have the actual games. But when news of a one-night-only performance of “Tonya and Nancy: The Opera” hit my inbox a couple of weeks […]
Article · February 17, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
Below-zero temps be damned – get out your warmest gear and plan to spend a weekend outdoors this month, because the art shanties are back. This year, the biannual midwinter arts festival has moved from its longtime home on Medicine Lake to the east metro, relocating just north of St. Paul to the frozen expanse […]
Article · February 5, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler