Arts and Culture

MPR News has you covered with news and stories about local art and culture happenings across Minnesota.

Art Hounds: Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what's exciting in local art. You can explore arts events here, or become an Art Hound today.

Art Reviews: Our arts team offers insight on the latest in theater, music, visual arts and more. We explore the breadth of creativity and innovation found throughout Minnesota, offering audiences a deeper understanding of the works and artists shaping our cultural landscape. Read more here.

Art Friend: Everyone needs an art friend. Art Friend is a new segment with our arts team. Art spaces can feel exclusive and art can be confusing, obtuse, and even boring. But, especially with the right context, everyone can be a critic. So let us be your guide- your Art Friend. Listen or read Art Friend stories here.

Our arts coverage is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment's Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.

Sold for scrap: Franconia Sculpture Park removes sculpture by founder
The steel sculpture “Prometheus III” at Franconia Sculpture Park was dismantled and sold for scrap. Artist John Hock, a founder and former director of the Park, says he wasn’t warned.
Legacy in pink: First Black-owned gay bar in San Francisco reborn as art at the Walker
“The New Eagle Creek Saloon,” an art installation at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, reimagines the first Black-owned gay bar in San Francisco, Calif., blending art with social and historical themes.
In ‘The Manicurist's Daughter,’ a refugee family goes on after its matriarch’s death
Author Susan Lieu transforms her acclaimed 2019 one-woman show — “140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother” — into a memoir of her family after the death of her mother due to botched plastic surgery.
How memory works
Why is music so evocative? Why do some memories stick and others fade? How important is slow-wave sleep to the way memory works? One of the country’s leading neuroscientists joins MPR News host Kerri Miller on Big Books and Bold Ideas this week to talk about why memory isn’t so much who we were as who we are.
American Library Association report says book challenges soared in 2023
Overall, the number of individual titles challenged in both school and public libraries spiked by 65 percent — the highest level ever recorded by the ALA.
Basilica Block Party announces lineup
The Basilica Block Party, returning after a five-year hiatus, has announced its lineup with the Goo Goo Dolls and Counting Crows headlining, alongside a mix of national and local acts.
Art Hounds: Learn the meaning of Wee-Woo
Art Hounds discuss new theater at Open Eye, a requiem by a rock and roller and spectacular campus art.
First Black female jockey Cheryl White celebrated in Minnesota
Raymond White is traveling to Minnesota this coming weekend to share his sister’s legacy with a nonprofit equestrian program for BIPOC youth in the Twin Cities.