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.

Art Hounds: Bakken Trio performs with crowd-sourced puppet story
Carolyn Kleinberger’s large portraits allow the viewer to get “Up Close from a Distance” at Hopkins Center for the Arts. The Bakken trio closes its season with Pavel Haas’ “From the Monkey Mountains” — featuring a puppet performance from Z Puppets Rosenschnoz. Duluth abstract painter David Austin paints live on Instagram on Saturdays.
Muslim call to prayer arrives to Minneapolis soundscape
This spring Minneapolis became the first large city in the United States to allow the Islamic call to prayer to be broadcast publicly on loudspeakers. So far only one mosque is doing so, three times a day. But more of the city's two dozen mosques are getting ready to start their own broadcasts.
From the archives: The gift of a garden in troubled times
On this Friday’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, MPR News host Kerri Miller talks with Tamar Haspel about her garden, which Haspel details in her new book “To Boldly Grow.” So we thought it was fitting to bring back a warm and introspective conversation with landscape designer Rebecca Winn for this week’s deep-cut track, where Winn shares how her garden was her restoration after heartbreak.
Knitting through COVID: One Minnesotan's journey
Amy Fisher wanted to see if she could visually explain just how bad the pandemic was last year and maybe, if things got better, a record of hope.
A good man: Exhibits honor 'Peanuts' creator Schulz on 100th
New exhibits at museums in Ohio and California are celebrating the upcoming centenary of the birth of Charles “Sparky” Schulz, the man who created the comic strip Peanuts.
Author Marie Myung-Ok Lee on her new novel 'The Evening Hero'
Minnesota-born Marie Myung-Ok Lee mines her own history for a wry new novel about a northern Minnesota doctor who learns his hospital is being closed by the corporation that bought it. That decision upends a previously quiet and controlled life. On this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, host Kerri Miller talks with Lee about her new novel, “The Evening Hero.”
The East African twist on an American staple
Ethiopian chef Karima Omer serves what she calls chapati wraps at her St. Paul restaurant. She created the dish almost by accident, but a staple of East African cuisine is now a huge hit with customers.
From the archives: Dr. Abraham Verghese on his novel, 'Cutting for Stone'
This Friday’s Big Books and Bold Ideas is a conversation with novelist Marie Myung Ok-Lee. Her new novel, “The Evening Hero,” is about changes in rural medicine, as told through the eyes of a physician who practices at a northern Minnesota hospital. To whet your appetite, we are bringing back one of host Kerri Miller’s all-time favorite Talking Volume conversations, with Dr. Abraham Verghese, practicing doctor and author of one of the great modern classics, “Cutting for Stone.”