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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.

'Maniac' recounts deadliest school mass murder in American history

'Maniac' recounts deadliest school mass murder in American history

Author Harold Schechter details the 1927 school bombing in Bath Township, Mich., that killed 38 children and six adults. Days later, Charles Lindbergh's famous transatlantic flight captured headlines.
by Michael Schaub

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Art Hounds: Landscapes from southern Minnesota celebrate light

Art Hounds: Landscapes from southern Minnesota celebrate light

An artist captures the landscapes of the Driftless Region in southeastern Minnesota, Plus, M.A.C. House Gifted Variety Show puts emerging artists on stage, and a dance film’s world premiere invites audiences to listen well.
by Emily Bright

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Books hold the key to 'The Postscript Murders'

Books hold the key to 'The Postscript Murders'

The woman who turns up dead at the start of Elly Griffiths' new novel billed herself as a "murder consultant" for writers. Griffiths says she was inspired by her aunt, who enjoys thinking up murders.
by Mary Louise Kelly

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Are we failing boys in America?

Are we failing boys in America?

In her searing new book, investigative journalist Emma Brown says boys in America face a crisis of emotional and mental health. Can we fix the system that is failing them? 
by Kerri Miller and Kelly Gordon

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'Phantom Tollbooth' author Norton Juster dies at 91

'Phantom Tollbooth' author Norton Juster dies at 91

The author of the beloved children's book reunited with its illustrator for the more recent “The Odious Ogre.” Juster was also an architect and he died due to complications from a recent stroke.
by Andrew Limbong

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The weird world of 'Cosmogony' is immensely inviting

The weird world of 'Cosmogony' is immensely inviting

In her first collection, Lucy Ives proves herself — and we mean this as a compliment — a real literary weirdo. Her stories are strange without ever performing strangeness, baffling yet precise.
by Lily Meyer

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Inside the fight for the right to die: Logistical and ethical challenges

Inside the fight for the right to die: Logistical and ethical challenges

Katie Engelhart explores the complexity of physician-assisted death in the book The Inevitable. She says patients seeking to end their own lives sometimes resort to veterinary drugs from overseas.
by Terry Gross

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The victims, rather than the killer, are at the center of 'Last Call'

The victims, rather than the killer, are at the center of 'Last Call'

The victims of the man dubbed the "Last Call Killer" were all gay men; Elon Green tries to shine a light onto their complicated lives, the messiness of who they were, and an era of queer life in NYC.
by Ilana Masad

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A small village takes on big oil in 'How Beautiful We Were'

A small village takes on big oil in 'How Beautiful We Were'

Imbolo Mbue's new novel is set in an unnamed country that could be any West African nation beset by international oil companies — and yet, it's a story of rebellion and rebirth, not calamity.
by Tochi Onyebuchi

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CRISPR scientist's biography explores ethics of rewriting the code of life

CRISPR scientist's biography explores ethics of rewriting the code of life

“The Code Breaker” profiles Jennifer Doudna, a Nobel Prize-winning biochemist key to the development of CRISPR, and examines the technology's exciting possibilities and need for oversight.
by Terry Gross

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