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.

Taylor Swift has regained control of her music, buys back first 6 albums
Taylor Swift says she’s has regained control over her entire body of work. In a lengthy note posted to her official website on Friday, Swift announced that all the music she’s ever made now belongs to her.
‘Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine’ talks about bars, the blues and belonging
Callie Collins’ new novel is a blues song in literary form, set in a saloon in 1970s Austin, Texas. What happens when the need to belong collides with a world that just keeps moving on?
MN Shortlist, May 30–June 5: Hitchcock with a live score, an outlaw musical and women muralists
This week’s MN Shortlist highlights a live score performance of Hitchcock’s “The Lodger,” a new musical about Minnesota outlaw Nellie King and a talk on Latin American women muralists.
Art Hounds: War and healing, celebrating human creativity and a theatrical take on Virginia Woolf
Art hounds recommend a multimedia exhibition grappling with war and healing, an art-and-music night focused on human creativity over AI and a theatrical meditation on identity and gender, co-created by a Minneapolis father-daughter duo.
‘Washita Love Child’ remembers Indigenous guitarist Jesse Ed Davis’ prolific music career
Indigenous guitarist Jesse Ed Davis played alongside iconic musicians in the 1970s and 1980s. His life, career and ancestors are remembered in a recent book by author Douglas Miller.
Marcel Ophuls, who chronicled 20th century conflict and atrocities, dies at 97
“There’s a relationship between attention span and morality,” Ophuls said. The filmmaker commanded his audience’s attention in four-plus-hour documentaries like The Sorrow and The Pity and Hôtel Terminus.