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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.

StoryCorps: His vaccine story inspired his father to write a classic Disney song

StoryCorps: His vaccine story inspired his father to write a classic Disney song

As a kid, Jeffrey Sherman told his father, songwriter Robert Sherman, about his experience getting a polio vaccine. It sparked Robert to craft the now-famous “Mary Poppins” song, "A Spoonful of Sugar."
by Jo Corona

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Ask a Bookseller: A master class on writing, reading — and life

Ask a Bookseller: A master class on writing, reading — and life

Cat Bock of Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tenn., recommended a brand-new work of literary criticism by George Saunders with a tempting subtitle indeed: “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life."
by Emily Bright

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Love and hope are at the heart of 'The Prophets'

Love and hope are at the heart of 'The Prophets'

Robert Jones Jr.'s debut novel is a love story between two enslaved men on a Mississippi plantation. He says that it was very important for him to depict love and art in the midst of sorrow.
by Scott Simon

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Michael Apted, director of ‘Up’ documentary series, dies at 79

Michael Apted, director of ‘Up’ documentary series, dies at 79

Michael Apted, the acclaimed British director of the “Up” documentary series and films as diverse as the Loretta Lynn biopic “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and the James Bond film “The World Is Not Enough,” has died. He was 79.
by The Associated Press

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Publisher cancels book by Sen. Hawley, citing his role in inciting Capitol attack

Publisher cancels book by Sen. Hawley, citing his role in inciting Capitol attack

Simon & Schuster says it has decided not to publish a forthcoming book by Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, citing the lawmaker's role in fomenting this week's "disturbing [and] deadly insurrection" at the U.S. Capitol.
by Scott Neuman

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'Persephone Station' aims for the stars — and almost makes it

'Persephone Station' aims for the stars — and almost makes it

Stina Leicht's new sci-fi novel has a lot of moving parts: Space opera, rough-and-tumble mercenaries, corporate intrigue, alien first contact — and to her credit, she almost pulls it all off.
by Jason Sheehan

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Songs that keep us going during hard times

Songs that keep us going during hard times

Last year was at times a terrible, difficult, sad and challenging one. But through some of the most trying of days, many of us turned to a familiar source of comfort: music.
by Angela Davis and Karen Zamora

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'The Liar's Dictionary' is a delight from A to Z

'The Liar's Dictionary' is a delight from A to Z

Eley Williamsdid her doctoral dissertation on "mountweazels," fake words inserted into dictionaries as copyright traps — and she builds on that in her charming debut novel, about an epic dictionary.
by Heller McAlpin

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