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.

Zadie Smith has something for everyone in 'Grand Union'
Smith's first short story collection is wide-ranging, covering everything from politics to murder to drag queens. Some of the slighter stories feel like footnotes, but many show off Smith at her best.
Innocence Lost: explained
In the series of articles and radio reports beginning today titled “Innocence Lost,” MPR News aims to offer the fullest telling to date of the sexual abuse that plagued Children’s Theatre Company in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.
Minnesota monk to deliver prestigious lecture in Washington
Father Columba Stewart, executive director of the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library at St. John’s University in Collegeville, will give the Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities. Past honorees include Toni Morrison and Arthur Miller.
Innocence Lost: Children's Theatre Company responds to questions
When Managing Director Kimberly Motes and Artistic Director Peter Brosius of Children’s Theatre Company agreed to an interview with Marianne Combs, they asked that MPR News to publish their comments in their entirety. This is the full text of that interview.
Innocence Lost: A culture of abuse
Allegations of abuse at the Children's Theatre Company date back to 1972, an arrest was made a dozen years later and some survivors are only now finding justice.
The lasting legacy of Bob Ross and his colorful world of 'happy accidents'
The bushy-haired former Air Force sergeant with the soothing voice rose to fame in the 1980s and '90s with his PBS show The Joy of Painting. Bob Ross died in 1995, but his popularity endures.
'Ninth House' keeps watch over bloody mysteries
Leigh Bardugo's new stand-alone thriller is set at a dark, twisty alternate version of Yale, where the famed secret societies practice world-manipulating magic — with sometimes deadly results.
Ginger Baker, Cream drummer and force of nature, dies at 80
The 1960s rock icon, who was also an accomplished jazz musician and performed in Blind Faith and with Fela Kuti, died Sunday morning at age 80.
Before he animated for Disney, he sketched cartoons in an internment camp
As a child, Willie Ito spent nearly three years in a Japanese American internment camp. At StoryCorps, he tells his son how he went from doodling on Sears catalogs to animating for Walt Disney.