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.

A dangerous search for a dozen eggs
Bookseller Holly Brooks recommends a novel that follows two men desperately searching for cake ingredients in the middle of the siege of Leningrad.
The scares in 'Violet' aren't original, but they sure are scary
Scott Thomas's new novel, about a woman grappling with loss, grief and a mysterious evil in her childhood home, takes well-worn horror tropes and spins a slowly gathering storm of terror around them.
Charlie Parr uses injury to reassess and record
A year after a devastating injury threatened his career, Duluth guitarist Charlie Parr is back with a new album, a new tour and a new understanding of the tunes he plays.
In 'The Water Dancer,' Ta-Nehisi Coates creates magical alternate history
Ta-Nehisi Coates' new novel, set during the era of slavery, follows a young black man who discovers that his memories trigger a mysterious power of teleportation that can help escaped slaves flee.
'Future of Another Timeline' edits the past to save the present
Annalee Newitz's new novel pits a group of time-travelers trying to make the future better for women against a dangerous rival organization inspired by vicious Victorian moralist Anthony Comstock.
Art Hounds: Life, death and roller coasters
The Jungle Theater presents “Ride the Cyclone.” Plus, Art Hounds recommend a theatrical ghost tour of New Prague and “Population 485” in Hudson.
In 'This Tender Land,' writer crafts a Minnesota odyssey on the Mississippi
St. Paul writer William Kent Krueger tells MPR News host Tom Crann about “This Tender Land,” his new Depression-era novel of four orphans canoeing the Mississippi River to escape the cruelty of their Native American boarding school.
'The Shadow King' is a gorgeous meditation on memory, war and violence
Maaza Mengiste's new novel is set just before the second Italo-Ethiopian War, and follows a woman who becomes a guard to a "shadow king," a man impersonating exiled Ethiopian ruler Haile Selassie.