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.

Replacements' 1986 concert gets the live album treatment
The Replacements' concert at Maxwell's in Hoboken, N.J., in 1986 has been made into a two-CD set that comes out Friday.
Kazuo Ishiguro wins Nobel Prize for Literature
The Swedish Academy cited him for "novels of great emotional force, (he) has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world."
Art Hounds: Film and photography expose environmental damage
This week, the Art Hounds recommend an exhibition at Nash Gallery, a choral festival and a silent movie set to live music.
'Dunbar' is a moving, brutal and apt update of 'King Lear'
For centuries, Shakespeare's tragedy was too painful for audiences; it was performed with an altered happy ending. But Edward St. Aubyn has never flinched at inflicting pain on his readers.
Joe Biden writing foreword for transgender activist's memoir
Former Vice President Joe Biden is writing the foreword to a memoir by transgender activist Sarah McBride, who made history when she addressed the Democratic National Convention last year.
Here are the finalists for the 2017 National Book Awards
The National Book Foundation winnowed the list of contenders for its literary prize to just 20 -- or five finalists each in four categories. Among them are Jesmyn Ward, Min Jin Lee and Frank Bidart.
For chance to direct Harry Dean Stanton, actor got 'Lucky'
When the producers wanted a fellow actor to direct Stanton, they turned to Guthrie alum John Carroll Lynch.
New Muhammad Ali biography reveals a flawed rebel who loved attention
"I don't think we do Ali any good by treating him as a saint," says biographer Jonathan Eig. "He was a human being, and he was deeply flawed, but ... he had the spirit of a rebel."
Las Vegas massacre prompts musician to call for gun control: 'Enough is enough'
Caleb Keeter, a guitarist for the Josh Abbott Band, says, "my biggest regret is that I stubbornly didn't realize it until my brothers on the road and myself were threatened by it."