Minnesota Arts

MN Shortlist: Art, memory and home — 6 picks for Dec. 19-25
The stretch before the holidays has a way of sharpening things. Art leans toward advocacy, music turns reflective and familiar stories get reframed through local history and loss.
MN Shortlist: Holiday mischief And Minnesota traditions — 6 Picks For Dec. 12-18
This week, the options swing from sugarplum surges to noir-tinged radio chaos to a rock opera still sparking after 50 years.
4 facts about 'I Feel Down Today,' the new single from Ponderosa
Minneapolis musician Josh Lavonn says his latest album came from one place: love. The Ponderosa frontman credits his wife and the relationships around him as the spark behind “Woman,” a retro-soul record built on devotion, vulnerability and long-term partnership.
How a Carleton College alum went from Northfield to ‘Saturday Night Live’
Claire McFadden, a Carleton College graduate, talked with MPR News about how she got started in comedy, her decision to pursue it as a career, and how her time in Minnesota prepared her for this highly coveted opportunity.
MN Shortlist: Winter stories, warmer rooms — 6 picks for Dec. 5–Dec. 11
December arrives like a season that knows it’s putting on a show. The city fills with borrowed memories, holiday oddities, local stories and a little frost for dramatic effect. This week’s picks slip right into that cast, where familiar traditions get re-staged and the past refuses to stay backstage.
First Somali dance performance ‘such an honor’ at Timberwolves game Saturday
After years of pushing for it, Mohamoud O. Mohamed has secured the first-ever Somali dance performance at a Timberwolves game, with the Somali Museum Dance Troupe set to take the Target Center floor for the Saturday pre-show performance.
Five things Nicholas Sparks told us about ‘The Notebook’ — and Minnesota
Nicholas Sparks returned to Minnesota last week to see the touring production of “The Notebook: the Musical” at the Ordway. He also revisited the state where some of his earliest memories were formed. Here’s what we learned.