Minnesota Arts

For months, community members around St. Cloud have been working together to create a large glass mosaic tree. Laura Ruprecht, the artist spearheading the project, joined host Cathy Wurzer to tell her more about the community around the tree and its meaning.
Art Hounds: R&B, country and old time radio drama
Art Hounds celebrates live musical and drama performances for every taste this weekend, with shows by country singer Trevor McSpadden, soul and roots performer Annie Mack, and the Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society’s holiday special.
Art Hounds: Capturing the light, sound and joy of the season
Jorts Improv takes on the holiday romantic comedy in “A Snowy Kiss.” Painter Joshua Cunningham captures the light falling across landscapes throughout Minnesota. An Austin Advent concert features a van Daalen pipe organ.
Jon Hassler's memoir 'Days Like Smoke' details a small-town Minnesota boyhood
Long after Jon Hassler’s death in 2008, the memoir that he worked on in his last years is now being published. A celebration of "Days Like Smoke" is planned for next month at the Community Center in Plainview, one of the two small towns where Hassler spent his childhood.
Renowned Minnesota Native artist George Morrison to be honored with new stamp series
Celebrated Minnesota artist George Morrison — who was born in a Native American fishing village along the North Shore of Lake Superior in 1919, but whose art career took him around the world — will be featured on a new stamp series to be released next year by the U.S. Postal Service.
Art Hounds recommend shows that celebrate glamorous, artistic lives
The Sound Unseen Music + Film Festival ends with “Being Bebe” about drag performer Bebe Zahara Benet. At Bryant Lake Bowl, Mistress Ginger tells the stories of Hollywood stars such as Mae West and Marlene Dietrich. And Qui Nguyen’s Dungeon and Dragons comedy “She Kills Monsters” inaugurates in-person performances at a University of Minnesota venue in the Twin Cities.
Somali American designers take on refugee stereotypes in Minneapolis fashion pop-up
Two former Somali refugees are launching a fashion collaboration aimed at countering backlash against refugees while showing the power and beauty the arts can have in uplifting communities. Their fashion pop-up event in Minneapolis featured clothes and art designed to call attention to the refugee crisis.
A novel ended George Rabasa's writing career — and then jolted it back to life
George Rabasa’s novel “Undressing Lavinia,” the story of a Mexican woman facing cancer in Minnesota, was so tough to get down on the page, he quit writing entirely. Then a chance glance on his computer gave the book and his writing a new lease on life.