Cooler but still well above normal this week

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Each week Minnesota Public Radio News asks three people from the Minnesota arts scene to be "Art Hounds." Their job is to step outside their own work and hunt down something exciting that's going on in local arts.

Art hound Betsy Altheimer is the development program director at Springboard for the Arts in St. Paul. She's really looking forward to the B-Girl Be Block Party taking place at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis on Saturday, Sept. 19.

Betsy thinks this afternoon of music, dance, art and film will appeal to everyone, from b-girls steeped in hip-hop culture to newbies seeking an introduction. She also loves the strong sense of sisterhood created at this gathering of female hip-hop artists from around the world.

Chris Bates is an engineer and visual artist in Sioux Falls. Chris wants to let you in on a little secret: Sioux Falls is home to some really fine jazz.

features local and touring jazz musicians. Chris loves listening to the different styles of the artists who play there and the music helps him as he plans his own abstract visual artworks.

Laura Bidgood is a spoken word artist, storyteller, and freelance director in the Twin Cities. She was blown away by the Lyric Arts' production of Doubt, A Parable, which runs through Sept. 27.

She says she was nervous that this production wouldn't be able to live up to the big names and big budget of the recent movie, but she was amazed by the skill and talent on display on this Anoka stage.

, a new Twin Cities classical music ensemble, featuring some of the finest talent from both the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, performs at the Southern Theater this weekend.

The Walker Art Center launches its Coen Brothers film retrospective tomorrow night with "

!" Twin Cities actor-vocalist-educator T. Michael Rambo take its audience on a centennial journey of African American culture, literature and civil rights activism, drawing from the writing of Langston Hughes, W.E.B. DuBois and Martin Luther King Jr., and incorporating the music of Billie Holliday and Nat King Cole, among others.

Arts and Culture

State of the Arts Blog

Marianne Combs

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This week, our Art Hounds take us to a hip-hop block party in Minneapolis, a jazz bistro in Sioux Falls and a thought-provoking production in Anoka.

Art Hounds: Breaking, popping, and styling

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