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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. 

This week’s picks gather around memory, place and what it means to show up for each other as the year tilts toward its close.

‘Student Art Showcase’ for the Boundary Waters — Dec. 19 at Pillsbury Hall, University of Minnesota

 that uses art as an entry point into environmental concern, this showcase brings photography, poetry and painting inspired by the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to campus. Hosted by the Environment Minnesota Research & Policy Center, the exhibition spans work by elementary and high school students alongside professional Minnesota artists. The aim, according to Annika Fredeen, is both practical and inclusive: “Art is a very easy way for people to express their voices and and share their feelings about a particular issue,” Fredeen says. “For the students in particular who might not be as knowledgeable about specific policies and bills, the art gives them a way to use their voices for advocacy.”

Remembering the Life of Jellybean Johnson — Dec. 20 in various locations

One of the architects of the Minneapolis Sound 

 that reflects the breadth of his influence. Jellybean Johnson, whose work alongside Prince, Janet Jackson and countless others helped define an era, is honored with a public celebration of life at Shiloh Temple in Minneapolis, featuring musical tributes and a livestream for those joining from afar. The remembrance continues Saturday night at the Minnesota Music Cafe, where one of Johnson’s favorite bands, Jaybee & The Routine, takes the stage, carrying his legacy forward by turning remembrance into rhythm.

Caitlyn Smith — Dec. 20 at The Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul

A hometown songwriter who took the long way to the spotlight, 

 as a fully arrived headliner. Born and raised in Cannon Falls, she first made her mark behind the scenes, writing for artists like Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers before stepping out on her own in 2018. Her recent work reflects that long apprenticeship, pairing a powerful voice with songs shaped by experience rather than sheen: country-pop that’s intimate, assured and unconcerned with chasing perfection.

‘Raging Art On’ — Through Dec. 21 at Gamut Gallery in Minneapolis

 closes a 14-year chapter in downtown Minneapolis’ art life. Since opening in 2012, the gallery has mounted 108 exhibitions, and the sendoff leans into excess: cocktails, music, appetizers and floor-to-ceiling art for sale. Gallery director Francesca Bernardi describes the saturation as deliberate, a last opportunity to move through a space built on local voices before economic pressures and neighborhood change bring the gallery’s run to an end.

‘A Stillwater Christmas Carol’ — Dec. 19–23 at the Grand Banquet Hall, Stillwater

 in this reimagining that shifts "A Christmas Carol" from Victorian London to Stillwater at the end of World War I. Adapted and directed by Michael Dufault, the production recasts Ebenezer Scrooge as a tightfisted river-town businessman, coming of age just as the city’s lumber era slips into the past. The familiar ghosts still arrive on schedule, but the historical pivot adds resonance, situating the story at a moment when Stillwater itself is facing an uncertain future — and when generosity, community and change feel newly urgent.

‘Somewhere’ — Through Feb. 1 at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis

A family drama with movement embedded in its emotional logic

, this early play by Matthew Lopez revisits elements of "The Glass Menagerie" through a Puerto Rican family of performers in 1959 New York, as their neighborhood faces erasure. Directed by Guthrie artistic director Joseph Haj, with choreography by Maija Garcia, the production uses dance to surface what dialogue can’t: letting feeling rise and break the way songs do in a musical. The result is intimate and unsettled, a glimpse of the concerns that would later define Lopez’s work: home, displacement and who is allowed to remain.

Whether you’re marking an ending, celebrating a legacy or finding a new way into an old story, these events reward attention and presence. Go for the art, the music or the history, but stay for the feeling that culture, at its best, helps us make sense of where we are and what comes next

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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. 


A man in a top hat plays drums on an outdoor stage

MN Shortlist: Art, memory and home — 6 picks for Dec. 19-25

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