The State of the Art Up North
by Tim White
Tim White takes stock of the art currently shaping the North country's cultural scene by way of the work on view in Duluth Art Institute's 60th Arrowhead Regional Biennial.
Having an ever-changeable body of water like Lake Superior in your midst on a daily basis affects people, perhaps in particular those committed to making art.…
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Robert Adams, Touch-Free Art Dispenser. Courtesy of the DAI
The Columnest: Of Pinterest and Porn and Good Bad Decisions
by Lightsey Darst
Lightsey Darst on writer's block and pinning recipes with your mother-in-law, Rule 34 and the black hole at the center of the eye.
I’ve been quiet for a while. One should write when one has something to say. But no, that’s not right.One should write to find something to say. But no.…
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By Slashme (Own work), reproduced under CC license, via Wikimedia Commons
Disasters Align
by Sam Gould
Sam Gould makes the case for a rangier sort of socially-engaged art, one that forgoes easy, artworld-friendly categories like "social practice" in favor of articulating a field of practice that embraces more disruptive, unabashedly irrational work and interaction.
One night this fall, surrounded by a few hundred others, I sat cross-legged in the dirt with my daughter, Esme, on my lap, watching a skeletal dinosaur and a ghostly scarecrow-looking guy, both about seven or eight feet in height, as they danced with one another.…
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Photo from the 2014 BareBones production, Metamorphosoup, courtesy of the theater company.
What's So Funny? - With James Moore
by Levi Weinhagen
Comedy writer and performer James Moore talks about starting ComedySportz as a high schooler and how, 20 years later, stand-up comedy and improvisation still gives him a home where he fits.
About this month's featured guest in our monthly podcast on the craft of comedy:…
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James Moore (Photo courtesy of the artist)
Are Podcasts the Future of Public Broadcasting?
by Ira Brooker
Podcasts have grown into far more than a nerdy, underground pastime. "Serial" dominated the nation’s water-cooler conversations, and broadcasters like American Public Media have taken note and are getting in on the trend in a big way.
It's always fun to watch the domino effect of a new technology across the spheres of business and media. In the '90s it was all about companies setting up websites, whether or not they had any idea what to do with them.…
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Photo: Brett Levin Photography, reproduced under Creative Commons license.
Done and Undone
by Jeremy Walker
Composer, pianist and the curator of Minnesota Orchestra's new "Jazz in the Target Atrium" series, jazz columnist Jeremy Walker on artistic success, failure and the challenge of pushing ever forward.
On Tuesday, December 2, I had the great honor of launching Jazz in the Target Atrium, performing with Ted Nash, Marcus Printup, Vincent Gardner (in town with the Jazz @ Lincoln Cente…
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Photo: Frank Stewart, courtesy of Minnesota Orchestra
Anti-Retail Therapy
by Kevin Buist
For several months this fall, Carson Davis Brown illicitly created and exhibited arresting, monochromatic assemblages in big-box retailers around the Upper Midwest, using only materials found in-store for his installations.
Just after noon on Saturday, November 8, a cohort of the Grand Rapids art scene a few dozen strong convened in a suburban supermarket. As they trickled in, the group bypassed the produce and the pharmacy and went straight to the home goods section.…
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Installation made October 19, 2014 in Walmart, Comstock Park, Michigan. Photo © Carson Davis Brown.
