arts and culture : Featured Stories

Often, says Concordia University economist and biz-school dean Bruce Corrie, our minority and immigrant communities are seen solely through the "problem" lens. Their struggles are real, but their contributions to our prosperity and potential for growth are greater than most majority Minnesotans realize. And Corrie's got the figures to prove it.

The Twin Cities-based importer of hard-to-find European chocolate sees it as much, much more than a  confection. For her, the finest chocolate, like the best wine, has the power to change our lives for the better. That's why she's passionate about issues like cacao percentages, and why she pairs yoga and tai chi classes with chocolate tastings.

Following our selection of some favorite public artworks in Saint Paul two weeks ago, here is our take on the beautiful and the quirky in Minneapolis outdoor art--minus the Spoonbridge and Cherry, which is terrific but a little overexposed. It's just a taste of the richness available, designed to get you outside looking at art before the snow flies.

Muralist, public-school teacher, and MCAD professor Elissa Cedarleaf Dahl has a big idea for Minneapolis: a mural program that would engage at-risk kids, create beautiful public art all over the city, and celebrate our neighborhoods and the people who live in them.

There's always something happening on Hennepin Avenue. The wide, lively downtown Minneapolis boulevard has long specialized in entertainment, from the funky to the family-friendly to the high-cultural. Camille LeFevre reports on the kickoff event of an ambitious project that will transform it. The method? Placemaking, with an accent on the arts.

A web site's judgment that Minnesota is "the most hipster state" set me wondering about our homegrown sources of cool. Have we become hip by simply being ourselves?

Here's a second look at artist-adman Robb Burnham's images of our towns, which we first ran in June: a flute player silhouetted against a towering Gold Medal sign. The orange-lit back door of the Poodle Club. A turreted Saint Paul house with one room illuminated as night comes on. Burnham's drawings capture in a subtle way the soul of our towns.

The classical-music audience is graying, and the executives of the League of American Orchestras, who met here in early June, are nervously sharing ways to reverse the trend. Can Facebook, DJ dance nights, and Ben Folds save  Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms?

Hobbled by a broken ankle but determined to see as much glow-in-the-dark art as he could, our reporter plunged into the dusk-to-dawn art extravaganza called Northern Spark on the night of June 4. He saw luminescent plankton, 1,600 light-bulb pixels, and a wall of perfectly legal virtual graffiti.

A hunger for authenticity as well as for good food--that's what's driving the renaissance of the small neighborhood restaurant here, according to star restaurateur Kim Bartmann. And for Bartmann, authenticity goes a lot deeper than you might think.

Every summer Northeast Minneapolis struts its artistic stuff at Art-a-Whirl, which bills itself as the largest open-studio and gallery tour in the country, and which highlights the rapid growth of this fine old residential neighborhood into a magnet for artists, gallerists, and edgy restaurateurs. Bill Kelley's images capture the visual--and musical--richness.

On The Line's first birthday, managing editor Jon Spayde takes a moment to reflect on what he's learned about his adopted hometowns in a year. Like the amazing depth of our talent pool, the spirit behind our entrepreneurial energy, and our shyness about self-promotion.

Where Raymond Avenue meets University, artists and innovators have been living and working for decades, lured by cheap rents and a friendly, funky vibe. What will happen to them as light rail comes through, bringing construction disruption now--and an unpredictable development pattern later? The newly formed South Saint Anthony Park Creative Enterprise Zone aims to keep the neighborhood weird--and welcoming.

Mike Day, senior vice president of the Science Museum of Minnesota, has explored volcanoes and chased tornadoes. But he finds plenty of excitement just helping people discover the mysteries of the world around them--like whether King Tut was murdered and why he had a cleft palate.

The Saint Paul Art Crawl, spring edition, kicks off this Friday evening with the work of artists in some 325 studios and galleries in 27 different buildings around the capital city--and there's some pretty amazing music on tap too.