Arts and Culture : Featured Stories

Most medical spaces and procedures aren't designed with the patient in mind. But that's beginning to change as health-care designers pay more attention to making the patient's experience pleasant and even fun. Here are four local examples of "human-centric" med-design.

"I basically took what was happening in the Twin Cities creatively and made my own resume," says Kate Iverson, a triple- or quadruple-threat art promoter, gallerist, and online journalist who lives at the hyperspeedily evolving interface of art, design, and social-media communication. We could think of no better person to fill us in on where those worlds meet in our towns, and to let us in on some of her favorite trendsters and Twitterers.

While many classical music ensembles struggle to survive and thrive, there's one early-music group in Saint Paul whose bottom line is as secure as its artistry--in large part thanks to the fresh ideas and entrepreneurial savvy of its artistic director, Jordan Sramek. Sramek has led Saint Paul's Rose Ensemble vocal group to artistic freshness and solid growth not by crowd-pleasing gimmicks but by knowing his audience, stretching the boundaries of the repertoire, and turning concerts into rich and multifaceted experiences of the past.

Here's an update on 4Front, the ambitious project initiated by local adman/marketer John Foley to make the Twin Cities a world-class innovation hub by calling international attention to our achievements and persuading top creative talent from around the world to come here to work and live. The means? Annual awards in four major areas of innovation, and a world's-fair-like showcase. Foley and a stellar board of directors are working on funding, planning a fall kickoff event, and mulling a new way to connect prizewinners with the community.

Our world-class contemporary-art showcase, the Walker Art Center, will be celebrating--and inspiring--made-in-Minnesota creativity this coming Saturday, April 9, with MN Made, a day of events and workshops keyed to our lovable local blend of sophistication and earthiness. The Walker, like The Line, defines creativity in capacious terms, so you'll not only be able to take part in a crafts sale, seed art and knitting workshops, a gallery tour, and a neo-folkie concert, but you can glean tips on chucking your day job and starting your own offbeat business.

Going to the theater can be soul-satisfying and exciting, but it also prompts questions. How did they get that lighting effect? Why did they decide to put the lead actress in such a strange costume? Why did they choose this play? This Saturday, fans of Minneapolis' internationally renowned Guthrie Theater get a chance to ask anything they want about a major current production, George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man, and get answers from senior Guthrie staff and starring actors.

Another local David--who is also connected to the Pacific Northwest--is an advocate for the role of good design in sustainability. David O'Brien Wagner of Minneapolis' SALA Architects speaks up for the subtle, even spiritual side of green building. Systems and certificates are important, he tells Meleah Maynard, but a building isn't green if it isn't carefully designed to connect the human and the natural worlds.

In colloquial Italian, the word spunto means a creative idea. Italy has given the world more than its share of spunti in art, architecture, music, design, and more--and five years ago some adoptive Twin Citians got a spunto of their own: to create a place that celebrates all things Italian. Today the Italian Cultural Center teaches language, sponsors film showings, collaborates with art and opera venues--and it's just getting started.

When James Garrett Jr., Nathan Johnson, and Erick Goodlow formed an architectural firm, they vowed to do more than create attractive buildings. The three Saint Paulites knew the city and its needs from the ground up, and they wanted to make an impact on the whole urban fabric. Via their company, 4RM+ULA, they're bringing a holistic design sense to some of the highest-profile projects in the Twin Cities--including the Central Corridor.

Don Smithmier starts companies without worrying about crafting a single image for himself. In fact, he calls the Minneapolis office of Matter Worldwide, his umbrella company, "the physical manifestation of my weird brain." It contains four companies he founded or in which he's a partner: a music studio, a web design firm, a web news aggregator, and a bold new venture in online learning. And then there's his country-and-western band...

A few weeks ago, The Line ran an article by Holly Dolezalek on a Knight Foundation-backed survey that asked Twin Cities residents what they love about their city. At about the same time, Susan Bernstein and Mary McGreevy of Seven And Sixty Productions released this video on very much the same topic, and the answers the filmmakers heard confirm the survey results--but in color and sound.

Lunalux, Jenni Undis' hip printing shop and paper-goods boutique on Minneapolis' Loring Park, pioneered in the crafting of "indie" greeting cards--cleverly conceived fine-press alternatives to Hallmark. Some of the most design-savvy people and organizations in town have gone to Undis for their printing needs--and her retail shop is full of offbeat paper goods you won't find anywhere else.

At first glance, The Saint Paul Almanac is a handy week-planner full of local information. Dig a little deeper and you discover founder/publisher Kimberly Nightingale's vision: a place where stories from every corner of the city, and every ethnic community, come together. But there's more: Nightingale sees the Almanac as a tool for transforming the way Americans learn about each other. And people around the country think she's on to something.

On Sunday, January 30, the slopes of Powderhorn Park in South Minneapolis came alive with some very strange sleds indeed as the fourth annual Art Sled Rally slid, wobbled, and tumbled into history. Our own Bill Kelley was there to capture high points of this very out-of-the-ordinary winter afternoon.

When you're waiting for the Hiawatha light-rail train, chances are that somewhere in the station are one or two of the little kiosks created by Brooklyn-based artist Janet Zweig. Turn a wheel, pull a lever, and you'll hear a story about old days in Saint Paul, see a Twin Cities comic perform, discover a singer. More than 100 local performing artists contributed to Zweig's project, dubbed Small Kindnesses, Weather Permitting. The Line managing editor Jon Spayde pulls a few levers to show you how they work.