Creative Economy : Featured Stories

Art lives in the Twin Cities--and not just in the tonier parts of town. Thanks to initiatives like Twin Cities LISC's Building Sustainable Communities program, art and artists are taking major roles in helping some of our most challenged inner-city communities thrive.

It's weathered industry exoduses and foreclosure--but now the proud old East Side Saint Paul neighborhood is home to a hot new bar/restaurant, Ward 6, that's both a sign of, and a force in, a wider renewal. 

On March 15, the nominees for this year's Minnesota Book Awards got together with the general public--not for the award ceremony, which isn't till April, but for some informal reading, book-buying and pressing of the flesh. Free (or mostly free) of the award-night jitters, it was a chance to celebrate our extremely vibrant literary community--and Bill Kelley was there.

This week: You've heard of "yarn bombing," knitting as a kind of graffiti (knitted cozies around trees and phone poles, yarn symbols strung through the links of chain-link fences, etc.). But how about knitting as out-there performance art? Our most fabulous local yarnmeister, StevenBe, will be doing just that on March 23rd. How will he turn knitting into performance? By weaving in stories--yarns?--from his glamorous life.

Once the exclusive province of privileged young white men heading for law degrees, debate is flourishing in inner-city schools here, thanks to the Minnesota Urban Debate League. The disciplined, demanding, and fun "mind sport" is helping kids of color and of lower income develop study and thinking skills--and get into college.

Despite a feisty ongoing effort to keep it open, Saint Paul's much-loved College of Visual Arts is slated to close--all the more reason to hurry over there to hear a talk about a fascinating Baroque artist, given by a fascinating local art historian/entrepreneur.

Stumbling upon the blog/online magazine that may be the one place to go if you want to know what smart young millennials in creative industries here are thinking and feeling. Hint: there's a lot of pop culture, irony, and a self-consciousness about hipsterdom that's intense but cheerful. And some serious stuff too.

Last Wednesday's kickoff event for the linkup between the search-engine giant and the local coworking space was full of energy, ambition, and promise for local entrepreneurs, some of whom think Silicon Prairie's ready to bloom.

This week: A greeting card in a coffee shop sends me to a Minneapolis West Bank memorial that recalls a beloved, vanished building and honors the history and traditions of generations of West Bankers.

In A Line or Two, I share some of my enthusiasms and discoveries as I make my way around the Twin Cities. Call it an editor's note as blog entry. This week: A multi-everything hip-hop/spoken word extravaganza organized by our coolest Lao-American diva and sponsored by the lovable Saint Paul Almanac.

This serious-minded but light-hearted nonprofit tutors at-risk kids in the coolest possible way--by matching them up with adults in creative industries. The result: deep connections, academic achievement, and fun for everybody.

"Placemaking" is a powerful buzzword in 21st-century urbanism. Do we know what it actually means and whom it's supposed to serve? For Brendan Crain of New York's Project for Public Spaces, the idea that it's all about attracting talent to town and building the new economy is wrongheaded. Placemaking, Crain insists, should be rooted in the immediate needs of the people who already live here. 

When globetrotting dancers and choreographers Uri Sands and Toni Pierce-Sands, formerly of the Alvin Ailey company, decided to establish a new kind of multicultural dance school in Saint Paul, they knew where they wanted it to be: along the Central Corridor in the heart of the city.

The bars and restaurants in this uber-trendy corner of downtown Minneapolis draw national attention. Meanwhile, developers, community groups, and residents are turning the surrounding neighborhood into a pleasantly dense, lively, and livable urban village.

In A Line or Two, I share some of my enthusiasms and discoveries as I make my way around the Twin Cities. Call it an editor's note as blog entry. This week: The Walker Art Center hosts an Aussie touring show unlike any you're likely to see this year.