Every Thursday starting today, MinnPost will be publishing Weekend Best Bets, compiled by Minnesota Monthly arts editor Tim Gihring. The feature highlights a number of area events that he recommends you consider attending in the next few days.

Gihring has worked at the magazine since 2003. He has spent more time at intermissions than most people have spent in theaters, and has interviewed everyone from Tom Brokaw to Cheech Marin to Ann-Margret. He also moonlights as a fine-art photographer and loves that he landed in a recent volume of "Best Food Writing" without knowing a demi-glace from Demi Moore.

You can find more of his work on Minnesota Monthly's website.

We thank Minnesota Monthly for making this feature available to our readers.

Weekend Best Bets rounds out our new arts coverage plan, in the wake of Max Sparber’s departure for Hollywood. We recently announced the other two legs of our new coverage: a twice-weekly arts roundup of arts news and commentary by Pamela Espeland, which will be called Artscape; and a weekly feature by Andy Sturdevant, called The Stroll, that will focus each time on the visual art-related sights in a specific area of town.

With Weekend Best Bets scheduled for Thursdays, Artscape will appear Tuesdays and Fridays, starting tomorrow, Feb. 20. The Stroll will begin next Wednesday, Feb. 25. We will continue to run occasional arts pieces by our team of free-lance arts writers as well.   

We hope you enjoy our arts coverage.