Year in Review: Five highlights in a dark year for the arts
Amid sadness, uncertainty, frustration and fear, individuals and organizations found ways to do good work. Here are a few of the things that inspire hope.
Arts & Culture
Covering Minnesota’s theater, music, dance, literature and visual arts.
More than a dozen ways to enjoy the holidays at home
There’s something for everyone, from the Guthrie’s “Dickens’ Holiday Classic” to the Blues Fest Live Year End Revue.
Four plays to watch online right now; and what about ‘The Stand’?
Screens are what we have these days, and we’re lucky to have them. Over the past several months, the choice for theaters has been to stream or go silent.
Remembering Debbie Duncan, our First Lady of Song
As grief, disbelief and gratitude flow on social media, five colleagues share their memories.
How the family of Pelagie Faribault came to own Pike Island near Fort Snelling
An 1820 treaty between the United States and the Dakota specifically set aside the 320-acres Wita Tanka, also called Pike Island, specifically for Pelagie Faribault.
Knight Foundation invests $2.2 million in St. Paul arts; Minnesota Opera announces spring season
ALSO: Sounds of Blackness: “The Night Before Christmas: In Concert”; the Guthrie’s “Dickens’ Holiday Classic”; and more.
SPCO reports balanced budget, growing audience; a light show on the Cathedral of St. Paul
ALSO: Penumbra Theatre’s Celebration of the Soul virtual concert; “A Christmas Carole Peterson” podcast; and more.
Hearing Handel’s ‘Messiah’ mindfully; Kate DiCamillo at the Humphrey School
ALSO: “A Christmas Celebration with the Steeles,” livestreamed from the Dakota; holiday music presented by Minnesota jazz musicians; and more.
Minnesota Orchestra adds four more livestreams; Nachito Herrera’s ‘Cuban Holiday’
ALSO: Commonweal’s “A Driftless Christmas”; Jim Walsh book launch for “Fear and Loving in South Minneapolis”; and more.
The fight against a power line helped launch Alice Tripp’s brief political career
As proposed by two partnering utility companies, the CU Powerline would have stood 150 feet tall and cut across 8,000 acres of farmland in North Dakota and Minnesota. The plan sparked outrage in western Minnesota for its indifference toward small family farms.
Taylor Mac to perform ‘Holiday Sauce … Pandemic!’ live; ‘A Christmas Carol’ radio play from Park Square Theatre
ALSO: Pianist Jim Brickman: “Comfort & Joy at Home Live!”; Minnesota Opera’s “A Holiday Special – Live!”; and more.
The New Standards release a holiday album; Miss Richfield returns
ALSO: A live reading of “The Chanukkah Guest”; The Singers’ “What Sweeter Music”; Border CrosSing’s “El Mesías”; and more.
Illusion Theater will have a new home; ‘A Suitable Boy’ starts streaming in the U.S.
ALSO: Twin Cities Jazz Festival’s “A Copasetic Christmas Carol”; the National Lutheran Choir’s virtual Christmas concert; and more.
‘Operation: Immigration’ explores identity and love; Ijeoma Oluo at ‘Talk of the Stacks’
ALSO: MNspin adds more albums; how to help the arts, right now; John Lennon Tribute featuring Curtiss A streaming from First Avenue; and more.
Cecelia Regina Gonzaga’s brief time in Minnesota ended after she was arrested for impersonating a woman
Gonzaga strenuously defended herself, saying, “I have always earned an honest living, although I have not found life as bright as most people…I have always found it easier making a living doing women’s work than men’s.”
Why I’ve been thinking about 4-decades-old Minneapolis theater production for the last four years
Theatre de la Jeune Lune’s 1980 production of “Ubu For President” premiered in Minneapolis two weeks after Ronald Reagan was elected president.
Christmas concerts coming up; Louise Erdrich at One Book, One Minnesota
ALSO: Arab Film Festival Collab; the Bad Plus streaming; French music from Louis XIV and XV eras; and more.
More COVID-19 relief for Minnesota arts organizations; New Native Theatre Play Festival begins
ALSO: readings from three poets; new dance from Walker and Northrop; The Betty Crocker Musical; and more.
The Great Northern reveals Kate Nordstrum’s original programming; Tane Danger to direct Westminster Town Hall Forum
If you thought COVID would put a stop to the Great Northern, the Twin Cities’ winter celebration, think again.
The SPCO suspends livestreamed concerts; ‘Magical Black History Trees’ at MAAHMG
ALSO: Minnesota author Jonathan Slaght in the national spotlight; Foot in the Door 5 at Mia; a conversation with Charles Baxter; and more.
