Weekend Picks: Thanksgiving with Jearlyn Steele and friends; Small Business Saturday; SPCO
Plus: A bookstore grand opening; gallery events and more.
Sheila Regan
Sheila Regan is a Twin Cities-based arts journalist. She writes MinnPost’s twice-weekly Artscape column. She can be reached at sregan@minnpost.com.
The story of an Ojibwe drum shows how auction houses can help — or hurt — efforts to repatriate Indigenous objects
Jaime Arsenault, the tribal historical preservation officer for the White Earth Nation, says sacred Native objects go up for sale on the private market all too often: “It’s a very painful Catch-22 situation that tribes find themselves in, I would say, on a weekly basis.”
Weekend Picks: Visit the world’s top museums from the Twin Cities
Plus: Christmas at Pemberley; highlighting Black opera singers and composers Womenfolk Radio anniversary; and more.
Minnesota Opera’s ‘Rinaldo’ sets Handel’s baroque opera in a fantasy 1980s Wall Street
Taking place at Minnesota Opera’s new Luminary Art Center and set in a fantasy version of the 1980s Wall Street era, Rinaldo is portrayed as a trust fund baby and the sorceress Armida is a financial wizard unable to break through the glass ceiling.
Weekend picks: Two film festivals, tabla music and ‘Uncle Philip’s Coat’
Plus: The work of Nyeema Morgan and Mary Simpson and a discussion with essential workers at the East Side Freedom Library.
Boom Island memorial to survivors of sexual violence vandalized — again
The Survivors Memorial is the first permanent memorial to sexual violence survivors in the nation.
Weekend Picks: Día de los Muertos; eerie landscapes; ‘The Boys Room’
Plus: Canadian singer Jessie Reyez; a Jewish/Native American puppet show; and a choral concert with a social justice bent.
Artist Roshan Ganu explores light and darkness in multimedia installation
Ganu appears as a character in the installations, which also depict an imagined landscape of outer space. She filmed herself in the SooVAC galleries during Navarati, a festival in the Hindu tradition that spans nine nights.
Weekend picks: Spooky fun with BareBones and a Bakken rooftop show
If Halloween isn’t your thing, you’ve got lots of other options, too, including the bull-jean Experience; Dylan Hicks & Small Screens + Aby Wolf and Eric Mayson; Drag Story Hour; and more.
Sherlock Holmes visits St. Paul
An exhibition devoted to the character of Sherlock Holmes, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 19th century Victorian period, celebrates scientific inquiry, innovation, and the long-rooted collaborations between police and scientists.
Weekend Picks: SPCO partners with Native-led galleries; tongue-in-cheek melodrama in Lanesboro; Black Authors Expo
Art isn’t always comfortable. It’s through art we confront the most difficult things in our community — like social or political issues, existential threats to our existence like climate change, and traumas that linger from the past.
‘Jannis Kounellis in Six Acts’ brings the late artist’s sculpture, performance art to the Walker
The last show curated by former Walker Art Center curator Vincenzo de Bellis is a hat tip from the curator on his way to new things.
Weekend Picks: First-ever Twin Cities Art Week, events at Penumbra and the Capri, Chihuly, Queen Sonja of Norway’s visit
It’s the Twin Cities Art Week this week, a new festival of sorts where all kinds of galleries and museums are spiffed up with special events. Plus a lot more.
The indefatigable Douglas Ewart is the McKnight Foundation’s 2022 Distinguished Artist
The $100,000 annual award honors significant contributions to the cultural life of Minnesota.
Weekend Picks: Land of 10,000 Laughs, a Black composer showcase, craft market
Plus: a Swedish stringband; show-stopping song and dance; and an arty party.
Catalyst Content Festival celebrates indie storytelling in Duluth
“With the support of the government now, it’s an incredible opportunity and resource for filmmakers to come here,” said Kimberley Browning, a filmmaker and director of programming for the festival. “This is such a great film community that doesn’t necessarily hit New York or LA and we’re hoping this will help cross pollinate.”
Weekend picks: Art with a conscience; an older musical is relevant again
Plus: Kim Benson paintings; Books in the Barn; New Order and Pet Shop Boys; and more.
Minnesota Children’s Museum becomes ‘Pal Place’ for neurodivergent kids
The museum partnered with Pal Experiences to develop “know before you go” digital resources to reduce anxiety and help with communication.
Weekend picks: A soul-ified Euripides; Wynton Marsalis; music of Iran
More highlights this week: an exhibition of Black photography at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery, eclectic contemporary sounds at the Walker Art Center, and a way to support the beloved Drag Story Hour.
Grand Marais author Staci Lola Drouillard’s new book chronicles how seven aunts shaped her
In “Seven Aunts,” Drouillard paints a beautiful, loving picture of seven of her Anishinaabe and European aunts that isn’t afraid to reveal harsh truths — about addiction, abuse, and illness, while also sharing moments of levity and deep care.
