To fully immerse yourself in “Italian Style: Fashion Since 1945” (at the MIA through January 4), or if you simply want to dress with a little more pizzazz (that’s Diana Vreeland, not Italian), you’ll need to know the language. Not all of it, but a few key words that unlock the mystery of looking like  ...

Most of us adults think of ourselves as rational. We no longer believe, if we ever did, that Wile E. Coyote can walk off a cliff—and keep walking. That we never have to grow up. But in many ways, we don’t. We are creatures of magical thinking, even as adults. Even in the supposedly über-rational  ...

Most of us adults think of ourselves as rational. We no longer believe, if we ever did, that Wile E. Coyote can walk off a cliff—and keep walking. That we never have to grow up. But in many ways, we don’t. We are creatures of magical thinking, even as adults. Even in the supposedly über-rational  ...

The new exhibition “Italian Style: Fashion Since 1945,” in its opening week at the MIA, showcases the post-war clothing designers that helped glamorize a rebuilding nation: Gucci and Versace and Valentino and all the other vowels. It can feel, intentionally, like a glittering guest visiting from somewhere more exotic. But Italian style has been strutted in Minnesota  ...

You could don a hockey mask or paint yourself in zombie blood. Or you could class things up a bit. Go as your favorite MIA artwork. With a few clicks and overnight delivery you could give the kids who treat-or-treat at your door something they’ll remember for the rest of their lives—yes, a full-size candy  ...

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about period rooms. In fact, a small group of us at the MIA have been thinking about the period rooms at the museum for some time now: a multi-year initiative to understand how they came about, how people think about them, and how we might engage them going forward.  ...

Last winter, I drove up to Ely, near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, to hang out with Andy Messerschmidt, whose MAEP exhibition, “Delta Delta Delta Force,” will be on view at the MIA from October 17 to  December  28. It was 10 below zero, but a beautifully clear day for a Sunday drive. I  ...

Holofernes, Upon His Very Recent Beheading by Judith of Bethulia Ouch, girl. I mean seriously, ouch. And I don’t just mean ouch in my neck area, where once my big manly head sat, before you severed it with a sword that like honestly how did you get in my tent with a sword? I also  ...

Holofernes, Upon His Very Recent Beheading by Judith of Bethulia Ouch, girl. I mean seriously, ouch. And I don’t just mean ouch in my neck area, where once my big manly head sat, before you severed it with a sword that like honestly how did you get in my tent with a sword? I also  ...

Recently, Roberta Bartoli wrote about the many loves of the iconic bohemian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani, including the poet Anna Akhmatova, who was not his to love. The 20-year-old Russian was on her honeymoon, first of all, when they met in Paris. He was on drugs. She was melancholic. He was all over the  ...