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Fresh perspectives on art, life, and current events. From deep dives to quick takes to insightful interviews, it’s the museum in conversation. Beyond the walls. Outside the frame. Around the world.

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A World Cup tribute: art from around the globe

It’s on. If you haven’t been watching, in the fake favelas at the Nomad World Pubs in Milwaukee and St. Paul or at home (is soccer best enjoyed in private, so you won’t miss a goal or among others, to pass all the time between goals?), it’s a kind of super-focused Olympics: one sport, many  ...

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Art Inspires: Author Kelly Barnhill on the missing horse of the "Bronze Horses of San Marco"

Regarding the Missing Horse of the Bronze Horses of Saint Marco My Darling, You will notice, when you wake, that there are several things missing from the apartment. Your wallet, for one. And truly, my love, I am sorry for that. It can’t be helped. When I am next in Venice, I swear to you  ...

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Art Inspires: Author Kelly Barnhill on the missing horse of the “Bronze Horses of San Marco”

Regarding the Missing Horse of the Bronze Horses of Saint Marco My Darling, You will notice, when you wake, that there are several things missing from the apartment. Your wallet, for one. And truly, my love, I am sorry for that. It can’t be helped. When I am next in Venice, I swear to you  ...

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His portrait has been restored. Now to restore the memory of John S. Bradstreet: MIA founder, craftsman, and the Twin Cities' original tastemaker

Newspapers rarely, if ever, engage in hyperbole. They hardly ever make declarations, like where you should eat, what you should buy, or “Top 10 Things You Need to Know” about Beyonce or eggplant. So it’s surprising that the Minneapolis Journal, in 1914, declared, “If this section of the country is to furnish a name that  ...

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His portrait has been restored. Now to restore the memory of John S. Bradstreet: MIA founder, craftsman, and the Twin Cities’ original tastemaker

Newspapers rarely, if ever, engage in hyperbole. They hardly ever make declarations, like where you should eat, what you should buy, or “Top 10 Things You Need to Know” about Beyonce or eggplant. So it’s surprising that the Minneapolis Journal, in 1914, declared, “If this section of the country is to furnish a name that  ...

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“In the Stacks with Eric Hanson”—Bagatelle Painting

Eric Hanson, the Coffee House Press author/illustrator-in-residence at the MIA’s Art Research and Reference Library, is full of surprises. Just when I think I have him figured out, he gives us something delightfully unexpected—like this. And I can’t get enough. If you haven’t planned to check out his final residency presentation on June 19th as  ...

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"In the Stacks with Eric Hanson"—Appian Way on Endpapers

Drawing, scanning, layering—Eric Hanson has been busy as the MIA’s Coffee House Press author/illustrator-in-residence in the museum’s Art Research and Reference Library. Check out his presentation at 7 p.m. on June 19th during next week’s Third Thursday and follow all of his musings until then here on MIA Stories or over at CHP In the Stacks.  ...

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“In the Stacks with Eric Hanson”—Appian Way on Endpapers

Drawing, scanning, layering—Eric Hanson has been busy as the MIA’s Coffee House Press author/illustrator-in-residence in the museum’s Art Research and Reference Library. Check out his presentation at 7 p.m. on June 19th during next week’s Third Thursday and follow all of his musings until then here on MIA Stories or over at CHP In the Stacks.  ...

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“In the Stacks with Eric Hanson”—The Same Unusual Smile

Leave it to the  quirky and creative Eric Hanson, our current author/illustrator-in-residence in the MIA’s Art Research and Reference Library thanks to Coffee House Press, to combine two fine examples of 3-D statuary into one intriguing 2-D conglomerate. Here’s his latest dispatch from the stacks. Follow all of Eric’s musings here on MIA Stories or  ...

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“In the Stacks with Eric Hanson”—Renaissance Mug Shot

The more work produced by the very talented Eric Hanson in his current Coffee House Press library residency in the MIA’s Art Research & Reference Library, the more excited I get for his culminating presentation during Third Thursday: Get Local (June 19th at 7 pm). Until then, we have this: Eric’s intriguing layering of line,  ...

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