Blog
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.
The Latest
Eric William Carroll explores mysteries of the universe in G.U.T. Feeling, Vol. 2
Are we all connected? If so, are we smart enough to understand why? These are some of the big questions of science that Eric William Carroll constantly explores—despite his knowledge being limited to what he learned in high school science class. The Minneapolis-based artist (who also teaches at Macalester College) channels his curiosity about the ...
The invention of drawing
This week, while installing the MIA’s summer exhibition Marks of Genius: 100 Extraordinary Drawings—a show that spans nearly 600 years of drawing—I’ve been thinking about the origins of the medium. Its beginnings, like the beginnings of art, are murky, mythical, and lost. According to the ancient Roman writer Pliny the Elder, both the Egyptians and ...
World Cup Flashback: 4 objects that dig up the ancient roots of soccer
Soccer buffs abound in the Twin Cities during the heat of the FIFA World Cup. But how many know about where soccer all began? These MIA pieces (all on view in the Robert and Carolyn Nelson Gallery) show the ancient game that evolved into the modern sport everyone is talking about. 1. Figure This ...
17 days, two curators, one red-hot Asian art scene (Part I): hip meets history
It was May, the peak of heat and the start of the rainy season in Asia, when I landed in Hong Kong with Liz Armstrong, curator of contemporary art at the MIA. We had 17 days to investigate the red-hot art scene in Southeast Asia, consider the relationship between historical and contemporary artworks there, and ...
The family that visits museums together: A Family Day flashback
Let’s assume those are props. Right? The MIA would never actually have allowed kids to horse around with real spears and helmets, like those on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the third floor hallway. Right?? They sure look real, though. That was a long time ago (well past the statute of limitations ...
A brief history of LGBT pride in four images at the MIA
This weekend is the annual Twin Cities Pride Festival in Minneapolis, the first since same-sex marriage became legal in Minnesota—a goal scarcely on the radar when the festival began as a gay-rights protest in 1972. The majority of works in the MIA collection by gay artists or capturing gay life have not been acknowledged in ...
“In the Stacks with Eric Hanson”—Epilogue
For the past 6 weeks or so, Eric Hanson was hanging around the MIA’s Art Research and Reference Library, poking his nose into books and folders of photographs before putting pencil to paper. As an artist-in-residence, courtesy of the Coffee House Press library residency program, he’s helped draw attention, no pun intended, to libraries as ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...