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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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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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
“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 ...