When we were kids, my brother and I would play this game: open up a book full of pictures (usually an Audubon Society Field Guide) and, as quickly as you can, put your finger on your favorite. My brother rapidly tired of this game, but I never did; a book of birds or gems and  ...

When Andy Sturdevant suggested asking Minneapolitans to name their alleys for his MAEP show Alley Atlas, up through December 29 in the second-floor MAEP gallery, it seemed a little sidelong: who cares about alleys? If they were important, wouldn’t they be named by now? But the evidence affirms his instinct: hundreds of potential names have  ...

“There is no passion to be found in playing small—in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” —Nelson Mandela Self-expression, the freedom to write, paint, draw, and photograph what you want, is the essence of both artmaking and democracy. Which is why the CIA held up America’s  ...

They were here before us. They watched us grow up into clever little hominids. But despite half a billion years of interaction, animals and humans have never understood each other. That’s unlikely to change, even though scientists recently signed a declaration that animals have conscious awareness, just like humans. And artists—writers, illustrators, filmmakers—deserve some of  ...

Yes, like everyone else the MIA has a copy of Robert Doisneau’s famously romantic Le Baiser du Trottoir (The Kiss on the Sidewalk) photograph, from 1950, better known as “that picture where the hot French guy is smooching a girl outside a cafe.” A lot of us had that picture in our dorm rooms when  ...

Even if you’ve moved beyond the pilgrim and Indian Kumbaya mythology surrounding Thanksgiving, even if the last turkey you made was traced around your fingers, there’s no denying the holiday’s hallowed place in Americana—and our collective sensory memory. Here, to whet your appetite, a selection of Thanksgiving imagery from the MIA collection. (The turkey photo  ...

Apparently the dress code for curators was a little more lax in 1980. This is me at the MIA then, clearly wishing I were someplace else. It was July 31—my older brother’s birthday and, I might add, a beautiful summer day—and my parents decided we should take the four Japanese exchange students staying with us  ...

Among the many benefits of having bees on the roof—honey. Sweet, fresh, raw honey. The bees have been busy. Several times this summer, the honey they made was extracted, named (Rooftop Gold, courtesy of a curator), labeled for FDA standards, and is on sale now in the store at the MIA. Eminently giftable, it comes  ...

From the second-floor window of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, I can see my childhood church, just across the park. Over the years, both of these buildings have become places of salvation. When work or life get to be too much, I’ll go to the museum and get a new perspective. Today it starts with  ...

Selfies—we all make fun of them, we all take them. (When’s the last time you set your camera on a tripod and used the timer? For that matter, when’s the last time you used a real camera, not your phone?) Selfies aren’t going away. At least, that was the bet placed by the Oxford English  ...