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  ...

Starting this week, one of the stars of the museum’s collection—painted by candlelight in the depths of World War II—will be transformed before your eyes, in Gallery 370. Restoring a Masterwork III: Max Beckmann’s Blind Man’s Buff pulls back the curtain on the conservation staff from the Midwest Art Conservation Center (MACC) as they give the  ...

Men are dressing better, they say. And by “they” I mean women, who notice these things. And why not—they have to be seen with us. Which is why both genders should appreciate Northern Grade @ MIA, an American heritage market peddling limited-edition menswear and accoutrement in the museum from November 21 to January 3. From  ...

For me, Tokyo Story 7: Nightfall (after Hiroshige) by Emily Allchurch evokes very personal feelings of nostalgia and déjà vu. I’ll explain why in just a bit. But first, some context. Allchurch’s piece is from her re-imaginings of Hiroshige’s A Hundred Famous Views of Edo, a series of woodblock prints detailing scenes in Edo (Tokyo)  ...