Enjoy fall vibes, ritual objects, unsettling imagery and more with these picks from Mia’s collection.

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This October, Mia is embracing spooky season with a self-guided tour. Discover mysterious and autumnal selections from Mia’s diverse collection.

Take the Tour

In this past audio guide, you can hear stories from Mia’s security guards and staff and even visitors about the museum’s most paranormal locations. Please note, gallery numbers and rooms may have changed since the production of this guide.

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In ancient China, a royal sorcerer named Xu Fu is sent with some 60 ships to find the elixir of immortality. But on the second voyage, he and his crew of thousands disappear. Possibly to Japan, legend suggests, where Xu Fu becomes the first emperor. Now, as a Hmong artist explains, one clue to their fate may lie with his people’s own legendary history.

You can see the entire 50-painting series of “The Hmong Migration” by Cy Thao, mentioned in this episode, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, including the painting depicting Xu Fu’s voyage: here.

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In 1852, Harriet Hosmer packs her pistol, her anatomy degree, and two pictures of a sculpture she made and moves to Rome. There, among other “emancipated women” in the expat colony, she becomes one of the world’s most famous artists. But it’s the spirit world that truly calls to her, the realm of the dead that she channels through clairvoyance and seances. So what happens when she answers?

You can see her remarkably tender sculpture of Medusa, referenced in this episode here.

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If you’re an anime enthusiast, a fan of old Japan, or just into beguiling beauty wherever you find it, you’re going to love the latest episode of Mia’s hit podcast, The Object, exploring the life and times of Yoshitoshi, the last great artist of Japan’s Floating World. A fascinating show of his work was on view at Mia until we closed temporarily. Now you can see and read about it online. Then listen to the podcast, as we take you back to the end of the Floating World, that semi-invented era of sex and style, when Japan opened to the West and the ghosts conjured by Yoshitoshi became symbols of a culture on its way out.

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This exhibition explores the numerous ways that artists in the United States have made sense of their own experiences of the paranormal and the supernatural, developing a rich visual culture of the intangible.

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Rather than a traditional chronology or filmography, this exhibition is organized thematically, beginning with visions of death and the afterlife; continuing through explorations of magic, occultism, horror, and monsters; and concluding with representations of innocence and redemption.

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