Minnesota museums join in Blue Star program for military
Posted at 3:48 PM on May 21, 2013
by Marianne Combs
(0 Comments)
Filed under: Museums
More than 2,000 museums across the United States are offering free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families this summer.
Starting Memorial Day (May 27) and running through Labor Day (September 2), military families can enjoy free admission to 38 Minnesota museums, including the following museums in the Twin Cities:
The American Swedish Institute
Bell Museum of Natural History
Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum
Hennepin History Museum
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Walker Art Center
Minnesota Children's Museum
Dakota County Historical Society
Blue Star Museums is a collaboration between participating museums, the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, and the Department of Defense.
You can find a full listing of participating museums here.
(0 Comments)Phil Hansen learns to 'embrace the shake'
Posted at 1:47 PM on May 21, 2013
by Marianne Combs
(0 Comments)
Filed under: Drawing, Education, Video
Minnesota artist Phil Hansen has had to overcome some obstacles in his life. Along the way he realized that those limitations actually helped him to be more creative.
Hansen recently gave a TED talk detailing his experience... it includes lots of fun samples of his art. For a more in-depth look at some of his projects, check out this interview with him from last fall.
(0 Comments)The reviews are in for 'An Iliad' at the Guthrie
Posted at 11:54 AM on May 20, 2013
by Marianne Combs
(1 Comments)
Filed under: Criticism, Theater
One of the oldest stories in literature is Homer's "Iliad" set during the Trojan War.
Playwrights Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare have given the epic tale a modern revision, allowing audiences to see the horror of war through the lens of not just one epic battle, but the wars of three millennia.
"An Iliad" runs through May 26; critics have found it raw, powerful, captivating and electric.
Stephen Yoakam as The Poet in Guthrie Theater's production of "An Iliad"
Photo by Aaron Fenster
From Ellen Burkhardt at Minnesota Monthly:
A bit slow moving at the start, An Iliad is like a 400-page novel: each chapter must be set up by the previous ones before it can speed ahead to the most exciting parts. Like so often is the case, however, patience is rewarded. As the stories and emotions tumble out, layers of Yoakam's costume are stripped away until what's left is Homer in his most raw and honest state. Here standing before us is a man who's seen and experienced a lifetime's worth of pain; a man begging his listeners to heed his warning, abandon hate, and choose to love. Whether or not we have the courage to do so is up to us.
From Graydon Royce at the Star Tribune:
The power of "An Iliad" is its refusal to cluck with self righteousness, as so many preachy agitprop dramas do. (You know, geeks dressed in leotards howling at George Bush.) Yoakam's Poet is a brawny and vexed man who understands the terrible beauty of this vicious sport. And by wading into that mysterious realm with honest integrity, he lets this pool of spilled blood tell its own story.
"An Iliad" runs at the Guthrie Theater through May 26
Photo by Aaron Fenster
Throughout, Yoakam holds us captivated. The conversational script -- only short bits are in verse (and in Greek as well) -- makes the engagement between actor and audience easy, but it is Yoakam's skill that keeps our focus through a well-known story. Some of the most riveting moments come when the Poet goes off script. At times, he abandons the story to recount images from other futile battlefields of history, such as World War I. Or, in one harrowing moment, he recites war after war that has been fought since the fall of Troy. Here, Yoakam is at his best, making us feel the weariness and loss as each war is cited.
From Dominic P. Papatola at the Pioneer Press:
It's a rangy, eclectic and sometimes electric performance, filled with bravura moments but utterly devoid of the look-at-me theatrics to which a lesser performer or a lesser story might be prone.
Have you seen "An Iliad" at the Guthrie? What's your review?
(1 Comments)Next Walker Performing Arts season takes collaborations to new heights
Posted at 12:01 AM on May 17, 2013
by Euan Kerr
(0 Comments)
Filed under: Dance, Jazz, Museums, Music, Theater
Philip Bither may have done the unforgivable in announcing the Walker's 2013-2014 performing arts season - he's named a favorite.
"Uh-oh, you caught me on that - don't tell any of the other artists" he laughs.
Perhaps luckily the curator's top pick comes up first in the new season announced today. The Nature Theater of Oklahoma -- "They actually took their name from a Kafka novel," said Bither -- will perform "Life and Times," a multi-part show based on a mammoth phone call with an ordinary American woman.
Nature Theater of Oklahoma performing "Life and Times" (All images courtesy Walker Art Center)
Bither says that when they began talking, they thought they would just chat for about 60 minutes.
"They ended up with 11 hours of her life," which they took, "ums" and all, and created a musical theater piece about everything the woman could remember, he says. The final show lasts eight hours. Bither saw it in Europe and was enthralled.
"I found myself remembering my earlier childhood memories while watching this woman's struggle to bring to life her earliest memories:The neighbor who scared her next door; What her dad smelled like when he came home from work. And I sense that the entire audience was going through a similar process," he said.
Bither isn't bringing the full "Life and Times" to the Walker, just the early part, which runs three hours.
"And it takes you from the earliest baby memories to the third grade. And you end at the third grade," he said.
Bither clearly takes great joy from his work, and delights in describing it all. He points out the way performance has changed in recent years, and how the convergence of disciplines is apparent in the season.
"I think the age we live in is an age of intense content and the digital era allows people to draw from many sources, and the notions of a defined type of artform just called dance or just called theater is going away," he said. "Younger artists and I think very contemporary artists are thinking about just creating performances, and it draws from many disciplines that we used to think of as separate, including visual art, and architecture, and literature and movement."
Another element which is great to see in the season is the number of performances which feature national or international figures collaborating with Minnesota artists.
"If there's opportunities for leading forces in our community to collaborate with someone nationally or internationally and the Walker can help play a role of bringing people together, we think it's a fabulous thing for us to be able to do," said Bither.
Thus Minnesota composer and director Aparna Ramaswamy, and her choreographic partner and co-artistic director, Ranee will work with award-winning jazz saxophonist/composer Rudresh Mahanthappa to create a new piece called "Song of the Jasmine."
Also several local musicians including Polica lead singer Channy Leaneagh will collaborate with Seattle-based songwriter Jherek Bischoff for a piece called "Composed"
One of photographer Mitch Epstein's images for "American Power"
Cellist Erik Friedlander will perform a piece "American Power" using photographs and videos by Mitch Epstein to explore American's relationship with energy.
And in January there will be the 26th year of the Walker's exploration of the cutting edge of theater in "Out There."
"What we love about 'Out there ' is it gives people a passport to try the unexpected," Bither said. "Our audiences usually have never heard of these companies, but they know that January is a month of great adventure and great fun at the Walker."
Bither also highlights the visit by the Trisha Brown Dance Company which will disband soon, and will perform its final midwestern concert at the Walker in March. There will also be a 20th anniversary celebration of Twin Cities choreographers Kristin Van Loon and Arwen Wilder, known as HIJACK (seen left.)
And there is the latest visit by French performer Jerome Bel who will come with Theater Hora, a Swiss company featuring actors with disabilities, who don't play characters in the production, but instread, themselves.
"And it makes I think in some ways the audience both feel quiet voyeuristic and uncomfortable and at other times you realize that the company are the voyeurs and they are all lined up looking at us," said Bither.
Bither will explain it all and provide more than a few clips at a season preview on Thursday Sept. 5.
OCTOBER
THEATER: Nature Theater of Oklahoma Life and Times, Episode 1.
Thursday-Saturday, Sept. 26-28, 7 p.m.
MUSIC/FILM: Sam Green and Yo La Tengo, "The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller."
Friday, Oct.11, 7 and 9:30 p.m.
MUSIC: "Composed," by Jherek Bischoff, with special guests Sondre Lerche, Greg Saunier, Ólöf Arnalds and Channy Leaneagh and others.
Friday, Oct. 18, 8 p.m. Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange Street, St. Paul. Co-presented with the SPCO'S Liquid Music series and in association with Minnesota Public Radio.
MUSIC: CocoRosie Saturday, Oct. 19, 8 p.m.
The Cedar, 416 Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis.
NOVEMBER
MUSIC/FILM: Erik Friedlander and Mitch Epstein, "American Power."
Friday, Nov. 1, 8 p.m.
World Premiere/Walker Commission
MUSIC: Tim Hecker and Oneohtrix Point Never.
Saturday, Nov. 16, 8 p.m.
Copresented with the SPCO's Liquid Music series.
DANCE: Jérôme Bel/Theater Hora Disabled Theater.
Thursday, Nov. 21; Saturday, Nov. 23, 8 p.m.
DANCE: Choreographers' Evening Curated by Chris Yon and Taryn Griggs
Saturday, Nov. 30, 7 and 9:30 p.m.
DECEMBER
DANCE: HIJACK at 20 redundant, ready, reading, radish, Red Eye.
Thursday-Saturday, Dec. 5-7, 8 p.m.
World Premiere/Walker Commission.
JANUARY
THEATER: Out There 2014: "New World Visions."
Jan. 9 - Feb. 1, 2014
Wunderbaum and LAPD Hospital
Thursday-Saturday, Jan. 9-11, 8 p.m.
Niwagekidan Penino: "The Room, Nobody Knows."
Thursday, Jan. 16, 8 p.m.
Friday-Saturday, Jan. 17-18, 7 and 9:30 p.m.
Clément Layes/Public in Private: "Allege"
Thursday-Saturday, Jan. 23-25, 8 p.m.
Lola Arias: "The Year I Was Born"
Thursday-Saturday, Jan. 30 -Feb. 1, 8 p.m.
FEBRUARY
MUSIC: Olga Bell, "Origin/Outcome" with special guests Tom Vek and Angel Deradoorian
Thursday, February 13, 8 p.m.
World premiere, co-presented with the SPCO's Liquid Music series and the American Composers Forum.
DANCE: luciana achugar: "Otro Teatro"
Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 27 - March 1, 8 p.m.
Walker Commission/World Premiere
MARCH
DANCE: Trisha Brown Dance Company Farewell Theatrical Tour, "Works for the Stage 1983-2011."
Wednesday-Saturday, March 12-15, 8 p.m.
DANCE: Companhia Urbana de Dança Na Pista and ID, "ENTIDADES"
Thursday-Saturday, March 27-29, 8 p.m.
APRIL
MUSIC: Brad Mehldau and Chris Thile, "Intuitive Expression: A Brad Mehldau Celebration"
Tuesday, April 8, 8 p.m.
MUSIC: Brad Mehldau Trio
Wednesday, April 9, 8 p.m.
MUSIC: Burnt Sugar--The Arkestra Chamber, "Any World That I'm Welcome To: The Steely Dan Conductions."
Saturday, April or May, TBD
MAY
DANCE/MUSIC: Ragamala Dance and Rudresh Mahanthappa, "Song of the Jasmine
World Premiere/Walker Commission"
Thursday-Sunday, May 15-18.
Art Hounds: FOB, Get on the Grid, and Duluth goes 'Underground'
Posted at 8:25 AM on May 16, 2013
by Chris Roberts
(0 Comments)
Filed under: Art Hounds, Arts around the state, Events, Music, Theater
The Underground, a new arts venue in Duluth. (Photo courtesy of The Underground)
This week, a multi-generational perspective on the Chinese immigrant experience, a new venue that's enlivening the Duluth art scene, and a networking party for part time musicians.
(Want to be an Art Hound? Sign up!)
Musician and attorney Gillian Brennan has the desire but not the time to meet similarly situated musicians to collaborate with. Enter local guitar wizard and music educator Mike Michel with Get on the Grid, a networking group that fosters partnerships between serious but not career-minded musicians. Get on the Grid will hold its next networking party this Sunday, May 19 at Icehouse in Minneapolis from 2:30 to 5:30pm.
Minneapolis visual artist and poet Simi Kang is an admirer of the playwright David Hwang, author of "M. Butterfly" and "Yellow Face," as a chronicler of the Asian American experience. Simi says Hwang's first play, "FOB," is being staged at the Southdale Library on Saturday, May 18th at 2pm. It's part of Hennepin County Library's Spice and Slice of Asian America series.
The Underground, says Duluth actor and director Lawrence Lee, has opened just in the nick of time for Duluth's burgeoning art scene. It's in the basement of the Depot, where several local arts groups are headquartered. Lawrence says the space has great architectural beauty and flexibility as a venue.
For more Art Hounds' recommendations, check us out on Facebook and Twitter. Art Hounds is also available as a podcast on iTunes.
Art Hounds is powered by the Public Insight Network.
(0 Comments)Proposed MnOrch talks next week now unlikely
Posted at 6:24 PM on May 15, 2013
by Euan Kerr
(9 Comments)
Filed under: Music
6.15pm UPDATES WITH MANAGEMENT REACTION
The locked out musicians of the Minnesota claimed today that management refuses to give them information requested in advance of possible negotiation dates at the end of the month. Meanwhile a letter from management attorney Paul Zech says the lack of a response by 5pm today from the musicians to dates offered for negotiations will be taken as a rejection of the offer.
In a release from the musicians lead negotiator Tim Zavadil says "The lack of transparency from management is troubling to the Musicians, the public, and Minnesota's legislative auditor, Basic artistic and financial information about the Orchestra is being withheld to seemingly to stall negotiations."
The musicians sent a list of questions last week saying that getting them answered would make talks productive.
The musicians say they have received some of the financial information requested, but no response to some of the other questions including what management proposes to do about the threatened resignation of Music Director Osmo Vanska and the possible departures of Concertmaster Erin Keefe and star player Burt Hara.
A representative of the musicians say they are still likely to meet with management.
However a release from the orchestra management states many of the questions were not germaine to the negotiations, and seemed to be part of a pattern to avoid serious negotiations.
Now that the deadline is passed, the release continues, "the Board will proceed with other options for resuming negotiations.".
Meanwhile the Minnesota Chorale, which derives most of its income from performances with the Minnesota Orchestra, says the current lock out is forcing it to cut its staff pay and hours in half. Executive director Bob Peskin says the Chorale's board made the cuts reluctantly.
"With no resolution to the impasse between the Minnesota Orchestra and its musicians, we have to be able to make the plans that will keep the Minnesota Chorale a viable and vital organization," Peskin said today.
He says the lockout threatens the Chorale's future and describes it as "A really painful and almost impossible situation, but the reality is we have no indication as to how things might get resolved at the ochestra and we have to proceed."
Peskin says the cuts will go into effect July 1st, and will apply to six chorale employees. He says despite the financial stress the Chorale is continuing with its 40th anniversary season using grant funds for the performances.
New York's "busiest theater artist" sets her sights on Minneapolis
Posted at 6:06 PM on May 15, 2013
by Euan Kerr
(0 Comments)
Filed under: Theater
Sybil Kempson has been in Minneapolis a lot recently as she helps the acclaimed troupe Elevator Repair Service prepare her latest play "Fondly, Collette Richland" which will get a preview presentation at the Walker Art Center this weekend.
She's going to be here a lot more though, having today been appointed playwright in residence at Playwrights Center.
She's really taken to the area having visited regularly as she worked on "Fondly" for the last 18 months.
"I thought you were going to ask me what it's about" she laughed on the phone the other day. "And our response that we have decided on is "About two hours."
Having sat in on part of a rehearsal at the Walker, I can see why she puts it that way. She uses the term "strange" to describe the surreal story which spins out over those two hours.
"There are a lot of traditional elements of a contemporary theater piece," she said, "But everything sort of veers off course and you are going to know right away that something strange is going on."
"I use strangeness with a lot of reverence," she adds.
There is a man and a wife, and some sort of a journey, and a lot of laughing. It's funny stuff, as in funny peculiar and funny hilarious.
Kempson is the darling of the New York theater scene, as a performer and as a prolific writer. Over the years she developed a reputation of being the busiest theater artist in the city. She has now set performing aside because she says she was working non-stop. She is looking forward to taking some of the ideas left over from "Fondly" to create a new work.
"I am excited beyond belief," she said about the residency. She wants to develop material she researched about Mary Shelly, creator of "Frankenstein."
The residency is four weeks spread over a year, with the a reading at the end. Something tells me it will be a wild and crazy time with the emphasis on strange.
(0 Comments)Hmong-American hip hop hits a vinyl milestone
Posted at 2:46 PM on May 14, 2013
by Jon Collins
(0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Music
Vinyl is back... as in vinyl records. And there's a new release that collectors may want to check out.
With the help of a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, a Minnesota man recently released what appears to be the first vinyl record put out by a Hmong-American musician.
Fres Thao is a hip-hop artist and poet who lives in the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul. His new album is called Mind Full Of.
Thao said he was drawn to vinyl partly because the medium plays such an important role in hip-hop history.
"When I first started music, I was torn between becoming a rapper/poet and becoming a DJ," Thao said. "I guess this is my way of just combining both of them."
That wasn't the only unorthodox choice for Thao. He also collaborated on the record with a collective of Hmong-American musicians calling themselves The Pupils of the Storm.
"You really have to have a connection, a chemistry with the musicians if you're planning on doing a full live band, versus rapping to a loop or CD," Thao said. "It's just not as dynamic."
Thao said much of the music created by younger Hmong-American rappers echoes traditional forms of storytelling in Hmong culture.
"Although there's a big generation gap, if you really look at a big picture, a lot of these young hip-hop MCs are pretty much doing what our elders are doing, just storytelling in a form of poetry to a certain pattern," Thao said.
In the fifteen years he's been involved in hip hop, Thao said his focus has shifted.
"I started off as an egotistical rapper, a hungry rapper is what they call it, it was always about competition," Thao said. "Now I'm at the point where I've learned to appreciate everything and become a lot more aware of what's happening around me."
Mind Full Of is available digitally online. If you want the vinyl version, Thao said it will be in local shops soon.
(0 Comments)Minnesota Orchestra returns $100,000 in unused grant money
Posted at 2:31 PM on May 10, 2013
by Marianne Combs
(2 Comments)
Filed under: Arts management, Funding, Music
As the Minnesota Orchestra's lockout continues, it's creating a backlog of grant money intended for projects that have been stalled.
According to Director of Public Relations Gwen Pappas, the orchestra has received approximately 20 grants for the 2012-13 season.
Approximately $100,000 in grant money has been returned.
"How we have handled these depends on whether it is a restricted operating grant (for a specific project) or a general operating grant. With restricted grants, in cases where the donor/foundation wishes to move the project and funding forward we have done so. In cases where it doesn't make sense to "relocate" a project, we have returned funding. With general operating grants, in most cases the donors/foundations have continued to support general operating costs."
This week the Minnesota Orchestra announced it's canceling the rest of the concerts scheduled for this season, while proposing a three week summer concert series.
This just days after the National Endowment for the Arts gave the orchestra a grant for $40,000 for a previously planned summer music program.
Pappas says the orchestra is asking for an extension on the grant to be used in the next season. It's already been granted an extension on another NEA grant from last winter.
The Minnesota Orchestra has sequestered its general operating funds from the State of Minnesota until a negotiated settlement has been reached.
(2 Comments)Art Hounds: Confess, Rupert Angeleyes, and a fairy tale for fearful parents
Posted at 7:45 AM on May 9, 2013
by Chris Roberts
(0 Comments)
Filed under: Art Hounds, Events, Music, Theater, Writing
Nathan Keepers & Christina Baldwin in The Moving Company's "Out of the Pan, Into the Fire" (Photo credit: Dominique Serrand)
The hounds are on the trail of a literary party that coaxes confessions out of revelers, a twisted, fantastical piece of theater and introspective bedroom pop.
(Want to be an Art Hound? Sign up!)
Danette Olson can't shake the experience of seeing The Moving Company's "Out of the Pan, Into the Fire." Not that she wants to. Danette, who's a board member of Festival Theatre in St. Croix Falls, Wis., calls the original work a multi-layered, metaphoric fairy tale about fear which will penetrate the heart of any parent. Through May 26 at the Southern Theater.
Paper Darts co-founder Courtney Algeo is giving props to fellow local literary magazine Revolver for conceiving a party where celebrants spend the evening visiting booths, making confessions and sharing secrets with strangers. The party is called "Confess," and it's happening at the Thorp Building in Northeast Minneapolis on Saturday, May 11 from 8:00 - midnight, with music from DJ Shannon Blowtorch.
Minneapolis printmaker and graphic designer Paige Guggemos has been captivated by the weird, edgy pop of Rupert Angeleyes for a while now. It's the solo project of Minneapolis musician Kyle Sobczak, who makes experimental, inward looking pop in the studio that really comes alive on stage with the help of a backing band. Rupert Angeleyes' next gig is Friday, May 10th, at Icehouse in Minneapolis.
For more Art Hounds' recommendations, check us out on Facebook and Twitter. Art Hounds is also available as a podcast on iTunes.
Art Hounds is powered by the Public Insight Network.
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About the Writer
Marianne Combs is a reporter for MPR's Arts Desk, covering everything from theater and dance to fashion and architecture. You can follow her on Twitter @stateofthearts
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