State of the Arts Category Archive: Culture

Penumbra examines the past and future of the Black Arts Movement

Posted at 4:16 PM on January 26, 2012 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Theater

The Black Arts Movement was a pivotal force in fostering and shaping African-American literature, theater, and other art forms. The movement, begun in the '60s, lasted approximately a decade, during which a host of new talents emerged - including Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, and Maya Angelou. It's in large part thanks to the movement that we now enjoy a diverse array of perspectives and voices in American culture.

Tonight Penumbra Theatre is launching a series of conversations that examine the influence of the Black Arts Movement, as well as Penumbra's own role in giving voice to new stories and perspectives.

The series begins with a conversation with Penumbra Artistic Director Lou Bellamy about Penumbra's birth and the Black Arts Movement. Future conversations include "Gender and Sexuality and the Black Arts Movement," "Black Cultural Traffic and the Black Arts Movement," and "The Future of the Black Arts Movement." All conversations are moderated by Penumbra's Associate Artistic Director Dominic Taylor.

All conversations take place in the Flux Auditorium of the Regis Center for Art on the U of M campus.

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Building a microcosm of peace through music

Posted at 2:13 PM on January 24, 2012 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Music

Mark Johnson is bent on changing the world through music.

The award winning music producer and film director is the creator of the "Playing for Change" project, in which musicians from diverse backgrounds come together to create inspiring musical recordings.

Last night I had the pleasure of talking with Johnson after a screening of his documentary "Playing for Change: Peace through Music" in MPR's UBS Forum. Johnson said the idea for the project came from a desire to break through traditional boundaries.

There's got to be something for everybody, we can't all just be on teams. Rich, poor, black white, Christian, Muslim... we've got to be more than that - I don't believe in just that.

I had a teacher who said to me "Before anyone was ever different, we were all the same - the human race. We created our differences to make sense of the world, so now we need to create our connections," because it's been blown way out of proportion.

For instance, you use the word "Chinese" and you're talking about 2 billion people with one word. Who knows what they're like - but I don't think they're all just one word. And I think this project has taught me that's true - that this is a beautiful world with incredible people and no matter how many negatives they throw at us it's never going to be stronger than the positives.

Musicians around the world perform a folk tune from Chennai, India

Johnson regards his Playing for Change recordings as a sort of microcosm of peace, bringing people around the world together for a common cause.

The interesting things about these songs is that there's no ego - when you go to the studio, it's about "how can I make that artist or that band better" so that there's an ego involved - not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but it exists. But with these songs it's about "how can I make the planet better, how can I make the whole thing better" - they know they're just a part of something bigger. They played less and listened more.

Johnson has now traveled to over 35 countries filming and recording musicians, which sometimes involved trekking to some very remote areas with heavy equipment.

In the beginning I had to use golf cart batteries to power everything, and car batteries, and then you hike up the Himalayan Mountains and find out the car battery wasn't charged. All sorts of things that come with making a documentary, but that's the joy of it, too.

Not content with just making compelling music, Johnson is also the co-founder of the Playing for Change Foundation, which is building music schools in small towns and villages in Africa and Nepal. Johnson says he sees the schools as a source of hope and happiness for people living in otherwise challenging times.

Johnson has also brought together some of the Playing for Change musicians to perform live and tour as a band. They'll perform at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts on February 12.

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The decline of solitude

Posted at 11:47 AM on January 17, 2012 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Media, Technology

The noise level is rising.

In public spaces everywhere people are talking on their cellphones, chatting on social media, or laughing at a movie they're watching on a portable viewer.

And in the workplace, offices are now designed to create spontaneous interaction, with the idea that open design will allow ideas to flow and grow freely.

In a world such as this, where can we go for silence?

Susan Cain writes an eloquent opinion piece in the New York Times that examines the supposed payoff of "groupthink" versus working in solitude. According to Cain, "research strongly suggests that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption."

And the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted, according to studies by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist. They're extroverted enough to exchange and advance ideas, but see themselves as independent and individualistic. They're not joiners by nature.

...Solitude has long been associated with creativity and transcendence. "Without great solitude, no serious work is possible," Picasso said. A central narrative of many religions is the seeker -- Moses, Jesus, Buddha -- who goes off by himself and brings profound insights back to the community.

...And yet. The New Groupthink has overtaken our workplaces, our schools and our religious institutions. Anyone who has ever needed noise-canceling headphones in her own office or marked an online calendar with a fake meeting in order to escape yet another real one knows what I'm talking about. Virtually all American workers now spend time on teams and some 70 percent inhabit open-plan offices, in which no one has "a room of one's own." During the last decades, the average amount of space allotted to each employee shrank 300 square feet, from 500 square feet in the 1970s to 200 square feet in 2010.

...Studies show that open-plan offices make workers hostile, insecure and distracted. They're also more likely to suffer from high blood pressure, stress, the flu and exhaustion. And people whose work is interrupted make 50 percent more mistakes and take twice as long to finish it.

So what are the consequences of this new, hypersocial, crowded world we live in? How to retreat, for extended periods of time, without being labeled 'unwilling' or 'uncooperative?'

I was delighted to note, at a recent art crawl, one gallery was set aside, empty except for several chairs, for people to take a break from all the visual stimuli.

And it was also interesting to see how the new silent movie "The Artist" has been received with such welcome arms. Is it perhaps due in part to our nostalgia for a quieter time?

Your thoughts welcome, as always.

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What to do about cell phones?

Posted at 11:41 AM on January 13, 2012 by Marianne Combs (8 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Music, Technology, Theater

By now you may have heard about the New York Philharmonic performance earlier this week which was halted due to an iPhone alarm going off in the front row. The owner of the phone continued to allow the alarm to sound for minutes, in the final movement of Mahler's 9th Symphony, until finally the conductor stopped the performance, addressed the patron directly, and waited until the alarm was turned off before starting the movement over from the beginning.

By all accounts this is an extreme event, and it was later revealed that the patron - a devoted fan of the Philharmonic - had just been given a new phone by his employer, and didn't even know it had an alarm on it.

But performers will regale you with numerous instances in which their performances were marred by a patron's poor phone etiquette. I remember seeing Twelfth Night at the Guthrie Theater, and in the middle of Malvolio's monologue (performed by Charles Keating), a cell phone went off. Keating finished the monologue, turned and pointed at the offending patron, and yelled "Answer it!"

Charles Keating as Malvolio in Twelfth Night: whan a man in a kilt tells you to answer your phone, you do as he says.
Photo: Michal Daniel

So what's to be done with cell phones? Most venues will remind audiences to turn off their phones before the performance begins, but for some reason that doesn't seem to do the trick.

Christi Rodriguez Cottrell, former Executive Director at CalibanCo Theatre, shares this technique:

At CalibanCo, we always stated at the beginning of each show that if a cell phone went off, we would stop the performance. The audience was encouraged to go ahead, pull out their phone, and make sure it was turned off. In the entire time we performed, we never had a cell phone go off. I think fear of humiliation goes a long way, but it shouldn't be so hard to get people to be respectful. That should be true of all things - dinner, doctor's office, library, coffee with mom:-) We all had lives before cell phones. I think we can part with them for a couple of hours while we're entertained. Nothing interrupts a suspension of disbelief like a ringtone from reality.

Performer Christopher Kehoe wonders:

I'm not sure theatres/performers can do anything outside of the curtain speech without losing some class in the process. Perhaps audience members should hold one another accountable?

And Jeff Prauer, Executive Director at the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, had this to add:

Grown-ups should take some simple lessons from their kids, or other kids if they don't have kids of their own. In my experience, young people seem to handle cell phone etiquette much better by having their phones on vibrate almost all of the time.

So what do you think should be done? Is there a way to convince people to turn off their phones before a performance in a way that's convincing, but not threatening?

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Popular culture: stuck on repeat

Posted at 9:56 AM on December 9, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Criticism, Culture

In the January 2012 issue of Vanity Fair, Kurt Anderson (host of public radio's Studio 360) writes that popular culture is stuck on repeat, and that we really haven't changed much at all in the last 20 years.

...try to spot the big, obvious, defining differences between 2012 and 1992. Movies and literature and music have never changed less over a 20-year period. Lady Gaga has replaced Madonna, Adele has replaced Mariah Carey--both distinctions without a real difference--and Jay-Z and Wilco are still Jay-Z and Wilco. Except for certain details (no Google searches, no e-mail, no cell phones), ambitious fiction from 20 years ago (Doug Coupland's Generation X, Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, Martin Amis's Time's Arrow) is in no way dated, and the sensibility and style of Joan Didion's books from even 20 years before that seem plausibly circa-2012.

Anderson blames this cultural plateau to the overwhelming changes in technology:

In some large measure, I think, it's an unconscious collective reaction to all the profound nonstop newness we're experiencing on the tech and geopolitical and economic fronts. People have a limited capacity to embrace flux and strangeness and dissatisfaction, and right now we're maxed out. So as the Web and artificially intelligent smartphones and the rise of China and 9/11 and the winners-take-all American economy and the Great Recession disrupt and transform our lives and hopes and dreams, we are clinging as never before to the familiar in matters of style and culture.

What do you think? Is there nothing new in the world? Is this just a swing of the pendulum, or this there something more substantial at work?

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Minnesota culture examined: are we great or are we awful?

Posted at 2:34 PM on November 16, 2011 by Marianne Combs (6 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

So the news that Cowles Center Director Frank Sonntag has resigned his position, citing Minnesota culture as his reason for leaving, has sparked a bit of a wildfire in the comments section.

Some, as you might expect, took offense at Sonntag's remark, and leapt to defend MN culture. Others said he was right to leave.

Commenter "Mateo" put it this way:

Let's put this into perspective. We live in a state that, by and through its elected officials and political leaders, values unnecessary gay bashing constitutional amendments, record-low state taxes for millionaires, gun rights, taxpayer-funded pro stadiums, and casinos ahead of education, impoverished kids, the elderly, disabled, and certainly the arts. And we should be surprised that a theater and arts director from New York City cites culture shock as his reason for wanting to leave the state?

Minnesota transplant (from California) Matt Saxe had this alternative view:

We have 2 Democratic senators, a woman and a Jewish man, we have a Democratic governor, and my congressman is a Muslim. Thats pretty remarkable to me. Lots of places around the country put money into pro-sports stadiums, so thats not a big black eye in my opinion, and culturally, we support the arts and have more arts opportunities than practically 95% of communities relative to our size. MN still has a great liberal legacy thanks to Humphrey, Wellstone, and Mondale. We care about kids and the elderly, and all. Sure we have Michelle Bachmann and other wing-nuts, what state doesn't? Overall, I say we're pretty good.

So which is it? Are we a cultural haven? Or a cultural wasteland? Or is it just how you choose to view your half-filled glass?

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Raising their voice in gratitude: Messiah Men's choir

Posted at 7:21 PM on October 17, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Music

Some radio stories are fine to simply read on the web - you're not missing too much by skipping out on the audio.

This is not one of those stories.

Messiah's Men
Image courtesy of the artists

From the first notes of harmonizing by Messiah's Men, Dan Olson's portrait of the Liberian men's choir had me hooked. Their stories are filled with tragedy (all of them having lost family to the Liberian civil war) and yet their music is filled with joy. Olson's explains it well:

Singing is their therapy -- a way to cope with the memory of smelling death, tasting death, being close to dead.

They tell audiences that the singers' survival stories prove there is always hope in desperate times, says choir member Trokon Guar.

"You'll get to see the positive-ness of hope, and the transformation it has brought into our lives," he said.

But again, don't just be satisfied with reading the script - give it a listen:

You can visit Messiah's Men's website here.

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French sister city presents opportunity for artists

Posted at 4:49 PM on September 13, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

I have to admit, when I hear the phrase "sister city" my brain immediately adds "chamber of commerce." Sister city relationships are nice, but who - other than the city officials and a few local businesses with international prospects - really cares?

Well, it turns out, artists do.

This week officials from the city of Tours, France are on tour (pun intentional), visiting their sister city Minneapolis on a cultural and trade mission.

Tonight they will be checking out art that will be travelling to the Chateau de Tour in 2012. Artist Sean Smuda organized the exhibition, which is the culmination of his serving as "Artist Liaison" to Tour (you can read about his time in France here).

Each artist I have chosen from Minnesota has their French counterpart. Frank and Pam Gaard will be working in their acerbic portrait art hitorical style with Rémy Chabréyrou a young topical, pop surrealist. John Schuerman an artist who uses natural processes to create his work, such as melted slush drawings has been paired with sculptor Peter Briggs who counts melting mirrors among his experimentations. The wry and profound mark making of painter Daniel Kaniess dovetails into Yveline Bourquard's dancing and flying figures. Janet Lobberecht's conceptual and graphic grids approach the idea of space and its finitude in a similar yet opposite way to Sammy Engramer's investigations of the White Cube. The graffiti duo Broken Crow will be working with Tours's Mathieu Plume who uses crushed cars as his canvas. Alexa Horochowski's conceptual approach to representation and abstraction finds a great twinning with Diego Movilla and his Pinocchio's nose intrusion into 3D space.

Chateau de Tours
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Robert Corrick, Vice President of Minneapolis and Tours Sister Cities says his organization is looking for other types of artistic exchange and partnership, including dance and music.

Tonight's event, which celebrates Minneapolis and Tours' twenty years of sisterhood,
will include dance by Mad King Thomas and The Body Cartography Project, and music by Desdamona and Saltee.

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Displaying art while respecting its culture

Posted at 11:12 AM on July 1, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Museums

There is a lot more involved in hanging art objects in a museum than simply banging a nail in the wall. And in the case of some objects, ceremony and respect is called for.

For instance, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts recently installed a Native American shield into one of its galleries, made by Plains Indian Humped-Wolf.

Shields were used in battle by Plains men for protection. This protection was primarily supplied by the power of the images appearing on its surface, which came to the owner through a visionary experience. Before creating this shield, Humped-Wolf received a vision of a bull buffalo preparing himself for battle. The green band on its upper left section symbolizes Spring, the time for warfare. The black zig-zag lines drawn over the green band represent the paths of bullets deflected by the shield.
Image and text courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts

According to curator Joe Horse Capture, many traditional Native Americans feel that, while shields are not considered communally sacred, they do have a spiritual power that protected the owner. Shields could compete for power if they "see" each other.

I learned about this sensitivity about 20 years ago when I was interning with my mentor and good friend, Evan Maurer (former director of the MIA). We were working on the exhibition, Visions of the People: A Pictorial History of Plains Indian Life, at the time. We were talking with traditional folks out West and the topic of the shields came up. They confirmed the associated spiritual power of these objects, and how they can become jealous and competitive of each other. We later talked to my father (who was a curator for the Plains Indian Museum and later National Museum of the American Indian), who also confirmed it.

MIA Joe Horse Capture stands next to Bull Lodge's shield, from when it was featured in the exhibition From Our Ancestors: Art of the White Clay People

As it happens, there is already another shield located in the same gallery, made by Bull Lodge. So to prevent the two shields from competing with one another, MIA's Bill Skodje covers Bull Lodge's shield while the new addition is installed.

Photo by Joe Horse Capture

Once Bull Lodge's shield is temporarily covered, Humped-Wolf's shield is brought into the gallery. With this method, they can't "see" each other.

Photo by Joe Horse Capture

Humped-Wolf's shield is brought into its case, with Bull Lodge's shield on the right side of the gallery.

Photo by Joe Horse Capture

Humped-Wolf's shield is installed in the case in a place where the two shields cannot "see" each other when the cover is removed from Bull Lodge's shield.

Photo by Joe Horse Capture

Horse Capture says these easy steps insure that the objects remain "happy", and Native American cultural traditions are honored.

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Men: Feeling down? See more art.

Posted at 12:29 PM on May 26, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

A Norwegian epidemiological study finds that men who engage in cultural activities are happier and healthier. Really? Even when they look at art like this?

The Scream, by Edvard Munch (a Norwegian, I might add)

According to a report on livescience.com, study author Koenraad Cuypers found that beneficial results depended on the type of cultural activity. There's "creative culture" in which you make stuff, and "receptive culture" in which you see stuff.

Church attendance and going to sports events were linked to increased life satisfaction in women; women who attended sports events also were more likely to describe themselves as healthy. Men felt healthier when they did volunteer work and participated in associations, outdoor activities and physical exercise. Strikingly, the researchers found that all receptive cultural activities, whether musical, theatrical or artistic, were also associated with good health in men.

"Men seemed to get more of a percieved health benefit from being involved in different receptive cultural activites than women did," Cuypers said, adding that in both genders, there was a dose-response effect: The more activities a person participated in, the happier they tended to be.

Well, this is an issue I have no personal experience with, so I turned to my colleague Chris Roberts (a man) for some perspective. Would he agree, that his exposure to art has made him healthier and happier?

First of all Marianne, I'm honored you've chosen me to represent my gender. You should know I've always considered myself a real man's 'cultured man.' No treats for me during intermission at a play, unless I'm willing to balance every 50 calories with a set of 20 push-ups. I try hard not to smile or emit audible gasps when I see art that moves me at a gallery opening. Why show emotion when a solemn fist bump with the artist very sufficiently communicates what I'm feeling?

That said, I think the researchers might be on to something. Art connects people, even men, to their humanity, to the excitement of being alive. It teaches us things, ignites our emotions, overwhelms our senses, makes us laugh, gives us insights into ourselves we couldn't gather on our own. In the eternal quest for dopamine release, art is a powerful ally. I'm happy to report men are beginning to understand this. In fact, some of my fondest memories are of a gallery hopping weekend in Chicago with my sister and brother-in-law. Stupendous art viewing from one gallery to the next, and I didn't have to report on any of it.

There you have it. Art makes you happy, as long as you're not on deadline.

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Literacy in the modern age

Posted at 12:39 PM on May 24, 2011 by Marianne Combs (2 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Education

According to Tracy Mitrano, we should be spending less time texting and tweeting, and more time reading and learning.

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Tracy Mitrano writes "BlogU" for Inside Higher Ed, and this past week has been tackling the issue of literacy. She argues that literacy means different things to different cultures, and at different times:

What does literacy means for American society? Historically we took our lesson from Ancient Greece: literacy was about citizenship. Different insofar as our government from the beginning was a republic and not direct democracy, literacy nevertheless has been regarded as the necessary tool for governance. Citizens must educate themselves about the issues, positions and people for whom they will vote to represent them in government.

Unfortunately, Mitrano writes, while literacy rates are rising globally, they're falling in the United States. And that could have some dire consequences:

Illiteracy or sub-literacy, it should surprise no one, is often found to be at the root of many social ills, crime not least and drug traffic the most. Illiteracy and sub-literacy are a reflection of an alarming financial and class disproportion, a trend that is growing rapidly. If the trend, propagated largely by tax policy in the last twenty years, continues unchecked, American society will surely assume the bimodal shape that current sociologists have depicted: a lot of money in the hands of a few people and families at the "top" of the society and many people in need at the "bottom."

Mitrano argues we simply don't appreciate true literacy, and the role it plays in supporting the well-being of society as a whole.

It is not the failure of administrators. It is not the failure of educators. It is not the failure of students. It is the failure of a society to value education as a social good. Rather than regard education as foundational pillar of citizenship, it has become a brand name to brandish or bandy about in a commercialized and commoditized marketplace, on the one hand, or a certification to get a position or a raise on the other. In the meaning we confer on education we seem to be in transition of what literacy meant from Ancient Greece to Ancient Rome.

Mitrano doesn't offer a solution to the literacy problem - but I'll happily take any ideas you have.

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Paul Theroux on travel that transforms

Posted at 4:25 PM on May 18, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Culture, Writing

Paul Theroux is a travel writer and novelist. His most recent book is "The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments From Lives on the Road." (Steve McCurry Studios)

Today on Midmorning Kerri MIller interviewed travel writer Paul Theroux who has a new book out titled "The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments From Lives on the Road." The book combines his own thoughts on travel with gleenings from the likes of Mark Twain and Susan Sontag.

The conversation included not only Theroux's thoughts on travel - and the joys of travelling alone - but also the trips of listeners who called in to share their adventures. For example, Jim in Minneapolis biked from Beijing to Paris over four months, and said it was a great way to meet new people.

Have you ever taken a risk to travel somewhere off the beaten path? Where did you go, and what compelled you to make the journey? What did you get from it? Any regrets?

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Are Minnesotans a bunch of hipsters?

Posted at 4:53 PM on May 10, 2011 by Marianne Combs (6 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

Minnesota Nice, sure... but Minnesota Hipster?

An article in BuzzFeed argues that Minnesota is the most Hipster state in the U.S. because, "although Minnesota has less than 1/3rd the population of New York state, it leads the nation in searches for the term 'hipster.'"

(Huh? Does that mean search results of Hipster pulled up a bunch of Minnesota references? Or does it mean Minnesotans use the search term Hipster more than anyone else?)

Author Chris Menning says the media tends to portray the hotbed of hipster-ism as the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, but "the typical Williamsburg hipster is essentially trying to portray the appearance of a Minnesotan."

Menning cites the abundance of flannel, live theater, music, farmers' markets and bike trails in his argument, but concludes:

"A hipster is just a Brooklynite who wishes they were from Minnesota because it's "more real," while genuine Minnesotans are exempt from the label."

What do you think? Is Minnesota a hotbed of hipster-ism?

What defines "hipster" anyway?

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The rise in local bakeries

Posted at 10:02 AM on May 8, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

I always experience a little surge of pride when I see Minnesota make the New York Times travel section.

Of course, if I were writing the article, I'd be talking about our amazing theater scene, the world class dance companies, the great jazz clubs, and of course our excellent museums.

So imagine my surprise - and delight - when I saw in today's paper that we've made headlines for our bread.

When I think of cities with a national baking reputation, I think of San Francisco, and New York. And yet, here we are, in today's Travel Section: "Bakeries Spring Up in the Twin Cities."

The article profiles Salty Tart, Patisserie 46, Bars Bakery and Sweets Bakeshop.

Of course, those are just a fraction of the great bakeries we have... there's also Turtle Bread, Patrick's Bakery, Wuollet, A Baker's Wife Pastry Shop, French Meadow, Isles Bun and Coffee, Rustica, Trung Nam French Bakery...

Man, I'm hungry.

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Catholic DVDs to be returned

Posted at 4:48 PM on December 9, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Media, Sculpture

Last month Lucinda Naylor was let go from her position as artist-in-residence at the Basilica of St. Mary when she announced she was collecting DVDs distributed by the Catholic Church of Minnesota calling for the "preservation of marriage."

In the days and weeks following, Naylor collected as many DVDs as she could, and transformed them into an art project which she displayed in an empty storefront.

After taking down the DVD sculpture (called "The Wave") Naylor reports she then transformed it into many smaller scultures, some of which she donated to the GLBT on-line high school for fundraising purposes.

In addition Naylor will be joining, Return The DVD at the Chancery at 10 am tomorrow morning to return more than three thousand DVDs they've collected. They will also be delivering a letter to the Archbishop, with whom they were unable to schedule a meeting.

Here's an excerpt from the letter:

In an outpouring of inclusion and love, and honestly much anger, more than three thousand Catholic households returned their DVDs to us. These Catholics feel the Church hierarchy's priorities are misguided and that the DVD mailing was an extreme measure targeting a group of people who deserve the same love, compassion, and acceptance that Christ shows each of us. Many asked us to pass along their DVDs to the artist Lucinda Naylor, to be included in her DVD to ART project. Thousands of other Catholics had already destroyed or thrown away their DVD before they knew of our efforts. The rest, we are returning to you.

Further, our Return the DVD group, and hundreds of other concerned individuals, donated over $10,000 to fight poverty and homelessness. This reflects our commitment to being a Church that attends to the needs of the less fortunate and doesn't waste resources seeking to deny anyone's civil rights.

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Holding Minnesota's 'arts identity' to the light

Posted at 2:00 PM on November 25, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

The folk organizing next week's Minneapolis Arts Commission event on Minnesota Idenity and the Arts are pretty clear they don't expect to come up with any hard and fast definitions.

"We aren't necessarily trying to find an answer to this question," says Commission Member Kate Nordstrom.

What they do expect is some interesting discussion as they unleash photographer Wing Young Huie, choreographer Ananya Chatterjea, musician Adam Levy and web documentarian and all round whizz kid Chuck Olsen to talk about the issue.

The event, to be moderated by Andy Sturdevant, will be held at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis next Tuesday, November 30, 2010 at 7pm.

Nordstrom, who also programs the music for the Southern Theater says the event also involves such partners as the Bryant Lake Bowl, TPT, and the Red Stag Supper club which also play an important role in encouraging and presenting work of many kinds.

"This conversation with those different partners involved can really be much bigger than just 'what cool art is happening,'" she says."It's like how does this art shape us in our business life, and in larger organizations, and stuff that we don't ordinarily think of as arts related, like the restaurant industry, so that is part of the conversation as well."

Te debate is going to feature lots of audience interaction led by Works Progress, a group which organizes the ongoing Give and Take series at Intermedia Arts.

"The premise is that art matters in this town," Nordstrom says. "The conversation is 'is there a shared identity then from that, from the fact that art is important and built into our culture in a particular way?"

Again, she doesn't expect a solid answer. She shot me an email later.

"The end result, I think, will be a greater understanding of how art has shaped Minnesota culture, in more ways than simply producing great art and artists," Nordstrom wrote.

It sounds like it will be a good discussion.

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Arts around the state

Posted at 12:45 PM on November 8, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

You know, I thought long and hard about naming this blog "State of the Arts."

Minnesota is rich with theater, writing, craft and all sorts of artistic pursuits - of that I had no doubt.

But how to do justice to an entire state, while sitting in Saint Paul?

Answer: You can't, really.

So, today I embark on what I hope will be the first in a series of trips around the state, checking out the cultural offerings north and south, east and west (well not very far east - that's Wisconsin). The goal is to share with you some of the amazing creativity that abounds outside the Twin Cities metro area, and also to make some new friends.

I'll be on the road much of today, making my first stop at "A Center for the Arts" in Fergus Falls, and then heading on up to Fargo/Moorhead where over the next few days I'll visit the Plains Art Museum, attend the FM Symphony and visit with some of the local talent.

Check back often throughout the week - and if you have any recommendations of who to see and what to do - let me know!

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City art, country art?

Posted at 3:00 PM on November 4, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

Two Minnesota artists, side by side: Deborah Foutch works in a studio in Minneapolis, and created the silk and cotton riverscape on the left. Karl Unnasch, who lives and works in Chatfield, Minnesota created the re-contextualized M&M dispenser/He-Man on the right.

Can you tell by looking at a work of art whether it was made by someone living in the city, or in the country? Is work done in the quiet of nature intrinsically different than work made in a highly urban environment?

A colleague posed me this question, and - while my gut instinct said "don't stereotype!" - I decided to at least put the question to artists living in both rural and urban settings, and see what they had say. The responses were intriguing.

Karl Unnasch works in Chatfield, home to about 2500 people:

Hmmmm...I don't think I could readily tell. It would take a clinical case study view to pursue this one. I can only say that the act of making art in a rural/country setting (from my comparative viewpoint) is the best way to exact focus without active and standard "urban" distractions. Moreso, I have no phone service and slow internet, so the most tempting distractions that exist for me are tending my acreage or stepping down the road to go fishing...

Megan Vossler, who teaches drawing at Macalester answered with a simple and resounding "Nope!"

Architect Jeffrey Scherer lives and works in Golden Valley. He suggests it has more to do isolation:

For me, it is more a matter of eliminating distractions in order to focus and reflect. While on the surface this may be easier in the country, I find it is not always the case. If one's power of focus is "intrinsically" sharper in the country setting, then I do believe the art work will reflect this state of mind. Generally I would venture to guess that there are "country" and "city" artists whose work could only be superficially compared.

St. Paul artist and teacher Felice Amato says it doesn't matter how much nature surrounds you if you're not paying attention to it:

I had to fight with my HS students when we drew outside a few weeks back to leave the ipods inside... I tried to explain that there was a sensory experience that would make their work different if they full experience including the sounds. I wonder if artists who grew up under the BIG SKY of the prairie express space differently than those who grew up in the shelter of woods.

Meanwhile, longtime photographer and art professor at Saint Cloud State University Ted Sherarts battles with his own perception of "craft" vs. "fine art:"

From here, it appears that the more craft-oriented artists, i.e. weavers, potters, metalsmiths, etc., tend to work in rural settings while painters, sculptors, and intermedia artist tend to be more comfortable in metropolitan surroundings. I'm suggesting a division between so-called crafts and fine arts, a division I don't like, but if one can accepts it just for discussion sake, craft artists tend to be more interested in carrying on traditions, with special attention to their materialls and tools, while fine artists prefer to carry on dialectical dialogues with history. I think my modernist leanings are showing!

And finally, Minneapolis sculptor has this to say about our own expectations:

I think there's a bias towards realism in the country vs in the city. In the city, there's an overly cerebral aspect of art that happens in the city. I think it's really all about mind set. What people think they should make compared to their relative culture vs not caring what their culture advocates.

So do you think there are differences between urban and rural art? Or urban and rural artists? Let us know!

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Artist transforms Catholic DVD

Posted at 11:28 AM on October 28, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Criticism, Culture

Artist Lucinda Naylor (holding sign) and volunteers gathered 546 Catholic DVDs outside the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis and four other churches Sunday, Oct. 4, 2010. The effort was part of an art project objecting to Archbishop Neinstedt's message against same-sex marriage. (MPR Photo/Sasha Aslanian)

Earlier this month the Catholic Church of Minnesota sent out 400,000 dvds to its parishioners calling for the "preservation of marriage" (i.e. keep it between one man and one woman).

MPR's Sasha Aslanian reported that one woman (the former artist in residence at the Basilica of St. Mary) was inspired to collect as many dvds as she could to transform them into a work of art.

Lucinda Naylor says she's now ready to put that work on display. Tomorrow night she'll present her artistic response to the church at 2756 Hennepin Ave South in Minneapolis (it's a store front that's currently empty). Naylor says the DVDs are taking the form of a wave. In her interview with Aslanian, Naylor said she was contemplating transforming them into a water motif to symbolize the Holy Spirit moving through the church in a new way.

Lucinda Naylor's DVD project, underway.

Naylor is no longer collecting DVDs for her project, but "Return the DVD" is.

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Oral histories abound

Posted at 1:53 PM on October 22, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Education

A new website brings the stories of Minnesota immigrants alive for classrooms

The Minnesota Historical Society has just launched "Becoming Minnesotan" a new site dedicate to the stories of recent immigrants to Minnesota, including Hmong, Khmer, Asian Indians, Somalis and Tibetans. Designed for teachers and students, the website includes oral histories narrated by members of immigrant and refugee groups, photographs, maps, timelines, podcasts and classroom activities.

Meanwhile, tonight at 7pm folks are gathering at the West Bank Center in Minneapolis to celebrate the publishing of "Queer Twin Cities", a GLBT oral history project. It's billed as a collection of essays that takes a "pioneering look at the queer history, politics, and spaces of the Twin Cities." Topics include everything from moral reform to gay life among lumber workers in northern Minnesota, as well as profiles of such venues as the Viking Bar and the Dugout.

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Monster as metaphor

Posted at 9:54 AM on October 6, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Film

I love vampire films and in college I actually took a class on the gothic novel, where we looked at how vampire legends and other horror stories were created, in part to help explain what happens to a body after death.

In this Big Think interview filmmaker Guillermo del Toro talks about the role monsters play in helping us to understand the world by becoming "living, breathing metaphors." He also explains how he creates his own monsters, and gives advice to budding filmmakers.

In particular I was fascinated by his response to the question "why are vampires so popular right now?"

I think that, you know, the moment of the birth of the vampire myth in English literature is with essentially there is few writings here and there, a poem and this and that. But in fiction most everyone agrees that it was birthed by John W. Polidori with a short story, "The Vampyre." Now, the fact that Polidori had an ambivalent relationship with his master and friend, Lord Byron and he based the character of the main vampire in that story, Lord Ruthvren on Lord Byron, you know. Immediately gave birth to a vampire that was both a loathsome parasite and a dandy. A seductive character that is later absorbed by a Stoker in "Dracula" and you know, you can trace it all the way to Anne Rice.

And I think that right now, we have an unbridled sort of melodramatic, romantic, fantasy with the vampire is only one half of the myth. The bad boy romantic lead myth, which is essentially Gothic fiction. You know, it can be Heathcliff in "Wuthering Heights," or it can be Robert Patterson in "Twilight."

The thing that it tells you right now is that human relationships, intimate relationships have become so completely demythified, they have become so prosaic, you know, whenever you talk about a relationship, you're talking about it in very prosaic terms. How much does he or she make? What job security? Nest egg planning. It's all very materialistic. Double-income household, it all becomes very prosaic and it's almost impossible to dream romantic things without sounding corny.

So you know, of the fascination of romantic fiction with a bad boy gets sumlimated and dark angels are created, angels of the night that create a spiritual and physical bond with a love interest that is permanent and eternal. So through that fiction you can abandon yourself to the lull of a romantic fantasy without feeling silly or stupid.

What I find symptomatic I think for the... I daresay, for the first time in the culture of mankind, the vampire has been sort of defanged by making them celibate and asexual as opposed to polysexual, like Anne Rice did and they have been Mormonized, so to speak, into being a sanitized creature. And you know, I'm not in favor or against it. I'm fascinated by it, because I do think it is a very strong symbol of where we are. And I find it intriguing and I try to watch the phenomenon without judging it. But it's quite peculiar.

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The art and culture of chocolate: part 1

Posted at 3:45 PM on October 1, 2010 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

Chocolate truffles
MPR Photo/Mark Jungmann

First, let me admit up front that I'm very, very fond of chocolate. Especially dark chocolate. So when the producer of Midday asked me to step in as host while Gary Eichten was away, and then asked me if I wanted to host an hour on chocolate, well I was in heaven.

Talk about your fun research! I spent yesterday afternoon touring the new exhibition on chocolate at the Minnesota History Center, which opens tomorrow afternoon. And today, I got to spend an hour chatting about both the history of chocolate and the modern industry with exhibition developer Gretchen Baker and local chocolatier B.T. McElrath.

However, this conversation wasn't all sweet and sugary. We talked about the impact of cacao plantations on the rainforest as well as the industry's links to slavery. As Baker and McElrath stressed, it's hard to know exactly where your chocolate comes from, or how the workers were treated, which is why it's important to buy chocolate that's certified fair trade.

So, you may be asking, why is this entry titled "The art and culture of chocolate: part 1?" In the coming week I'm going to visit a food artist who sculpts with chocolate. Stay tuned for some sweet treats!

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Where are great ideas born?

Posted at 10:29 AM on September 22, 2010 by Marianne Combs (2 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

Steven Johnson attributes a great surge in human creativity to the rise of coffee and tea (until then, most Europeans drank alcohol all day because water wasn't safe), and argues coffeehouses are where "great ideas have sex."

In truth, Johnson says great ideas are not beautiful gems in-and-of themselves, but are cobbled together from what's available nearby. It's the pooling of different perspectives, not study in isolation, that leads to great breakthroughs. In his talk he takes us from Charles Darwin to Sputnik and G.P.S. to prove that "chance favors the connected mind."

Steven Johnson is the author of six books on the intersection of science, technology and personal experience, His most recent book "Where Good Ideas Come From: The History of Innovation" is due out next month.

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The new minimalism

Posted at 3:11 PM on September 14, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Fashion

Photo: Glamour Magazine

In a world where many of us have become addicted to spending, it seems some consumers have decided to go cold turkey.

The combination of a recession, and people's credit card habits has created an urgent need for people to cut back on spending. In the meantime, they're examining what they already own, and finding they don't need much of it.

Last year I posted on The Uniform Project, in which one fashion designer was trying to take a single outfit and accessorize it creatively for a year.

Now there are sites like Six Items or Less which challenge people to winnow down their wardrobe to six pants, shirts, dresses and/or skirts.

And then there's the The Great American Apparel Diet, in which people are pledging to refrain from buying any new clothing for a year. As the title implies, GAAD equates binge shopping with binge eating, and comments to its website sound eerily similar. Some "dieters" share there excitement of greeting the first day of the challenge, while others confess their mis-steps and try to muster the courage to carry on.

This is a far cry from the 1980s when "choice" and "variety" were all the rage in the market, and such minimalist fashion choices were openly mocked as symptoms of an oppressed society, as in the below ad from Wendy's:

Aside from clothing, there are those who choose to eliminate just about everything, including their homes. In an age where people can commute to work, and communicate via cell phones and lap tops, who needs a desk? This idea inspired software engineer Kelly Sutton, creator of the website Cult of Less, to sell off most of his possessions. While Sutton is an extreme example, a report by the BBC points to evidence that shoppers are increasingly choosing digital forms of entertainment over their physical counterparts.

Consumer electronic book sales tripled between 2008 and 2009, while the growth of physical book sales slowed, according to the Association of American Publishers.

Meanwhile, compact disc sales have declined by roughly 50% from their 2005 levels worldwide, while global revenue from digital music has nearly quadrupled in the same period, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

As I see all these reports popping up, I can't help but think of the ramifications for not just fashion, but the arts as a whole. Already I'm guessing there's a connection between these minimalist type tendencies, and the surge of art I'm seeing made with just graphite and paper. Will simple lines and forms, typified by Donald Judd in sculpture and Philip Glass in music, make a comeback?

Or will we seek out the luxury and variety we can't afford at home on stage, in the museum and in the concert hall?

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Laughing past stereotypes

Posted at 10:19 AM on August 25, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

Iranian-American stand-up comic Maz Jobrani was a founding member of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour. Now Jobrani is touring solo with his show "Brown and Friendly." In this TED Talk Jobrani offers some insight - and laughs - into how comedy helps us break down stereotypes and fear.

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The power of choice

Posted at 2:26 PM on July 27, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

In this compelling talk, Sheena Iyengar eloquently demonstrates how choice is perceived differently - either as liberating or stifling - depending on context and culture. In America, we align ourselves with Coke or Pepsi, while Eastern Europeans don't even distinguish between the two. They are both "soda." Iyengar says while we all want the ability to choose how we live and what we buy, when every single thing we do involves complex choices, it is as though we have no choice at all.

Instead of making better choices we become overwhelmed by choice, sometimes even afraid of it. Choice no longer offers opportunities, but imposes constraints. It's not a marker of liberation, but of suffocation by meaningless minutia. In other words, choice can develop into the very opposite of everything it represents in America, when it is thrust upon those who are insufficiently prepared for it.

Iyengar's research is made all the more compelling by her studies in diverse cultures around the world, and for a more personal reason. Iyengar is blind. While this impedes her ability to choose for herself, when the choice involves aesthetics, it also frees her from falling prey to visual tools of persuasion.

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Should they stay or should they go?

Posted at 4:10 PM on June 3, 2010 by Chris Roberts (2 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Music

Change, in this case in the form of a new coat of paint on the outside of First Avenue, can be upsetting. Especially when the whitewash appears to be erasing the history of one of Minnesota's most treasured institutions. Word spread this week that the First Avenue was updating its wall of stars. The wall is kind of the Minneapolis equivalent to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, only it honors the musicians who've put the club on the map over its 40-year history. First Avenue announced through Twitter and Facebook that it wanted fans to vote on bands or artists they think deserve a star. The reaction, among some, has been severe.

"I'm swallowing vomit as I type this."

Greg Swan, operator of the music blog Perfect Porridge, pleaded that First Avenue restore each star just as it was. Swan derided the "American Idol" star system the club had adopted. He lamented that "it's a sad day when a classic idol goes fake and face-lift over authentic and wrinkly."

First Avenue spokeswoman Machen Davis said repainting the stars is mainly a maintenance issue. It hasn't been done in ten years, and Davis said with 530 stars on the wall, the club is running out of room for new ones. She said First Ave. definitely wants the input of its patrons, but the majority of the stars will be determined by staff.

"It's obviously gotta be someone that's played here before, someone's that's been loyal to the club, has had a following or keeps bringing fans out," Davis said.

She said the club will reduce the number of stars from 530 down to 400 or so.

"There are gonna be some that fade away, but really I think there are some bands and even actually some past employees that have snuck up (on the wall) over the years so, some of those, I really don't think people will notice they're gone," Davis said. "Obviously it's hard to let go but I think there are a lot of other new deserving bands that need to get up as well. With 400 I think that will leave us some room. If we do want to add some more we'll have plenty over the years."

By the way, Davis assures that revered stage manager Conrad Sverkerson's star will continue to shine after the upgrade is complete. She said she's not sure the club was prepared for the Minne-uproar over the stars. But she says the staff is honored by the outpouring of concern and promises it will tread very carefully as it decides which stars to extinguish. The new cosmos of stars will be twinkling on the walls of First Avenue in the next two to three weeks.

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Minnesota James Beard Winners

Posted at 11:00 AM on May 4, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

Congratulations to the three local culinary luminaries (say that three times fast) who took home James Beard Awards this year. Andrew Zimmern won in the category of TV Food Personality for his show "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern," Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl won for her writing on wine in the Minnesota Monthly article "Chardonnay Uncorked," and chef Alexander Roberts of Restaurant Alma was named Best Chef of the Midwest.

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A nod to Northeast

Posted at 9:28 AM on April 26, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

Athens, Tokyo, Buenos Aires... Northeast Minneapolis.

If you missed this Sunday's New York Times, you might want to go back and check out the Travel section. There, amongst all the other exotic destinations, you'll find a guide to 13th Ave Northeast Minneapolis.

What makes this four-block stretch of an old Polish neighborhood worth a national review? According to writer Michael Tortorello, a cultural renaissance. Over the years the down-and-out street has transformed itself into a hotbed of fine food and fine art.

You can take in dance at the Ritz Theater, art at the Rogue Buddha Gallery, shop for antiques at Spinario Design and Gallery, or pick up some old LPs at Shuga Records.

Wash it all down with a drink at 331 Club or the Peacock Lounge and a fine meal at the Northeast Social or the Modern Cafe. Looking for some good cheap eats? Try The Anchor Fish and Chips.

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Yes, even artists love baseball

Posted at 12:08 PM on April 12, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

Thomas Allen's "Backstop" is one of several works of art inspired by baseball that will be on display at Thomas Barry Fine Arts starting April 24.

Sure, there are more than a few artists - and concerned citizens at large - out there who think Hennepin County would have done better to spend $350 million in tax revenue on, say, education instead of a new baseball field. But now that the deed is done, and everybody's excited about today's opener, even local arts establishments are getting in on the game.

Take Thomas Barry Fine Arts, which, as the gallery's name implies, is a purveyor of fine art. Starting April 24, TBFA will present "Going Yard!" an exhibition consisting entirely of art inspired by baseball. The show is listed as a means of "welcoming our new neighbors, the Minnesota Twins" but you can bet it's also about luring a bunch of those baseball fans into the gallery and maybe even getting them to buy some art.

Then there's "It's Outta Here!" a theatrical event featuring seven original plays, sketch comedy and improv all about baseball. In talking about the show, Director/Producer Robert Marcus says "My love of baseball and theater has finally been realized."

The show's website states "Minnesota Productions' presentation of "IT'S OUTTA HERE" will help support local Twin Cities' community theaters and Saint Paul's and Minneapolis' efforts to promote the historic theater district as a cultural destination for all Twin Cities' residents, as well as visitors to the area."

Both events point to some authentic love for baseball, but also to the desire of local cultural institutions to take advantage of "the trickle down effect." In desperate times, you need to be creative about how you make your money. In the coming weeks, more Minneapolis arts organizations may be brushing up on their sports lingo in order to do just that.

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What adults can learn from kids

Posted at 1:37 PM on April 8, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Criticism, Culture

Listen up adults! You've been in charge for far too long. Time to start re-thinking some of your old, outdated beliefs.

In all seriousness, child prodigy Adora Svitak makes some really wonderful points. Using humor, logic, and a very well organized powerpoint presentation, Svitak asks the adults in the room to rethink what it means to be "childish."

"Kids can be full of inspiring aspirations and hopeful thinking," says Svitak, "like my wish that no one went hungry or that [we lived in a] 'everything-were-free' kind of utopia. How many of you still dream like that and believe in the possibility?" Ouch!

One of the reasons this talk caught my attention was not just that the featured lecturer was 12 years old, but that a similar talk will be taking place later this month at the Walker Art Center. Developmental psychologist Edith Ackerman believes a lot can be learned from children about creativity, imagination and self-directed learning. Interested in learning more? You can hear her speak on April 22.

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Three Mpls restaurants and bakery nominated for James Beard awards

Posted at 12:16 PM on March 22, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

The James Beard Foundation announced today the final nominees for the 2010
James Beard Foundation Awards, taking place May 2 and 3 in New York City. The awards are considered to be among the top honors a restaurant or chef can receive in their field.

It's rare for a Midwestern restaurant to be recognized in any of the general categories (outstanding chef, outstanding new restaurant, oustanding service, etc), but this years it happened: Michelle Gayer of Salty Tart Bakery in Minneapolis was nominated for Best Pastry Chef.

In addition, there are regional awards meant to offset the foundation's bi-coastal leanings. And in the "Best Chef of the Midwest" category, Twin Cities restaurants took three of the five nominations.

Those nominated were Isaac Becker of 112 Eatery, Alexander Roberts of Restaurant Alma and Lenny Russo of Heartland. The other finalists were from St. Louis and Kansas City. "Midwest," according to the James Beard Foundation, includes Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

The chefs aren't the only nominees from Minnesota. Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl is nominated in multiple instances for her food and wine writing in Minnesota Monthly (fyi her book "Drink This" is nominated for a Minnesota Book Award, as well). Andrew Zimmern is up for his Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern on the Travel Channel. And Minnesota Public Radio's own "The Splendid Table" is up once again for Best Audio Webcast or Radio Show.

Already set to receive the 2010 James Beard Humanitarian of the Year Award is local restaurant consultant Wayne Kostroski, founder of "Taste of the NFL" which raises money and awareness about the needs of the hungry and homeless.
Founder, Taste of the NFL

Happy eating, everyone!

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The many voices and stories of Muslim women

Posted at 4:21 PM on March 3, 2010 by Marianne Combs (6 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Events

Panelists, from left to right: Safiya Balioglu, Latifah Kiribedda, Imani Jaafar-Mohammad, and Hend Al-Mansour. Photo credit: Catherine Tsen

Last night I had the honor and pleasure of moderating a panel discussion on "The Many Voices of Islam: Drawing a Distinction Between Culture and Religion" at St. Catherine's University. The panel was organized in conjunction with a touring exhibition of art by women from Muslim cultures, which you can read about here.

The goal of the evening was really quite simple - to share stories, and help people who aren't familiar with Islam to understand the size and diversity of the Muslim diaspora, especially in regards to women.

One of the frustrations shared by many of the panelists was how they feel lumped together into a stereotype of a silent, oppressed woman dressed all in black. Imani Jaafar-Mohammad is a lawyer and a partner with her husband in their firm. She says she knows many people assume she wears a head scarf because he forces her to, but in fact it was entirely her own decision. Her modest dress did not stop her from swimming competitively or playing on a basketball team.

For Hend Al-Mansour, the experience is quite different. She left her native Saudi Arabia because of the oppression she experienced there. In Saudi Arabia women cannot drive cars, and they make up only 5% of the work force. Al-Mansour still finds great beauty and richness in her religion, but wrestles with how it's used politically in her home country to keep women submissive. Meanwhile she works as an artist and is pursuing a masters in art history, specializing in Arab art, at the University of St. Thomas.

Safiya Balioglu, born in Germany, converted to Islam when she was 23. She says she was attracted to the devotion of the religion, and how spiritual practice is incorporated into daily life (five daily prayers). But raising her children with her Turkish husband in Germany was not easy, and she felt ostracized by her own culture. When he got a job offer in the U.S., they decided to make the move. Balioglu says she was impressed by how warm and friendly people were with her, and seemed not to care about the fact she was wearing a headscarf. Her children are now enrolled in a Muslim magnet school, and she couldn't be happier.

Latifah Kiribedda is the voice of a new generation of Muslim women. Born and raised in Uganda, Kiribedda is an outspoken feminist and devout Muslim who applied to St. Catherine's University because she felt a kinship with the values of the institution. She sees it as her own responsibility to share the stories of her faith in order to help people understand what it does and does not stand for. She asked all the women in the audience wearing hijabs to stand up and show off their colorful scarves, saying that here was proof not all Muslim women wear black from head to foot.

All these women share a common faith, but their stories varied drastically. And while they were able to answer many questions from the audience about customs and religion, they sometimes had to agree to disagree on what those answers were, based on their own experiences. But if these four women are any indication, they point to a bright and strong future for their faith and for all women.

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Paraguayan Nobel nominee got his start in St. Paul

Posted at 10:24 PM on March 2, 2010 by Marianne Combs (2 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Theater

The Nobel Foundation has not confirmed it, but according to the newspaper El Mirador Paraguayo, 29 year old Nestor Amarilla has been nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Amarilla, a native of Paraguay, earned scholarships to Fridley High School and Metropolitan State University after learning English from a Peace Corps volunteer based in his hometown, Coronel Oviedo.

While in the Twin Cities, Amarilla wrote numerous plays. One of those, "Saved by a Poem" he directed in Teatro del Pueblo's 2006 Political Theatre Festival. According to Teatro Del Pueblo, it is that very play, which also goes by the name "Fecha Feliz" ("Happy Date") which earned Amarilla his Nobel nomination.

Based on a true story, "Saved by a Poem" takes place in the countryside of Paraguay in 1975, when General Alfredo Stroessner was in power. In the play, the mother tries to save the life of her only son from dictator Stroessner through a poem.

The list of nominees for a Nobel prize are normally not revealed until fifty years after the award is given, but news of Amarilla's nomination was leaked to the press. The winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature will be announced in October. If Amarilla were to win, he would be its youngest recipient.

Teatro del Pueblo is currently in the second week of its ninth annual Political Theatre Festival, continuing through March 13, 2010.

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A whirlwind tour of New Zealand art and culture

Posted at 4:00 PM on March 1, 2010 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

A Maori youth group performs in Cathedral Square, in Christchurch, New Zealand. The group was raising money for a tour of the North Island. Want to see more? Keep scrolling - and reading - to see a video clip.

If you are a regular reader of this blog (and if you are - you have my infinite thanks) you will have noticed that most of the posts from the past three weeks were written by my fabulous colleagues, Euan Kerr and Chris Roberts. That's because they were kind enough to fill in for me while I was away on vacation on the South Island of New Zealand.

While most people use vacation to get away from work, it's hard to get to know another culture without taking a look at its art. So the past three weeks involved some museums, street performances, and architecture, as well as local food and crafts. Rather than keep it all to myself, I thought I'd share some of the highlights.

First off, sheep. You can't hardly throw a rock without hitting one (not that I'd ever do that, mind you). There are an estimated eight sheep for every one New Zealander, and they fuel a large part of the nation's economy. That translates to huge meat exports to England and elsewhere, and it also means a high level of crafts involving wool, such as spinning, knitting and weaving.

On a hike in Dunedin, I stumbled across Clifton Farms, where Ian and Pat Robertson have been breeding sheep for a range of colors in their wool - charcoal, dark and light brown, and cream colored. Pat's family has owned the farm for close to 150 years, and her husband Ian grew up on a farm just down the road. On the day I stopped by they were showing off both their sheep and their collection of antique spinning wheels to the Otago and Taieri Spinners and Weavers guilds.

Ian Robertson shows off his wife's collection of antique spinning wheels.

It wasn't until arriving in New Zealand that I learned it has a strong Scottish history. In fact the name of the city of Dunedin is actually the Gaelic version of "Edinburgh." The streets in the city of Dunedin are named after the streets in Edinburgh, and at the center of the city there's a statue erected of the great Scottish poet, Robert Burns.

Of course for hundreds of years before the Europeans settled New Zealand, it was known by the Maori people as "Aotearoa." Most government buildings I saw had signs in both English and Maori, and in Christchurch a Maori youth group was performing to raise money for a tour of the North Island.

Maori culture from Marianne Combs on Vimeo.

The Otago Museum in Dunedin and the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch both had extensive exhibitions on Maori culture and traditions, as well as the impact of European settlers arriving on the islands.

The Dunedin Public Art Gallery features a range of work, from the traditional landscape painting to the modern art installation. Just in time for Valentine's Day, the gallery had a special exhibition titled "Beloved" which brought together pieces from its permanent collection in some interesting (although sometimes inexplicable) pairings.

Of course the most striking visuals to be found in New Zealand are from its mountain ranges and fjords. A boat ride in the Doubtful Sound offered some incredible views.

Those mountains have inspired numerous New Zealand artists, as well as quite a few tourists, including this one:

As for architecture, New Zealand boasts a variety of styles, and I was quite impressed with some of the modern neighborhood homes, as well as the old Victorian and Edwardian edifices. A couple of standouts were the Larnach Castle, and the Dunedin Railway Station:

This is all just a scratch on the surface, of course, and only represents some of what can be found on the southern half of the South Island. But it was more than enough to impress this reporter, and make three weeks fly by.

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Lifting the veils from our own eyes

Posted at 4:52 PM on February 5, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Religion

Meriam Bouderbala. (Tunisia, 1960). Untitled. (Undated). Mixed media. (28 x 20 cm)

In the weeks following September 11, 2001, Americans as a whole suddenly had a much greater awareness of the Middle East and Islam, and a deep interest in learning more about both. While there was a lot of fear in the air, it was also a time that seemed heavy with potential for cultural exchange and understanding - an opportunity to break down stereotypes and reveal more complex truths.

In the now close to nine years since, what have we learned?

An exhibition at St. Catherine University provides us with the opportunity to find out. Titled "Breaking the Veils," the show is not - as you might well assume - aimed at raising awareness of the oppression of muslim women. Rather it's concerned with helping us to lift the veils that filter our own perceptions.

Sharifah Fatimah Syed Zubir. (Malaysia, 1948). Evening Glow. (1991). Acrylic on canvas. (120 x 130 cm)

Jordanian Princess Wijdan Al Hashemi conceived of the exhibition in the wake of 9/11 as she saw news reports and witnessed some of the deep misunderstanding that persisted in the following months. "Breaking the Veils" first opened to the public in Rhodes, Greece in 2002 before embarking on an international tour. Her Majesty Queen Rania-Al Abdullah of Jordan attended the launch and spoke about the exhibit this way:

"Breaking the Veils" features work from 51 women artists from the Islamic world. They work in different media and styles. They have had different life experiences, and they come from more than 20 different countries. But they have something in common that is more important than any dissimilarity. That "something" is the essence of Islamic art, of all art. It is the spirit of creativity and humanity. Real art connects. It connects us with ourselves and one another. It leads us to discover new truths and helps to illuminate the humanity we share. The work of these artists light up not only the Islamic world, but the human world as well. Through this exhibit they are helping to break the veils of misunderstanding and ignorance.

The artists featured in the exhibition are not just muslim, but buddhist, christian and hindu, as well; but they all were raised in Islamic countries. Their work varies dramatically in theme and image, but they all show a high level of talent and skill. As a whole, the exhibition reveals a candor and diversity that defies many commonly held stereotypes about the Islamic world.

Fahda Bint Saud. (Saudi Arabia, 1953). Three Women. (1992). Watercolor on paper. (65 X 84 cm)

Dr. Khalid Khreis is the Director General of the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, and is overseeing the exhibition's international tour. He says the goal of the exhibition is to help stimulate a cross cultural dialogue, and to underscore the difference between religion and culture.

People think that all muslim women in the world are like those found in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia. We wanted to show that Islamic women are like all women all over the world. We have artists, teachers in universities... Of course we all have our problems; we just wanted to show the reality.

One of the more startling works is "Three Women" by Fahda Bint Saud (pictured above). In it she depicts what appears to be a reluctance on the part of Saudi women to recognize the reality of their restricted lives. Khreis says it's a piece that might not have been allowed if it weren't for the fact that Fahda Bint Saud is in fact a daughter of Saud bin Abdul Aziz, king of Saudi Arabia from 1953 to 1964.

Laila Shaw. (Palestine, 1940). The Deal. (1994). Silkscreen on paper. (48 x 68 cm)

There is also work critical of the United States and its involvement in Middle Eastern politics, particularly Palestine. But on the whole the art is much more personal, displaying deep introspection, a passion for women's issues, and spirituality.

What is most surprising about this exhibition is that it did not reach the United States until 2008, after having toured most of Europe and Australia. It finally reached the Clinton Presidential Library, thanks in large part to Susan Anderson of the ArtReach Foundation. The foundation uses art programs to help people heal from traumatic experiences, including the conflicts in Bosnia and Lebanon, and natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. Anderson attended the opening of the exhibition in Greece, and immediately saw a connection between the artwork, and her own work using art to heal wounds and start conversations.

Karima Bin Othman. (Jordan, 1972). Unity. (2002). Acrylic on canvas. (60 X 72 cm)

St. Catherine University plans to launch a dialogue of its own in conjunction with the exhibition. On Tuesday, March 2, I'll be hosting a panel of muslim women from around the Islamic world. They'll share stories about misconceptions surrounding their religion and culture, and give a sense of just what their lives are like. The talk runs from 7-9pm at the Rauenhorst Ballroom.

"Breaking the Veils: Women Artists from the Islamic World" runs Feb. 6 thru April 1 at the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery Visual Arts Building on the campus of St. Catherine University.

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The Minnesota Effect

Posted at 10:05 AM on January 14, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

This month the websites minnesotaplaylist.com and mnartists.org are co-publishing a series of articles on what they call "Feeling Minnesota." The conversation is prompted by the question "does Lutheran practicality plus Scandinavian progressiveness multiplied by snow and divided by passive-aggressiveness add up to an aesthetic?"

It's an interesting question, and it's already inspired some strong responses. Critic Quinton Skinner thinks there's something about the harshness of our winters that drives artists to perservere, while creating a thirst in audiences for visual stimuli in an otherwise barren landscape. Although I think I have to disagree with his claim that "outsized egos deflate here." Might not our cold weather instill just a smidgen of sinful pride?

Lightsey Darst muses on the "Minnesota style" of the Twin Cities dance scene (which she points out is really the Minneapolis dance scene). Can there be a Minnesota style if almost all the choreographers in town moved here from somewhere else? Yes, she says, because - quoting Kristin Van Loon - "if you choose Minneapolis, you're 'okay with hiding under a rock and really making your thing.'"

Darst says the local dance scene is marked by both political consciousness and a deliberate lack of fashion. Dancers here often favor narrative over form (making it easier to justify/explain your work to the masses) and purposely avoid looking too beautiful or too hip.

Tom Poole writes that he sees a lasting influence from the now defunct Theatre de la Jeune Lune on young performance groups who combine movement and theater. So might Minnesota trace its roots all the way back to the Jacques Lecoq school in Paris?

Whatever the Minnesota style is or isn't, the question is a provocative one. To think that amidst all the diverse art and artists, there is a common thread or quality that unifies them all. What do you think it is?

My vote? "Understated."

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Free CDs of a unique moment in music

Posted at 11:51 AM on December 31, 2009 by Euan Kerr (14 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Dance, Music

Poster produced for the concert recorded in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo (Image courtesy Jesse Hardman)

Last night on the local broadcast of All Things Considered you may have heard an interview with Minnesotan journalist Jesse Hardman. He told the story of how, while working in Sri Lanka, he came across a small enclave of people who are descendents of soldiers and laborers brought from African in the 1500s.

Despite six centuries of disconnection from their roots, they have maintained their cultural identity, including a musical tradition of singing in a Portuguese creole. The music which sounds distinctly African is played on simple homemade instruments. Each song mounts in a crescendo which culminates in some of the singers leaping to their feet and dancing.

Jesse Hardman and his news team recorded one of the concerts by the group which calls itself the Kaffirs. He produced a CD called "Kaffir Manja," and shipped most of them to Sri Lanka where they are now available at concerts.

However he did leave some at MPR to give away. So I have 17 copies of the disc available. The first 17 commenters on this post who indicate they want a copy, will get one free of charge.

Comment away!

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Teens honor Day of the Dead at the MIA

Posted at 4:45 PM on October 30, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Museums

Olga Guzmán checks out her ofrenda hanging at the MIA
Photo by Amanda Hankerson

Last night the Minneapolis Institute of Arts was filled with Latino-American families, there to see and celebrate the artwork of their children. The first floor gallery area and nearby social room was overflowing with little kids working on art projects, girlfriends and boyfriends chowing down on pork and chicken tamales, and parents taking pictures of their children next to their "ofrendas" or offerings, made in honor of Day of the Dead.

Olga's ofrenda. Photo by Dan Dennehy

Olga Guzmán hasn't lost anyone close to her, so she made a more traditional ofrenda,
depicting skeletons dancing, singing and sharing a meal. This is her second year making an ofrenda at the MIA, and she really likes it.

"I'm really busy - working, going to school, writing papers - and I don't get a chance to be creative with art. So I really love when a chance like this comes along because I feel my creative side can come out."


All of the ofrendas were created in crates, used to symbolize the migrant workers who came to the United States looking to support their families.

José Miguel Guerrero stands next to his ofrenda.
Photo by Amanda Hankerson

The teens are all students of El Colegio magnet school in Minneapolis. As part of the process, they were given video cameras (provided by Best Buy) with which to document their projects, and talk about their work. Administrative Director David Greenberg says he's thrilled with the project and what it offers his students.

It's really a good deal for our students to see their work in one of the most important museums in the region, to know that their work, thoughts and experiences are valued and important. To just see them do those video blogs, and talk into the camera about their work and their lives, knowing that people are going to see that and care about it and respond to it...it just makes them reflect on who they are and know themselves better.

Tameka Boyce at the MIA reception with her parents.
Photo by Amanda Hankerson

18-year old Tameka Boyce chose to use her ofrenda to honor her grandmother, who died in 2004. The crate is filled with pink, her grandmother's favorite color, a poem she wrote and candles with the names of different family members. Boyce says she learned a lot, both about art and about video, in the process.

"It's great! It's surprising that my artwork's in the MIA. I can brag about it, it's very cool, my family's very interested and proud of me and so I like it."

Domini Guzmán with his ofrenda. Photo by Amanda Hankerson

MIA curator Joe Horse Capture organized the Young People's Ofrenda exhibition and he thinks the project has managed to accomplish a lot for everyone involved.

This is a type of artwork that normally our audience doesn't see. And so I think it's important, because we're an encyclopedic museum, for them to be exposed to that. Also this [Latino] community is really important to our larger community - and we'd like to see more of them here at the museum.

These small ofrendas are very powerful. You know this project has been successful when a parent comes to you and shakes your hand with tears in their eyes thanking you for creating this opportunity for their child because it has meant so much to them.

Young People's Ofrenda runs through November 15 at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

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Times are tough for arts, may get worse

Posted at 4:48 PM on September 4, 2009 by Chris Roberts (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Funding, Theater

With a few exceptions, 2009 has been a year of salary freezes, layoffs and declining revenue for many Minnesota arts organizations. With all the reported sightings of the 'green shoots of a recovery' and an emerging belief that the worst of the recession is behind us, is the worst over for arts groups?

Bush Foundation President Peter Hutchinson says no. In fact, Hutchinson says 2010 is likely to be worse than 2009.

Hutchinson said arts groups depend primarily on four sources of revenue -- ticket sales, individual donations, public funding, and philanthropic giving. He expects ticket sales and individual donations will continue to be detrimentally affected by the high unemployment rate, which is predicted to linger well into 2010.

The arts may be buffered a little by new money from the stimulus package and the Legacy Amendment passed by voters last year, but Hutchinson doesn't think the level of public funding will actually rise over previous years.

Which brings us to philanthropic contributions. Hutchinson said the level of giving is dropping because of the hit foundation portfolios have taken on Wall Street.

"Foundation giving is likely to be down because most foundations figure their giving using a three year rolling average," he said. "As we went into 2009 we had a couple of really good years behind us. But as we go into 2010, we've got this really bad year that we have to incorporate into that formula, and I think that's actually going to lead to lower giving for many foundations when it comes to the arts. So, if I were predicting, I would say that arts and cultural organizations, oh and by the way, most other non-profit organizations, are going to face a really tough 2010."

Hutchinson said because of that three-year formula, foundation giving tends to be higher than you'd expect going into a recession. But he said it also lags coming out, meaning the economy generally recovers more quickly than foundation giving. He said foundation giving probably won't return to pre-recession levels until 2012.

"But that assumes that the market recovers," added Hutchinson, which he said isn't certain.

In his view, the recession may have a significant diminishing effect on the Minnesota arts landscape, depending on how arts groups respond in their programming. Hutchinson said they may be tempted to play it safe, and bring out the old "warhorse" productions that put butts in seats. He thinks that might not be wise.

"I actually think that's probably a risky strategy in the long run, because in my view this is a time when we're under stress," he said. "Communities are under stress, individuals, families, people are suffering, and I think arts organizations have a chance to kind of call us to our higher selves. Arts, more than any other institution, have this way and means of appealing to peoples' emotions, to reaching into our souls. And if all they do is put on fluff, I don't think that's rising to their highest opportunity at a time when we probably need them in ways that we've not before."

Hutchinson believes the art groups that are more relevant to their audiences in these tough times are more likely to remain relevant when the happy times are here again.

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We are what we eat. And we eat a lot.

Posted at 5:00 PM on August 25, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Museums, Photography

© Peter Menzel www.menzelphoto.com from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

The Bell Museum of Natural History has announced it's hosting the exhibition "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats" this fall. The exhibition grew out of the book by the same name. Like the book, the exhibition explores how different cultures consume food: what type of food they eat, how much of it, and how much they pay for it.

© Peter Menzel www.menzelphoto.com from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

The Bell Museum's exhibit focuses on 10 cultures, many with ties to Minnesota, and lets visitors "shop" for global produce from world markets and track that food as it travels from field to fork. The exhibit features special sections on the rise of fast food culture, the evolution and history of food plants, current and ancient agricultural methods and the practice of raising and eating meat.

© Peter Menzel www.menzelphoto.com from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

Since many people these days are interested in "greening" their lives and households, they might be particularly interested in witnessing the difference in packaging from one culture to the next. Some cultures appear to live entirely without packaging, while others seem entirely dependent on it.

© Peter Menzel www.menzelphoto.com from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

Other issues raised by the exhibition are nutrition, obesity, sustainability, and the "locavore" movement. "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats" opens at the Bell Museum in Minneapolis on October 17 and will run for 6 months.

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What makes us perform better? Not money.

Posted at 12:25 PM on August 24, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

While common belief in the business world supports giving bonuses to inspire better performance, science soundly refutes such thinking. In fact, monetary incentives often make us perform worse. So what to do if you want to inspire your minions?

In this TED talk, career analyst Dan Pink debunks performance bonuses and pushes instead for jobs that give people the ability to direct themselves in meaningful pursuits. Pink's three tenets for success are "autonomy, mastery and purpose." How many jobs can offer that?

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The Culture of Me, Myself and I

Posted at 8:15 AM on August 17, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

It's the oldest form of art there is: the first person narrative. For as long as we humans have gathered around campfires, we've also shared our stories. Over time, the campfire has made way for the office watercooler, the open-mic night, or the occasional autobiography. Now we have blogs, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

It used to be that each person would have to wait their turn around the campfire to tell their story. Now it's as though everyone's talking simultaneously.

Alex Williams writes in the New York Times Sunday Styles section about the surge in first person storytelling at open-mic nights. Williams writes more people are flocking to such storytelling events in the hopes of parlaying their story into a book deal or a one-man show on Broadway.

Storytelling in this manner has apparently become so relevant to the moment that it can no longer be confined to a few sporadic events populated by a small group of would-be memoirists. After all, it's basically just confession, Mr. King [Anthony King, artistic director of The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater] said, and everyone seems to be confessing the most intimate details of their lives on social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

"The private is now public," Mr. King said. "And great source material."

This self-obsession is not just limited to storytelling - it's also manifested in images, as Euan Kerr reported a while back. Self-portraits abound, as people seek to document their lives on Facebook and MySpace.

So what are the consequences of this "culture of the self?" Is it democracy in action, in which all our voices have equal power? Or will all the great voices naturally rise to the top? Have we all become our own personal curators, choosing which stories are worth following?

What, if anything, are we losing?

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Life as a musical, part two: Flash mobs

Posted at 3:16 PM on August 12, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Dance, Events, Music, Public Art

Earlier today I wrote about musical numbers, and how they make us feel like we belong to something bigger than ourselves. I cited a video of a public prank, in which a group of performers put on what appeared to be a spontaneous musical in the midst of a food court.

In response, Sharon wrote in with one of her favorite clips of a group taking over a train station in Belgium for a song and dance number:

Such events are called "flash mobs" and they're becoming increasingly popular as technology (internet, cellphones) makes them increasingly easy to orchestrate.

However, as soon as a bunch of creative folk come up with a great idea, it doesn't take long for companies to latch on to them for sales purposes. T-Mobile orchestrated its own flash mob event for a commercial:

Other flash mob events include "flash freezes" in which a large group of people appear to freeze in motion at the exact same time.

Rumor has it there may be a flash event at this year's State Fair... heard anything?

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Monkey see, monkey not do?

Posted at 2:22 PM on August 3, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

The Five Senses (Still-Life with Chessboard), 1630, oil on wood, Musée du Louvre, Paris

A couple of articles in the New York Times have me worried about how we are engaging - or more to the point not engaging - with our culture.

Wandering from room to room:

Michael Kimmelman observes that museum-goers are stopping less and less to really look at the art, rarely pausing for more than a second or two. Instead of visiting museums in order to become more cultured or more worldly, people seem to be breezing through in order to check the "Mona Lisa" or "Winged Victory" off their "To Do" list. It's a superficiality Kimmelman blames in part on the camera:

Cameras replaced sketching by the last century; convenience trumped engagement, the viewfinder afforded emotional distance and many people no longer felt the same urgency to look. It became possible to imagine that because a reproduction of an image was safely squirreled away in a camera or cell phone, or because it was eternally available on the Web, dawdling before an original was a waste of time, especially with so much ground to cover.

I'd add to that argument that museums are also complicit in this new "culture of convenience." Our own Minneapolis Institute of Arts has touted the ease of its audio tours with "quick stops," requiring you to spend no more than thirty seconds in front of any given painting or sculpture. Of course, in today's world, 30 seconds is starting to look like a significant commitment.

Let them eat Jiffy Cake

In the New York Times Sunday magazine, Michael Pollan takes on the towering network of food shows, and how they've created a generation of gourmet couch potatoes. Thanks to Julia Child and those who have followed her, more people than ever know the difference between saute, grill and broil. But according to Pollan few actually choose to do any of these things in preparing their own meals. He writes:

Today the average American spends a mere 27 minutes a day on food preparation (another four minutes cleaning up); that's less than half the time that we spent cooking and cleaning up when Julia arrived on our television screens. It's also less than half the time it takes to watch a single episode of "Top Chef" or "Chopped" or "The Next Food Network Star." What this suggests is that a great many Americans are spending considerably more time watching images of cooking on television than they are cooking themselves -- an increasingly archaic activity they will tell you they no longer have the time for.

Pollan argues that Julia Child loved to cook, and her love of the work involved was obvious and infectious. In comparison, modern cooking shows are her evil step-children:

These shows stress quick results, shortcuts and superconvenience but never the sort of pleasure -- physical and mental -- that Julia Child took in the work of cooking: the tomahawking of a fish skeleton or the chopping of an onion, the Rolfing of butter into the breast of a raw chicken or the vigorous whisking of heavy cream. By the end of the potato show, Julia was out of breath and had broken a sweat, which she mopped from her brow with a paper towel. (Have you ever seen Martha Stewart break a sweat? Pant? If so, you know her a lot better than the rest of us.)

Of course, we can rationalize these trends. We live in a fast-paced world, we lead busy lives, and we need our culture - whether it's on the wall or on the table - quick and easy. But what are we losing in the process? At the minimum, it appears as though we're being less self-aware. I'd also argue we're losing sight of the simplest - and sometimes most profound - pleasures of the senses.

Here's a thought - the next time you're at a museum, pick a work of art and spend 5 minutes with it. That's not much to ask, is it? Look at it from different angles, watch how others engage with it, and maybe even break out a sketchbook and try to capture what you see on paper.

On another day, take on a meal as a creative project. Make sure it takes at least 30 minutes to prepare (take that, Rachel Ray!). Make EVERYTHING from scratch. Take a few deep breaths before you start to eat. Linger over the the presentation, the smells, the colors, and of course, the taste. Oh, and leave the television off.

Notice anything?

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The Vatican embraces Oscar Wilde, Harry Potter

Posted at 12:32 PM on July 17, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

It's a move that has much of the literary/theatrical world stunned. The Vatican has released an article praising Oscar Wilde and his work. This not long after Pope Benedict the XVI was quoted as saying "homosexuality is as much of a threat to the survival of the human race as climate change." Oscar Wilde was famously imprisoned for acts of "gross indecency" (i.e. a sexual relationship with another man), but converted to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed.

You can find the complete text of the Vatican's article - in Italian - here (a recent search of the Vatican's "L'Osservatore Romano" failed to find the original article - perhaps it's been pulled in the wake of debate?).

If you can't read Italian, here are a few quotes in translation, thanks to the Daily Mail and the The Times:

"Oscar Wilde was a man constantly looking for the beautiful and the good, but also for a God that he never challenged, respected and who he fully embraced after his dramatic experience of jail, concluding with his communion in the Catholic Church."

It also says Oscar Wilde was "a man who behind a mask of amorality asked himself what was was just and what was mistaken, what was true and what was false" and "one of the personalities of the 19th century who most lucidly analysed the modern world in its disturbing as well as its positive aspects."

The Vatican paper even goes so far as to praise Wilde's social commentary, quoting his turn of phrase that "the things one feels absolutely certain about are never true."

Media outlets are trying to figure out what this shift in the Vatican's public voice means. The Daily Mail is calling it a "U-turn" for the Vatican.

Actor Stephen Fry (who is openly gay and played the part of Oscar Wilde in the 1997 film based on his life) said "a deathbed conversion from a scared broken vulnerable outcast doesn't give them [the Vatican] rights over his soul or name."

This act of praise, comes as part of what appears to be a new trend in embracing people and ideas that are popular, even if they may appear to be at odds with Catholicism's credo. Earlier this week the Vatican changed it's mind about the Harry Potter book/film series. Previously it had condemned J.K. Rowling's creations as corruptive, but the latest film was praised for its depiction of good against evil.

So where is the Vatican headed with these new, markedly different stances? Is the Vatican opening itself up to the broader ideas and morals displayed in packages that may at first appear sinful? Or is this about extending the appeal of the Catholic Church by associating itself with Wilde-ly popular cultural icons?

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Celebrating Hmong artists

Posted at 8:41 AM on July 11, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Painting, Photography, Printmaking

Photographs by Pao Houa Her

Last night I attended the opening of a group show by Hmong artists at Homewood Gallery in North Minneapolis. The show has become an annual event, organized by the Hmong Arts Connection (HArc). It includes photographs, prints, paintings and drawings. Dyane Garvey is with HArc; she said HArc is trying to encourage artistic expression amongst Hmong people. In traditional Hmong culture art is incorporated into everday life, but is not necessarily respected as a career in its own right, she said.

Happy by Galea Vajxyooj

While at the opening I talked to John Kong, one of the artists. Kong is particularly skilled in animation, and used to dream of working for Disney. He said it took a long time to convince his parents that being an artist was worthwhile, but after he won several art competitions they changed their mind. Ultimately their support became extremely important in getting him through art school, Kong said.

Gao Zoua Pang by Kao Lee Thao

According to Dyane Garvey part of the goal of the HArc exhibition is to boost the work of Hmong artists within their own community. Last year she went door to door in the neighborhood, inviting families to attend the show. John Vang responded to the invite, and left a note saying how much the exhibition meant to him as an art student. This year, his work is on the walls.

White Trees in Autumn by Mai C. Vang

The exhibition also serves as a window into Hmong American culture and identity. In "White Trees in Autumn" by Mai C. Vang (seen above), Vang adds the following text to her painting:

Sometimes when snow covers everything in Minnesota I stare out my bedroom window and sigh. Childhood passes us so swiftly, fall becomes winter when we blink, oh I wish that I could always have white trees in autumn.

"New Directions in Hmong Art" will be on display at Homewood Gallery in North Minneapolis through July 31st.

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Junky Art or Arty 'Junque?'

Posted at 3:02 PM on July 10, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, People

Sara Aeikens and her husband Leo have been walking the same path around Fountain Lake in Albert Lea for close to 15 years. For the last three of those years, Aeikens has been picking up the discarded objects she finds along the way and taking them home. She estimates she now has over two thousand objects, many of which are currently on display at the Albert Lea Art Center. She's grouped them together to create sculptural pieces. Others she's put out for people to mix and match into their own creations.

Aeikens show, titled "Junky Art or Arty Junque?" is on display in connection with another exhibition on sustainable art. Aeikens says she's given her ritual of picking up other people's trash a lot of thought. Here's what she says she's learned:

Our little actions do make a difference- negative or positive.

When we toss a tiny thing, it becomes many things.

Our little contributions affect our environment- right in our own neighborhood.

We could improve on noticing our little actions- by keeping our eyes to the ground and also by being aware of our larger surroundings and how we impact our space.

Junk can be colorful, unique, artistic and can be turned into "JUNQUE ART."

Junk can create humorous situations and spaces.

In my junque journey I enjoyed putting together numerous pieces that magically fit together after locating a frame or foundation to contain it or serve as a cohesive unit.

Junk to Junque can have a spiritual component.

Aeikens says she's noticed that some people coming into her gallery space have almost immediately turned around and walked out, or have simply said out loud "I don't get it," and she respects that. But she says she also believes what we throw away says as much about ourselves as what we keep. Taking a long hard look at our junk may be difficult for some, because it reveals things we may not be comfortable with.

(Images by Marie DeGennaro, courtesy of Sara Aeikens)

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Web Site Story: The Musical

Posted at 10:25 AM on July 2, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Technology, Theater

Collegehumor.com takes on Facebook, Twitter, Pandora and more in this modern take on "West Side Story." Enjoy!

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Hours cut at several historic sites in Minnesota

Posted at 1:05 PM on July 1, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Architecture, Culture

The Minnesota Historical Society has announced it's reducing hours at some historic sites and museums statewide (including Fort Snelling and the Mill City Museum) beginning July 1. The change in hours comes in the wake of the state legislature cutting its funding of the MHS' operating budget by 8.6%. While hours at many sites are being reduced, no site is being completely closed.

Sites with new hours of operation are:

Alexander Ramsey House, St. Paul: Saturdays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Sundays noon-3 p.m.

Charles A. Lindbergh HouseHistoric Site , Little Falls: Thursdays-Saturdays 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sundays noon-5 p.m.

Forest History Center, Grand Rapids: Thursdays-Saturdays 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sundays noon-5 p.m.

Historic Forestville, Preston: Fridays 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturdays 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sundays noon-5 p.m.

Historic Fort Snelling, St. Paul: Tuesdays-Saturdays 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sundays noon-5 p.m.

Jeffers Petroglyphs, Comfrey: Thursdays-Saturdays 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sundays noon-5 p.m.

Mill City Museum, Minneapolis: Mondays-Saturdays 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sundays noon-5 p.m.

Mille Lacs Indian Museum, Onamia: Wednesdays-Saturdays 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

North West Company Fur Post, Pine City: Thursdays-Saturdays and Mondays 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sundays noon-5 p.m.

Oliver H. Kelley Farm, Elk River: Wednesdays-Saturdays 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sundays noon-5 p.m.

Sibley House Historic Site, Mendota: First and Third Saturdays 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Hours are effective through Labor Day 2009

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The French to storm the Minnesota Opera

Posted at 8:56 AM on July 1, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

The Alliance Francaise of Minneapolis-St. Paul is sponsoring Minnesota French week July 6 - July 11. Events include a "Tour de First" (a few dozen bicyclists in a ceremonial ride down North First Street), the crowning of the Bastille Day Queen (aka Marie Antoinette, who will serve cake to the peasants) and the singing of the Marseillaise. There will be French film screenings and a flea market, but according to L'Alliance Francaise, the highlight of the week is the "Storming the Opera" on July 11 at the Minnesota Opera Center.

In order to celebrate the French holiday Bastille Day (normally July 14) in proper style, the Alliance convinced the mayors of both Minneapolis and St. Paul to sign proclamations declaring Saturday, July 11th to be Bastille Day in the Twin Cities. And they had a bit of fun with it, too. Here are a few excerpts:

WHEREAS, Most of the great state of Minnesota was once a French colony, a distinguished heritage that survives today in the state motto, "L'Etoile du Nord," and in the unmistakable savoir faire possessed by the state's cultural, business and civic leaders;

WHEREAS, The founder of the capital city of Saint Paul, Minnesota, was an industrious entrepreneur in the hallowed tradition of laissez faire, Pierre Parrant, an optically challenged Frenchman who suffered the public relations humiliation of being known as "Pig's Eye";

WHEREAS, the very land beneath the city of Minneapolis was once part of the French colony of Louisiana, and in its heart of hearts still longs to be part of France;

WHEREAS, Minneapolis, with its cultural and academic stature in the region surely qualifies it to be the Paris of the Great Plains;

...You get the idea. Bonne Fête, tout le monde!

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Talking about happiness

Posted at 10:35 AM on June 24, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

It seems the recession has inspired a lot of us, or at least the media, to talk about what it means to be truly happy. The New York Times has an entire series dedicated to it, called Happy Days. The piece that's drawn the strongest response details one man's second chance at life, and how it changed his attitude.

The public's response to his story inspired a conversation on NPR's Talk of the Nation. And this week Midmorning asked if our definition of happiness is changing, and looked at what a longitudinal study of Harvard students begun in 1937 tells us about leading a fulfilling life.

One of the interesting revelations? The paradox of choice, and how having fewer choices in life makes it simpler, and creates less anxiety.

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Vatican declares St. Paul Cathedral national shrine

Posted at 2:54 PM on June 16, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Architecture, Culture

The Vatican has designated the Cathedral of Saint Paul to be the first national shrine in honor of the Apostle Paul. This will be the first national shrine in the State of Minnesota and the only national shrine in North America dedicated to honor Saint Paul.

According to canon (church) law, "The term shrine signifies a church or other sacred place to which the faithful make pilgrimages for a particular pious reason with the approval of the local ordinary (bishop)."

As Twin Cities Archbishop Nienstedt pointed out to the vatican in his request for the shrine designation, tens of thousands of people already visit the Cathedral every year. Of course with the new designation, the Cathedral staff are expecting the numbers of visitors to increase further.

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Northland Poster Collective to close

Posted at 9:46 AM on June 15, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Printmaking

Founded in 1979 by activist artists, Northland Poster Collective has existed as part activist organization, part business and part arts group, creating posters and t-shirts that support the labor movement. About the decision to close, founding member artist Ricardo Levins Morales noted "After thirty years of undermining Wall Street, it finally fell on us." The collective did not seek out grants, and instead relied on sales of its various slogan products.

This month everything on its website is half-off, and many of the buttons and other products will be farmed out to other websites and stores for sale at the end of June. Morales plans to open his own studio to continue his personal artistic/activist career.

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Hamline-Midway Library's future not as bright as its past

Posted at 4:31 PM on June 12, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Culture

The fate of the Hamline-Midway Library is on the chopping block due to city budget cuts. While the library will remain open through the end of the year, a task force is looking at what options it has after that. It could have sharply reduced hours, become the responsibility of some organization other than the City of St. Paul, or it could close entirely. The community rallying cry inspired me to pay a visit and find out more about the library's history, and just how it got started. The story is one of community activism and teamwork over a period of more than twenty years. Take a look and see for yourself. (Full disclosure: I'm a resident of the Hamline-Midway neighborhood)

Music performed by Mike Pohlad

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