The MIA has a remarkable collection of banks, of the piggy-bank variety. And one of the most popular themes (aside from piggies) is Santa Claus. Because nothing says saving like a fat home invader in a red suit. Of course, saving for Christmas was serious business for 20th century Americans, especially during the Depression, when  ...

Clare Vivier wants to know if there will be snow for Christmas. Not in Los Angeles, where she lives now with her husband and son, but back in St. Paul, where she grew up and will soon return for family, friends, and Northern Grade @ MIA Presents: From Maker to Market, a December 26 discussion  ...

As promised, here’s the second installment of intriguing alley names from Andy Sturdevant’s popular MAEP exhibition Alley Atlas. These are largely alleys in Uptown, the Lyn-Lake area, and downtown Minneapolis. And as much as South Minneapolis residents seemed to name their alleys for kindly neighbors or nefarious creatures (human and animal), capturing a kind of  ...

That’s W. Eugene Smith’s gorgeous portrait (above) of Bob Dylan, circa 1965, from the MIA’s photography collection. Smith was the ultimate photojournalist, of course, his images of war for Life magazine setting the standard for documentary photography when Dylan was still in diapers in Duluth. Five years before this photo was taken, no one knew  ...

That’s W. Eugene Smith’s gorgeous portrait (above) of Bob Dylan, circa 1965, from the MIA’s photography collection. Smith was the ultimate photojournalist, of course, his images of war for Life magazine setting the standard for documentary photography when Dylan was still in diapers in Duluth. Five years before this photo was taken, no one knew  ...

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

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

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

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

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