Arts + Culture

Rock Opera
Excuse to Dress Up
Awards Ceremony
Neighborhood Jazz Festival
New Play
Photography Exhibit
Outdoor Installation
New Concert Venue
Art Exhibit
Dance Company
Skyway Art
Art on a Wall

Rock Opera
Rock operas don’t get much respect, but Fort Wilson Riot’s Idigiragua, which premiered at Bedlam Theatre in September, is the best rock opera since The Who’s Quadrophenia. That’s saying more than you might think. The story involves a journalist who gets kidnapped by Pirates and forces civilization on his captors White Man’s Burden-style. The music is  brilliant, and so is the record. [top]

Excuse to Dress Up
Occasions to show off your fanciest duds are few and far between, but whenever the Minnesota Opera takes the stage, audience members make the most of the opportunity and treat it with the level of sophistication it deserves. It’s impossible to overdress for the opera, especially for opening night, so break out your best and join the pageantry. After all, that’s what civilization is for. 612-333-2700 [top]

Awards Ceremony
The Academy Awards could learn a thing or two from our annual Ivey Awards, which celebrate the accomplishments of local theater professionals. Every year, the Iveys just keep getting better and better. This was the event’s third year, and it brought a packed house of local theater luminaries to the State Theatre in September for an evening of celebration, song, and plenty of comedy. Laughs outnumbered awards by about ten to one. 612-801-6138 [top]

Neighborhood Jazz Festival
The Selby Avenue Jazz Festival began in 2002 and has grown to become the best neighborhood jazz festival in town. Held in early September, the festival attracts an eclectic crowd from the folks who live around Selby and Milton in St. Paul all the way to the upper-crust denizens of Summit Avenue. It’s got just the right free-spirited vibe to keep things loose, and every year the lineup gets more impressive. [top]

New Play
Boats on a River, Julie Marie Myatt’s exploration of the child sex-slave industry, was informed by two years of research in Cambodia. Staged at the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio, the result was a disturbing play that avoided moralizing, but shed abundant light on a problem so ugly and intractable that most people don’t even want to think about it. [top]

Photography Exhibit
Last year, photographer/collector Frederick B. Scheel donated more than 600 photographs to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which included an astonishing number of images from some of the world’s most famous photographers. To exhibit this unprecedented windfall, the MIA took the rare step of creating a two-part show. The first half, The Search to See: Photographs from the Collection of Frederick B. Scheel, Part I, was so compelling that the second half, which opens December 1, is already on our must-see list. 2400 3rd Ave. S, Mpls, 612- 870-3000 [top]

Outdoor Installation
The Soap Factory’s annual Art Shanty Project invites artists of all kinds to haul their work out to a frozen expanse of Medicine Lake in January. In 2007, more than sixty artists participated, building a temporary shantytown that did more than its fair share to loosen old man winter’s icy grip. This year’s Art Shanty Project runs from January 19 to February 23. 518 SE 2nd St., Mpls, 612-623-9176 [top]

New Concert Venue
One of Mystic Lake Casino’s latest multimillion-dollar additions is the impressive new Mystic Showroom, a state-of-the-art concert venue with a superb sound system and acoustics, 2,100 seats, and more leg room per seat than any other venue in town. The goal in building it was to bring “Vegas–style” entertainment to the Midwest, but we’d settle for better acts than Don Rickles, Sinbad, and Kenny G. Some things that happen in Vegas should stay in Vegas.  2400 Mystic Lake Blvd., Prior Lake, 952-445-9000 [top]

Art Exhibit
The Museum of Russian Art’s Raising the Banner: The Art of Geli Korzhev stands out. The sheer scale and variety of paintings on display were breathtaking. It was also the first solo show the museum has ever done and the first exhibit under new president Judi Dutcher. I–35W and Diamond Lake Rd., Mpls., 612-821-9045 [top]

Dance Company
Zenon Dance Company has survived for twenty-five years by commissioning and executing work by some of the most talented choreographers in the world. The spring concert showcased the company’s ability to excel at multiple dance styles, from jazz to modern to innovative avant-garde. 612-338-1101 [top]

Skyway Art
They’re relatively small and innocuous, but the Objets de Verre, or “grand vessels turning to life,” by celebrated glass artist Dale Chihuly in the skyway level of 225 South Sixth are the most beautiful objets d’art in the Minneapolis skyway system. Once you know they’re there, you’ll never walk on the street again. [top]

Art on a Wall
Intermedia Arts offers the building itself as a canvas for graffiti artists.  Every summer the wall is painted by women graffiti artists from around the world as part of the B-Girl Be summit, and the back of the building offers a space for local graffiti artists to paint. 2282 Lyndale Ave. S., Mpls., 612-871-4444 [top]