Janel Jacobson, Dragon Fly ~ Lotus Pod

People who make art don’t get salaries. Very few people, relatively speaking, buy much art. Yet as a community, we want painters to keep on painting, writers to keep on writing, dancers to keep on dancing, film makers to keep on making films, and sculptors to keep on forming objects out of clay and wood and metal.

Thankfully, for 32 years, the Bush Foundation has been selecting up to 15 artists annually from Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota to receive a chunk of money that enables them to continue their work instead of spending all day saying, “You want fries with that?”  read more »

Last year I was surprised by the news that a gallery of African art was to open in Richfield, a suburb in which “Black or African American persons” total only 6.6 percent of the population. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau: State and County QuickFacts)

I visited the new Ampah Gallery, and though I had planned to look around for 20 minutes, I ended up hanging out for hours. The owners, Felix Ampah and his wife Silvia, handed me hot cider and showed me around. I was family.

The owner-curators explained the symbolism in Felix’s work, most of which depicts the people and traditions of his native Ghana. I stayed for a class that Felix taught for the community called “Living with Art.” More chat, more cider, and the photo above, which is exactly how I will remember Felix, who died on February 26, 2008.  read more »

People often ask me for suggestions as to party venues. Not that I host many parties…but I’m pretty good at finding them! And some of my very favorite soirées tend to happen at spaces normally dedicated to the arts, including museums, art and photography galleries, theaters, sculpture gardens, pottery studios, college art department classrooms, and places like The Loft Literary Center, where you can rent space for so little, you might feel like donating extra.

Topping my list for the year so far is Karl Reichert’s birthday party Saturday night at the Capri Theater in North Minnepolis. Transformed into Studio 44 by Karl’s partner Reynaldo Diaz, an artist and DJ, and friend Edgar Nieto, the place thundered with ’70s music and shimmered with disco balls and sequin-attired dancers.  read more »

On this day in February 2005, New York City was aruffle over Mayor Bloomberg’s pet project: a piece of public art called The Gates by the artist known as Christo and his lady love, Jeanne-Claude.

I’d heard about it and had seen it in the news, but I had no idea how much controversy it had caused. Tonight I got the inside scoop at a sneak preview of the HBO documentary The Gates at St. Paul’s Minnesota Museum of American Art.

Christo is known for wrapping public buildings in fabric or in plastic—not always to the most glamorous effect, and for reasons that not even he can explain. “Do you ask a mother why she loves her baby?” says Jeanne-Claude.  read more »

Wow, I made it seven weeks on KTLK! But as of last Saturday, th-th-th-that’s all, folks. At least for now. Clear Channel’s budgetary axe has swung and I was a part of the log they just couldn’t send sap through any more. (I must admit, I’m expensive…but I’m worth it. Single, well-to-do 40-something men, take note.)

Program director Doug Westerman couldn’t have been kinder about giving me the news. Clearly as pained to say goodbye to me as I was to him, he said he thought the show was going well, but that he had no choice because “ANNE’S SHOW” stuck out like a leafy limb on a wintery tree when CC account-o-bots went scanning the books. In fact, he’s writing me a letter to the effect that we “did radio right” on Night & Day, for which I’m thankful.

Look for me to spring up again soon, either online or on the air, if I can find a new radio home. We have not yet begun to scratch the surface of the Twin Cities art scene.

I may simply blog-it for a bit while I figure out the next iteration of the show, so don’t be surprised to hear from me. And I’ll keep the website up to date with fun events for you to attend.

Thank you for listening, and if you haven’t already…start SEEing art!

Because I’m going to DIVA NOIR after the show, I am putting a few of today’s topics online now in case you want to find them right away. (More later in FIND IT.) Today I’ll be talking with artists Scott Seekins and Aldo Moroni about the life and legacy of photographer and “Warehouse District Mayor” Gus Gustafson, who died in 2003. In the second hour of the program, I’ll talk with Maggie Bearman Pistner, director of the play A Piece of My Heart about women’s experience in Vietnam. See the play now through March 18 at the Playwrights’ Center (presented by Theatre Unbound).