Musing on Minneapolis’ Minnehaha Falls, Andy Sturdevant notes a 1983 visit by Jorge Luis Borges, who wrote that the “wry mythology” of our state’s lumber camps “includes remarkable creatures—creatures that no one, surely, has ever believed in.”

After hitting an all-time low in 2009, the vitality of the arts industry, as measured by the newest National Arts Index, is rebounding. While funding remains a concern, “half of the 83 indicators used to tabulate the Index score increased” in the latest reporting period.

“If you are an American,” wrote Kurt Vonnegut in a 1973 letter to a school board head who directed that copies of Slaughterhouse-Five be burned for containing “obscene language,” “you must allow all ideas to circulate freely in your community, not merely your own.”

Award-winning poet and vocal social justice advocate Adrienne Rich has died at age 82. In declining a National Medal of Arts in ‘97, she said, “Art means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of the power which holds it hostage.”

Philanthropist and former Star Tribune publisher John Cowles Jr. passed away Saturday at age 82. Known for bringing Tyrone Guthrie to Minneapolis, his generosity, with his wife Sage, helped create the Walker’s Cowles Conservatory.