AFTER I READ THE FINAL WORD (“HOME”) OF THE DANCE BOOTS, Linda LeGarde Grover’s new collection of stories, I turned back to the first words (“We Ojibwe believe”) and began again. I wanted to extend my stay in the world the book creates. It’s a compelling place of tradition, generosity, endurance, painful memories and events, spiritual transcendence, love and humor. LeGarde Grover won the prestigious Flannery O…

BURIED IN SOME BIT OF EPHEMERA ABOUT HOW A MAN SHOULD BEHAVE as he ages from his twenties to his forties, Esquiremagazine recently announced that “jazz has been dead for decades.” Actually, that claim has been around almost as long as jazz itself has been, and while it is ridiculous, it also raises some uncomfortable questions. Chief among them: If jazz is vibrant and healthy, why have the Walker and…

GAEL TOWEY AND STEPHEN DOYLE KNOW COLLABORATION INTIMATELY —  as creative designers working together on projects like the hugely successful rollout of the Martha Stewart Everyday collection and also as a married couple raising two children in New York City. Towey, chief creative and editorial officer of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and Doyle, a much-lauded independent designer and principal at…

WHEN ARTISTS DREAM OF SUCCESS, they probably dream of showing at the Walker, the Met, the Tate, Musée National d’Art Moderne — not the java joint down the street. But on the road to the big-time, those little coffeehouse shows can prove to be important stops along the way, providing a safe platform for artists to practice the tricks of their trade: how to produce enough work for a show, create a cohesive…

DOUGLAS R. EWART IS A MAN OF MANY GIFTS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS: improviser, composer, performer, visual artist, sculptor, mask maker, instrument builder, teacher, lecturer, arts organization consultant, founder and leader of numerous musical groups, past chair of the important and influential Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), winner of Bush Fellowships, McKnight Awards, a US/Japan…

“YOU DON’T SEE THIS KIND OF THING, THE FILM SEES IT,” is how photographer Christian Korab describes his new work in the exhibition Perceptual Opponents: Father and Son, currently on view at the Mpls Photo Center. And isn’t that, in part, what photography is about? The capturing of a moment, in a single frame, using the speed and technology of the photographic lens to crack the world open, revealing an…

INTHE ART OF CONFLICT, AT TARNISH AND GOLD GALLERY in Northeast Minneapolis, Iraqi and American artists show their work together in a fascinating show dealing with the conflict in Iraq. Utilizing the talents of artists who represent a broad range of wartime experiences — including those of the Iraqi citizens whose home country has been occupied, American veterans who served in the Iraq war, and peace…

IT HAS BEEN DIFFICULT FOR ME TO THINK ABOUT YOU AND YOURS, independent curator Patricia Briggs’ interesting family-themed show for the Tweed Museum of Art in Duluth. I suspect this has something to do with how hard it is to confront the issues that the exhibition raises. I finally called the curator on the phone — a conversation that had been often postponed because of crises, first in her family and…

THERE ISN’T REALLY A UNIT OF TIME MEASUREMENT  that aptly captures the duration of what we might call, for lack of a more elegant phrase, an “art scene.” Art spaces, art magazines, art bands, art websites, art collectives, art what-have-you — they tend to have a natural lifespan of anywhere from four to seven years, folding when there’s no more time, energy, or money left to sustain them. People get older, get…