In a poetic dispatch from Minneapolis’ David Petersen Gallery, Jay Orff heads to City of Seals to experience the work of Kristopher Benedict and Fabienne Lasserre.

We end the first year of our monthly literary podcast You Are Hear as we began it, with new stories by Britt Aamodt and host Brian Beatty.

Tweaking the usual year-end list, Nathaniel Smith assesses the state of the arts in Minnesota, from pop-up galleries, art and craft fairs, and the financial domination of the MCAD Art Sale in the Twin Cities scene.

Lightsey Darst did the Deborah Hay “three-peat” last week, taking in all three performances in the Walker’s mini-festival of the contemporary dance explorer.

Jeremy Walker weighs in on the MN Orchestra and SPCO lockouts: the hotly contested issues of pay for professional musicians, spendy capital campaigns, and what we all stand to lose if the concert halls stay silent much longer.

A look at recent dance work presented outside its usual context—including in a private living room alongside performances of poetry, music and informal audience participation.

Lightsey Darst reviews the week in Twin Cities dance with a look at TU Dance’s fall concert, Choreographers’ Evening’s 40th anniversary, and Zenon’s 30th anniversary season.

Stephen Tapscott gives a close reading of bold new photographic work by Tucker Hollingsworth, situating it in the context of Modernist “self-consciousness” about creative process, technique, and materials.

Sitting in on a TU Dance rehearsal, Lightsey Darst gets a fly-on-the-wall view as the dancers and choreographer Uri Sands prepare for the company’s fall concert at the O’Shaughnessy.