Featured Stories

Elizabeth Armstrong - Photo courtesy MIA

New Art Meets Old Masters: A Conversation with MIA curator Elizabeth Armstrong

Jon Spayde Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Minneapolis Institute of Arts' first-ever curator of contemporary art talks about how she uses new art to illuminate old art (and vice-versa) in the MIA--and her plans for new forms of community involvement with the museum.

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership

Phillips, Downtown

Jacie Knight (center) and members of YPC

Youth Performance Company: The Twin Cities' Serious-Minded Starmaker

Julie Kendrick Wednesday, September 18, 2013

What do Black Hawk Down star Josh Hartnett, Tony award nominee Laura Osnes, and Comedy Central writers Charlie Sanders and Colton Dunn have in common? They all once belonged to this stellar Minneapolis youth theater company.

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, diversity, Entrepreneurship, Philanthropy, Talent Dividend

University

Blue Flag Iris by Shelley Bowman and Marsh Marigold by Gerry Herriges

In a Multi-Year Project, Our Native Flowers Sit for Their Portraits

Meleah Maynard Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy, Design, Green Jobs, Life Sciences, Sustainability

North Side

The New Thrift Store: from Old and Dusty to Green and Creative

Anna Pratt Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Three shops that are helping to redefine thrift shopping--turning it into an environmentally conscious, art-and-design focused way of celebrating and honoring the past while meeting today's economic challenges.

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Design, Strong Local Economy

Turning Trash into Treasure, Creative Reuse Movement Boosts Urban Economies

Lee Chilcote Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Across America, creative reuse organizations are popping up to "upcycle" and sell stuff that would otherwise end up in a landfill. Artisans and artists are, in turn, turning this would-be detritus into artworks and products.

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy, Design, Entrepreneurship, Green Jobs, Reuse / Rebuild, Strong Local Economy, Sustainability

Summit Hill and Crocus Hill

Creative Placemaking: Reframing How We See Cities

Sheena Lyonnais Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Design, Entrepreneurship, Reuse / Rebuild, Strong Local Economy

West Seventh

Art and Business Connect at a "Pop-Up Think Tank"

Jon Spayde Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, diversity, Entrepreneurship, Philanthropy

Downtown

Ivey Awards Founder Scott Mayer: Let's Make the Most of Our Theater Power

Jon Spayde Wednesday, July 24, 2013

In a Q and A with The Line, marketer and theater maven Mayer asks: with nearly eighty professional theater companies in town, why don't we do more to promote theater as an attraction that sets the Twin Cities apart?

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Strong Local Economy

Croissants from (clockwise from left) Patisserie 46, Rustica, Trung Nam, and Chez Arnaud

The Line's Great Twin Cities Croissant Taste-Off

Jon Spayde Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Croissant-loving editor compares four of the finest products of local artisanship.

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy, Shopping

Southwest, Uptown/Lyn Lake, Summit Hill and Crocus Hill, Thomas - Dale/Frogtown

The Twin Cities' Openness Problem

Jay Walljasper Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, diversity, Strong Local Economy

2013 Cat Video Festival to welcome celebricats

Jon Spayde Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy, Nightlife

Midway, Downtown

Secret City: A Slide Show

Bill Kelley Wednesday, June 26, 2013

On Saturday night, lensman Bill Kelley braved the threat of another downpour to take some lively shots of Secret City, Minneapolis' answer to the Northern Spark alfresco arts festival, which was based solely in St Paul this year. Check out his images of Aztec dance, djs, fire performance, sound art, and a huge inflatable civic mood ring called MIMMI.

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Design, Nightlife

Downtown

A New York Street Happening--photo by Ethan Kent

The Top Five Tips for Creating Great Urban Places

Project for Public Spaces Wednesday, June 19, 2013

"If urban planning is musical composition, then placemaking is improvisational street performance." Five tested tips for doing the much-talked-about, rarely defined, improvisational, street-level, people-oriented form of urban design that's rapidly replacing the old top-down paradigm in the Twin Cities and across the country.

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Design

The Board onstage. From left, Molly Chase, Nels Lennes, Jill Bernard, and Butch Roy

Minnesota's funniest nonprofit board

Julie Kendrick Wednesday, June 12, 2013

If you're on the board of directors of HUGE Theater in Minneapolis, you have to improvise. That is, you have to actually go onstage and do improv in a three-evening run that is also an official series of board meetings.

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Entrepreneurship

Uptown/Lyn Lake

A Line or Two: A Nighttime Labyrinth, a Pop-Up Festival

Jon Spayde Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Your editor helps run a meditative labyrinth-walking project amid the cheerful madness of the Northern Spark one-night, all-night arts festival--and points out another cool artfest that's ongoing.

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Design, Nightlife

Downtown/Lowertown

Creative Economy : Featured Stories