Today was a very rare treat for the adults in this household. For four blissful hours this afternoon, my husband and I cavorted around town, sans child. It's one thing to go out at night, but it's another to experience a holiday afternoon together in a way that you might have before the child arrived. So here's what two urban exploring geeks do when they have a free afternoon...
We began our "holiday" with lunch at the recently
City Pages reviewed Mexican joint, Tacqueria Los Ocampo on Lake and Chicago. I could go back for dinner right now--it really was that good. Then we took surface streets, traveling through South Minneapolis neighborhoods, to get to the
Museum of Russian Art on 55th and Stevens. What a gorgeous building--an old church, then a funeral home, now a stunning gallery. Interesting exhibits--Russian Impressionism and Ukrainian printmaking--both radically different artforms, but both suffering under Soviet censorship and dictates of what constituted art. We tried to check out
Twin Cities Green in Uptown, but they were closed. So we took Franklin Avenue all the way back to Prospect Park (with me pointing out the places that we need to eat at next--
Maria's Cafe,
True Thai, and the
Franklin Street Bakery) where we stopped in at Cupcake for a latte and the obvious cupcake. As always, delish.
Realizing that the clock was ticking on our allotted child care, we hurried to St. Anthony Park to pop into
Micawber's Books. What a lovely place to while away time during a snowy afternoon. We indulged and bought
Kevin Kling's new book "The Dog Says How" along with a ridiculously marked down copy of Alex Kotlowitz's
"Never a City So Real: A Walk in Chicago." Kotlowitz's book is part of the
Crown Journeys series--where they pair good writers with interesting places. And we had to pick up the latest issue of National Geographic since we needed to read the
North Dakota article ourselves and see if all of the
brouhaha was deserved. IMHO, NoDak should be happy for the publicity--I know that the adults in this household will now add touring the rural remnants of our western neighbors to our great Western road trip of the future.
Minneapolis and St. Paul are really great places if you are an artist. There's great foundation support out there (McKnight and Jerome in particular) and plenty of affordable studio space. There are also lots of opportunities to find places where you can live affordably and while also having studio space to do your art. In my neck of the woods, the Carleton Place Lofts on University Avenue near Raymond, are home to a couple hundred units where artists can live and work. I was also thrilled to discover a couple of years back that Artspace, a non-profit real estate development organization with projects all over the country, was a Minneapolis creation. Artspace creates affordable live/work units for artists, usually by reusing older buildings that once served some other function. They've got lots of properties here in the Cities, from the Grain Belt Studios in Minneapolis to the Northern Warehouse Artist Cooperative in St. Paul. It's great to live in a place that shows its support for the arts in such fundamental, but often overlooked, ways.
Of course everyone knows about the Weisman---the gleaming, Frank Gehry art museum on the east river bank of the University of Minnesota campus. But did you know that the St. Paul campus houses the Goldstein Museum of Design? It's tucked into the second floor of McNeil Hall--one of the campus classroom buildings--and has permanent collections as well as temporary exhibitions. The newest exhibit, opening this Friday, showcases the work of Russel Wright whose work really encapsulates the mid-century modernism housewares aesthetic. Read Star Tribune coverage of the exhibit here.
I thought I'd use today's post to introduce people to a wonderful little neighborhood performing arts theater here in Midway. dreamland arts, on Hamline Avenue, just south of Minnehaha, opened in 2006. In addition to its 40-seat theater, Dreamland also offers classes, workshops and performances in theater, music, puppetry, dance and more. What I really love is the commitment of the owners to bringing arts to the community and that their house is physically connected to the studio theater. So next time you're in the neighborhood and in the mood for supporting some local artists, checkout dreamland arts.
Today was a very rare treat for the adults in this household. For four blissful hours this afternoon, my husband and I cavorted around town, sans child. It's one thing to go out at night, but it's another to experience a holiday afternoon together in a way that you might have before the child arrived. So here's what two urban exploring geeks do when they have a free afternoon...
The Loft Literary Center, located on Washington Avenue as you approach downtown Minneapolis, is an aspiring writers dream. You can choose from any manner of classes (travel writing, poetry, memoir, essays, fiction, etc) and tuition is on a sliding scale. When you're suffering from lack of inspiration or have a home that is a less than desirable place to write, you can join the Loft and pay a nominal fee to use their "writer's studios." It seems so decadent yet so smart! The renovated brick buildings that house the Loft are themselves inspiring with their palpable sense of history and grand windows showcasing the city life outside.
Images: Top, from Homeandabroad.com.
Thanks to the Rake's 10,000 Arts magazine, I've become acquainted with Gladys Beltran's artwork. She paints these wonderful cityscapes of Minneapolis and St. Paul. With their skewed perspective, they've got an almost childlike quality to them--but when you look at the composition as a whole, with its details and orientation, it's clear that this is the work of a talented artist.
All images: Gladys Beltran, view them at mnartists.org
