Minnesota Shortlist is your weekly curated roundup of recommended arts events from MPR News, highlighting standout theater and music performances, exhibits and gatherings around the region.
Arboretum Glass Pumpkin Patch
Sept. 12–14 — With the leaves changing and the weather inching down from toasty summer temperatures, it can only mean one thing: a surplus of pumpkins. At the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum’s Snyder Building and Morgan Terrace, they are indulging the autumn aesthetic with the fifth annual Arboretum Glass Pumpkin Patch.
Over 6,000 handmade glass pumpkins and garden art will be displayed and sold over the course of the weekend. With artists around the country exhibiting work, there is a variety of artworks ranging from quirky designs and shapes to elegant and classic.
It all takes place within the grounds of the Arboretum’s seasonal fall gardens. (Anika Besst)
‘Art Heals’ by the Rojo Collective
Sept. 13 — The Rojo Collective hosts “Art Heals,” a free family-friendly public healing event “turning grief into action through art, performance and community connection” at the Webber Camden Library in north Minneapolis.
Cara Deanes, executive director of the nonprofit that services artists of color in the Twin Cities, invites “the Annunciation school community, their church community, the South Side Community, to come and join and be with us.”
The event will include collaborative mural-making, kid’s art stations, the Mudluk Pottery truck, live performances and certified therapists onsite to help families and children navigate grief and trauma.
Deanes says the “Art Heals” program was born in the immediate aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, when the Rojo Collective set up art stations to help the community process.
“We really found that from that movement that art is such a tool for healing,” Deanes says. “There's no red or blue lines, there's just paint, and there's space, and we have gone in since that time to spaces that have experienced tragedy and community tragedies all across the Twin Cities.” (Alex V. Cipolle)
Ancia Saxophone Quartet
Sept. 13 — Minneapolis-based saxophone quartet Ancia brings their dynamic and innovative sound to Grand Marais.
Known for their talent and dedicated artistry, this quartet has performed internationally for over 30 years, earning a reputation for boundary-breaking interpretations that continually captivate audiences. Their performances showcase musical mastery while fostering a genuine sense of community through their down-to-earth, emotionally resonant stage presence.
They blend centuries of music from different genres to form a can't-miss live performance. (Anika Besst)
Selby Ave. Jazz Fest
Sept. 13–15 — The 24th Annual Selby Ave. JazzFest starts Friday at the Walker West Music Academy with a masterclass about jazz, the way it's changing and how to shape sound for the future.
Join Grammy-winners Kris Johnson and Qmillion Riddim, along with the boundary-pushing ensemble Room3Jazz, for a three-hour class exploring how jazz is evolving through genre-blending influences. The class will also give musicians tips on how to deliver that sound through live performance, arranging, production, sound design, and improvisation.
On Saturday, enjoy a full day of music, dance, and community — featuring kid-friendly activities and a flash mob open to all. There will also be a plethora of live performances with a lineup that includes Brooklyn native Cory Henry & The Funk Apostles and The Yuko Mabuchi Trio. There will also be performances from two Twin Cities–based groups: HEYARLO and Brio Brass.
The groovy weekend wraps up on Sunday with a masterclass from Henry. (Anika Besst)
‘Empty Nest’ at Bryant Lake Bowl Theatre
Through Sept. 21 — As college classes begin, many parents are experiencing “empty nest syndrome” for the first time. The new chapter in life for parents can be daunting, and for married theater artists Laura Zabel and Levi Weinhagen, it prompted them to write a show.
“Our daughter just started her second year of college,” Zabel said. “The timing is kind of a funny coincidence that we've just dropped her off for year two, and are ready to process a little bit in public, I guess.”
Zabel and Weinhagen began developing their show "Empty Nest” after they dropped their only child off at college last year, pulling from a long history as performers — thet met at the Brave New Workshop.
“Empty Nest” features sketches and stories about transitions in life, and was created over many long walks and conversations between Zabel and Weinhagen.
“I’m not nervous in the way that I am sometimes about other performances,” Zabel said. “I just know we can kind of get through any hiccup or mishap that might happen on stage, because we've obviously gotten through a lot worse in real life.” (Jacob Aloi)
‘Only Ugly Guys’ at the Gremlin Theater
Through Sept. 27 — For playwright Kurt Engh, most plays about gay life are too often focused on coming out, hate crimes or the AIDS epidemic. In his play “Only Ugly Guys,” Engh explores the other parts of being gay — the intimate, social and sometimes messy aspects.
“This play advances the lineage of queer storytelling by complicating characters, relationships and situations that are typically looked at through rose-colored glasses,” Engh said in a press release.
First premiering in 2024, “Only Ugly Guys” has gone through rewrites this past year. The show is framed as a romantic comedy, and follows four gay men as they navigate the modern age of social media and noncommitment. (Jacob Aloi)
Fall art exhibitions around Minneapolis
Ongoing — Many interesting art exhibitions have kicked off the season in Minneapolis.
The Minneapolis College for Art and Design has “Peter Williams: Homegoing–A Call and Response” through Nov. 1, which is dedicated to Williams, an alumnus and renowned painter who died in 2021. The show features “Williams’ iconic paintings alongside those of fellow Black creatives, serving as a moment of remembrance and connection.” Participating artists include Ta-coumba T. Aiken, Maiya Lea Hartman, Lamar Peterson, Seitu Ken Jones and Leslie Barlow.
Meanwhile, the David Peterson Gallery in south Minneapolis opened this week “Sound Forest,” a solo exhibition by local artist-composer-activist-educator and all-around polymath Douglas R. Ewart. The show will feature a collection of sculptures and instruments, including “sticks, dream chimes, lightning rods and crepuscular instruments.”
(In other Ewart news, the Minneapolis adopted a resolution this week to make Sept. 13, 2025, Douglas R. Ewart Day.")
And the Bockley Gallery opened “P/RESERVE: Audie Murray & Nico Williams,” which includes beaded sculptures and multimedia installations. “The exhibition centers how beads’ ceremonial, utilitarian and social functions are activated and extended, disrupting colonial notions of care to amplify sovereign expressions of p/reservation today,” the Bockley Gallery says. (Alex V. Cipolle)
Rimer Cardillo: Deep Ecology at Plains Art Museum
Through Feb. 8 — Since the 1960s, the famed Uruguayan-American artist Rimer Cardillo has been using his craft — printmaking, mixed media and large-scale installations employing clay and wood — to talk about climate change and the impacts of human activity on the planet.
The Plains Art Museum in Fargo now presents “Deep Ecology” through Feb. 8, a solo exhibition of Cardillo’s work. The museum is working in partnership with Minnesota art outfits the Rourke Art Gallery and Museum in Moorhead, Nemeth Art Center in Park Rapids and Art Project 605 in Detroit Lakes, which will also exhibit artworks by Cardillo. (Alex V. Cipolle)
