Minneapolis' Neighborhood Arts Programs Are a Joy to Behold«MDNM»
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Mention Minneapolis to people around the country and they will probably think, "Oh, right, the arts city."
«IP8,0»After all, Minneapolis is home to a dozen world-class arts groups -- the Guthrie Theatre, Walker Art Center, Minnesota Orchestra, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota Dance Theatre, and the ongoing creative writers workshop at The Loft.
Besides the "Top 10" arts organization, Minneapolis is also host to dozens of other theaters, galleries, broadcast and writers workshops, music, dance, and composing groups.
But there's still another side to Minneapolis that only those who live here ever see -- its park and neighborhood arts programs, the liveliest and most complete of any city its size in the U.S.
Minneapolis parks have long offered summer and year-round arts events, and this summer they are offering their biggest schedule yet. Programs include concerts at the beautiful new Lake Harriet Pavilion and the Nicollet Island Concert Amphitheatre, and both dramatic and dance performances by a host of entertainers, from pop to polka to pizzicatto and back again.
A short list of Lake Harriet musical events includes concerts by the St. Paul Jewish Community Center Orchestra, Minneapolis Pops Orchestra, Minneaposlis Coomodores Barbershop Chorus, the Goodtime Gospel Quartet, Kenwood Chamber Orchestra, Deep North Dixieland Band, jazz pianist Ben Sidran, and rock groups Touched and Shangoya.
Nicollet Island also offers a potpourri of concert entertainment, including the Latin Jazz Combo, Salmagundi, Xenon Dance Company, Night Life, members of the West Bank School of Music, Rendered Useless, the Minnesota Saxophone Quartet, and Tom Bright and the Gas Giants.
Altogether, concerts are scheduled for almost every single night of the summer at both Lake Harriet and Nicollet Island -- all free, all readily accessible to the handicapped, with something appealing for all ages and groups.
Theatrical productions will be presented at park locations throughout the city -- Loring Park, Harriet Garden Area, Riverside Park, Kenwood Park, Powderhorn Park, Minnehaha Falls, Lake Nokomis, and Nicollet Island Concert Amphitheatre.
The Comedy Troupe, a group of Renaissance revelers, will present two revues, "Off the Wall and Into the Frying Pan," and "Pantalone Strikes Back."
The Minnesota Shakespeare Company will present two lively favorites, "Two Gentlemen of Verona" and "The Winter's Tale."
Still more Shakespeare will be in the parks when Luminous Theater mounts the misbegotten adventure "Love's Labours Lost."
And the Commedia Theater will be presenting three plays -- "Isabella's Strategem," an original commedia dell'arte composition, plus "A Servant of two Masters" and Chekhov's energetic comedy "The Marriage Proposal."
Nor will lovers of the dance be sitting idly summer nights. Five dance groups will be appearing at the Nicollet Island Concert Amphitheater, including Zenon Dance Compnay, Ballet of the Dolls, Minnesota Dance Alliance and Walker Art Center, and Maxine Hughes and 1st Step Studio.
For more information on summer parks arts events, call the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board at 348-2226.
The counterpart to cobcerts and theater in the parks is the city's unique neighborhood arts program. Arts in the neighborhood is an idea new to some people, but it is a tradition in Minneapolis.
The guiding principle is that everyone can get involved. There are no tuxedos worn at opening night, and no pearls, but lots of handshakes and grins.
Neighborhood arts programs are just neighbors getting together through plays and readings and concerts and graphic arts events to appreciate or to learn arts and crafts skills, and to celebrate their ethnicity, their diversity, their young, their old -- themselves.
Whatever the medium, neighborhood arts events are a great way to see what's going on where you live, and a super way to make friends and meet new people.
Programs conducted in recents months have been diverse and many. A brief list:
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* At the Glendale Child Development Center, over 100 kids, artists and teachers collaborated in the creation of a natural driftwood wall relief, and a remarkable water-course and splash pool.
* Seniors get into the act in Cedar/Riverside, where a weekly drama workshop meets to teach performing skills and to plumb people's lives and memories for stories and ideas.
* A very special Minneapolis arts resource are its Hmong arts and crafts. One new project is a Hmong folk dance class for young girls. These dances are not only exquisitely beautiful but help maintain an important tradition for future generations.
* Five Wirth Park ethnic events are scheduled for the year, a Carribean Carnival, Martin Luther King Celebration, American Indian Pow Wow, Eastern European festival and Latin Fiesta.
* In the Seward neighborhood, young people put on an entire rock opera. The performance was so successful that the group is staying together for future productions.
* Radio even comes into the picture, with a series of eight half-hour programs titled "The Cloud Family Collection," a series for children about Ojibwe and Dakota American Indian life. The plays will also we performed live and be available on audio cassette.
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«IP8,0»These neighborhood arts events, many stressing the diversity of the city and its people, just can't be found in outlying communities. They underscore one of Minneapolis' greatest attractions -- the opportunity to witness and appreciate the works and traditions of people from many backgrounds, ages and interests.
Often the teachers and artists conducting neighborhood projects are themselves professionals with wide experience throughout the region and even nationally. George Muschamp, director of the "Cloud Family Collection" radio plays, has long been associated with the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Susan Delattre, conductor of the West Bank drama project for seniors, has been active in dance and drama and arts education for many years.
Neighborhood arts programs enjoyed a big boost this year with the commitment from the Honeywell Foundation of $5,000 in funds, for a total of $20,000 for neighborhood arts projects alone.
For a complete listing of upcoming Minneapolis's neighborhood arts events, write the Minneapolis Arts Commission at 202 City Hall, Minneapolis, MN 55415, or call 612/348-5486.
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«MDBU»OUR HOMES
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OUR HISTORY:
The Evolution of Minneapolis Living «MDNM»
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There's one obvious difference between living in a city like Minneapolis and in the suburbs. The difference is time. Minneapolis' homes reflect almost a dozen different "moments in time" -- historic building eras. Each moment has its own style, and all add up to a remarkable diversity of sizes, shapes, contours and personalities. To Minneapolis living.
«IP8,0»In the earliest days, of course, there was only the Mississippi River, and the first homes along the river, at St. Anthony Falls and Bridge Square, borrowed from it. The limestone porticoes and foundations one sees in the Nicollet Island and Near Northeast side along St. Anthony Falls have a ruddy pioneer spirit about them even today.
As the city grew, houses large and small sprung up along its waterways. the Stevens house in Minnehaha Park is an appealing cottage from that era. The Civil War-era Morrison home in Fair Oaks Park is a mansion by contrast. The look is intricate, mixing native stone with gingerbread trim and vaulting ceilings.
The city began as a river city. Today, as restoration along the riverside, and the construction of the Great River Road and Mills Ruins Park, nears completion, that identity is still visible.
By the 1870s, streets and thoroughfares were crisscrossing the rea, carving out neighborhoods. The city's downtown began to take shape, first on the north side of St. Anthony Falls, and later on the south side. Residential neighborhoods proliferated for every ethnic group and income level.
Two bedroom frame and brick houses dotted the neighborhoods closest to the river. They were efficient, economical, and affordable for nearly everyone. A Germanic sloping style came to characterize homes in the Northeast oart of town. A simpler, Scandinavian ornamentation was the common style on the city's South side.
In the 1880s, Minneapolis became a streetcar city, and all the newer neighborhoods were built along the main streetcar routes -- Lake Street, University Avenue, Broadway, Hennepin. Streetcar lines "created" the Wedge neighorhood, and the Whittier, Lowry Hill and Washburne-Fair Oaks areas.
Early streetcar routes are still the main traffic routes in the city today -- once extended in fact, they enabled the first settlments in what were to become the Minneapolis suburbs. If you look about, you will see Minneapolis is still a streetcar city. Listen closely and you might hear the clang of the bell.
With the 1920s and Henry Ford came the era of the automobile. When well-to-do people could live far from streetcar routes, new parts of the city were opened for development -- Willard-Homewood on the north side, most of the south side below 38th Street, and up the hill in Northeast.
These homes were the prosperous, two- and three-bedroom stucco residences that we first think of when think of Minneapolis homes. Improved construction and a practical philosophy of "more space is better" were their hallmarks, along with full basements, oil furnaces, and indoor plumbing.
Nationally prominent architects arrived in the Twin Cities to build homes and other buildings. Frank Lloyd Wright's Willey House in Prospect Park was perhaps the best example of these, combining grace and a modern, linear appeal in this already stylish neighborhood.
At this time, too, areas close to the downtown were rebuilt, with an eye toward multiple residence -- Loring Park, Stevens Square and Elliott Park. These were Minneapolis' first apartment neighborhoods -- which later were to become Minneapolis' first condominiums. They are distinctly cosmopolitan, with a uniquely midwestern flavor.
As the modern era of Minneapolis dawned, builders and planners busied themselves clearing away the old and deteriorated and installing new bungalows, Cape Cods, and ranch homes up and down the outlying boulevards. This was the pre-war and immediately post-war period, and the neighborhoods bearing its stamp include the city south of Minneahaha Creek, the northeast corner around Waite Park, Keewaydin, Linden Hills, and the Shingle Creek Area in the northeast corner of the city.
Minneapolis was filled in, finally -- but the story continued. Challenged by its suburban neighbors, the city began a renewal effort in the 1960s through the 1970s that is unmatched anywhere.
Some neighborhoods were cut off by freeway construction, but on the whole the city was united as never before. High rise condominiums rose downtown and on the outskirts of downtown, on the West Bank and along Interstates 35W and 94. The "2-1/2 story walkup" style replaced homes in many older neighborhoods. An international style of architecture flowered, sleek and powerful, as descriptive of its time as the river and streetcar homes were of theirs.
Minneapolis, the city of history, marches on. But it takes its history with it. No matter what your tastes in housing, from the 19th to the 21st Century, you can find what you are looking for in Minneapolis.
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«MDUL»Minneapolis's Little Shops Off
Main Street Are a Trove of Suprises«MDNM»
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Sometimes you don't feel like going to the mall, or the big discount stores, or downtown, but you still feel like shopping. In the suburbs you'd be out of luck. But in Minneapolis, fascinating shopping is often just around the corner.
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Hop in the car, and see for yourself.
Before you get to Calhoun Square and the fashionable Uptowan district, hang a left down Lyndale. There's the Kitty Klinic, a cats-only hospital at 34th and Lyndale. (Minneapolis has all kinds of hospitals -- check out the Golf Club Hospital at Bryant and 42nd Street next your mashie looks a bit peaked.)
One of the best little neighborhood shopping zones is at 36th and Bryant. There, occupying all four corners, is the perfect collection of shops and stores. Roy's Superette, Young's Flowers, My Lam Indochinese deli, Joel's Hair Design, Our Kitchen, Russetti's Grocery, Bryant Hardware and Brotherson's Meats.
If you lived near that corner, you might never need a car. Everything you would need is right there. You even get your choice of cuisine and hair styles!
Further down Bryant is Shahidi's Oriental Rugs, right next door to Keljirk's Oriental Rugs. A kind of magic carpet zone right in South Minneapolis. At 50th and 38th, we see the Raven Gallery, where Eskimo and Indian artworks can be bought.
Hang a right at 50th Street and head west. There's the Paperback Exchange, where you can turn in your old mysteries for new ones. There's the Nulook Apparel, specializing in maternity-wear consignments and kids' apparel. And there's Coastal Seafoods, featuring fresh seafood flown in daily from the coasts -- specialty today is soft-shell crab.
But the great Minneapolis shopping intersection [is at Upton and 43rd. People drive from all over the cities to browse at such specialty shops as Creative Kid Stuff, Grandbois Woodworks (with the Cabbage Patch grandparents sitting in the display window), Upton Alley ("Children's Consignment -- New and 'Bearly' Used"), The Sample Rack (women's fashions), Fresart ("Gifts by Design"), Swenson's Art Glass gallery, plus a yarnery, coffe and tea store, florist, dry cleaner, bakery, hardware, butcher shop and food coopy ("Soy Milk Special").
Southwest Minneapolis is a an extended treat for the neighborhood shopper. Curio shops Fjelde & Company Antiques and The Loft Antiques vie for your attention at 50th and Xerxes. Head north up York Avenue and you find Anita Beck's Reindeer House, a bright red handcrafts and gift shop, with an adjoining Reindeer Fountain for soda-parched shoppers. Nearby is Gold Finger Jewelry, and yet another gift shop, Wooden Horse, specializing in childcrafts.
Take a drive down Lake Street sometime (or Broadway, or Central). The old commercial boulevards still feature a potpourri of the old and new, the remarkable and the weird. Mixed in among the video outlets, pizza parlors, fast food and muffler shops are some shopping gems here, and some real curiosities.
Lake Street, for instance, is where you head for Scandinavian goodies, whether at Scandia Bakery (2713 E. Lake) or Ingebretsen's Scandinavian Center (at Lake and 16th), where people line up six deep for fresh meats and imported items.
There are also scores of curio and consignment shops on Lake Street, and places you just can find anywhere else, like Sunsight New Age (books and gifts), Little Tin Soldier (military games), Liquidation Center (you name it) and Tackle Plus (live bait). Truth is, almost everything goes on Lake Street -- there's even a shop called Almost Everything!
These shops are only a few of the shopping opportunities to be found in Minneapolis, and that's just the city's south side. On the north side, there are wonderful ethnic stores such as the Ukrainian Gift Shop at 2477 Central Avenue, and the Gingerbread House gift shop at 4089 Broadway.
Some stores are free-standing, like Smith's Diving on Central Avenue, catering to the skydiving trade. Others cluster together. In the Camden neighborhood shopping area, brightly painted with a mural of the neighborhood's lumbermill heritage, everything is named Camden. Camden Pharmacy, Camden Restaurant, Camden Shoe Shop, Camden Office Building -- even Camden Tae Kwan Do. The "I Love to Dance" Studio in the Camden plaza stands out like -- well, like a dancer in a lumberyard.
To be sure, Minneapolis has shops for every kind of shopping. There's the American Rug Laundry (when your rug needs cleaning), Awards of America (when you deserve a trophy), and Accent Promotions (when you just feel like flying the flag), all on East Lake Street. And less exotic things, too, such as shrubberies, Walkmans, duck vests, Gobots, chrome lamps, motorcycles and hot tubs.
There are corner shops for when you don't want to drive to a shopping center. And there are hundreds of shops just for looking, and wondering, and imagining.
And then, there are the "special" in-city neighborhoods, such as Dinkytown, Stadium Village, and the West Bank, all near the University. For shoppers high on IQ and low on dollars, there are wonderful bookstore and other bargains to be had.
In fact, shopping in Minneapolis is like living in Minneapolis. Everything is different, not cut from a single franchise cookie-cutter. And most stores are smaller, and get to know customers personally. It's another great reason to live here.
And we haven't even «MDUL»mentioned«MDNM» Riverplace, or St. Anthony Main, or Sears, or Minnehaha Mall, or Daytons, or Donaldsons, or ...
