August 22, 2002 - MPR’s Tim Pugmire reports on finishing touches as the Minnesota State Fair prepares to open. It includes a building remodel…and tighter security a year after the September 11th terrorist attacks.
August 26, 2002 - MPR’s Andrew Haeg reports on what’s behind being a vendor at the Minnesota State Fair. For vendors, the Fair is a huge business opportunity. Competition for a slot at the fair is intense, and the barriers to entry are high. But, given the chance, those who've set up shop at the fair say it's worth the trouble and the wait.
August 27, 2002 - A new book explores how Minnesota-born artist Wanda Gag transformed children's literature and illustrating in the 1920's. Gag's books "Millions of Cats" and "The A-B-C Bunny" both won Newbury Awards. She's known as the first children's book author to draw an illustration that covers two pages of a book. Julie L'Enfant is a professor at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul. Her book--entitled "The Gag Family: German-Bohemian Artists in America," looks at newly discovered works and documents. It explores how Wanda Gag's family and her life in New Ulm influenced her work. The patriarch of the family--Anton Gag--was a German-Bohemian immigrant who settled in New Ulm in 1879. He was an artist and one of the first photographers in the region. Julie L'Enfant says although Anton died of tuberculosis at a young age--he encouraged his seven children to live freely and to become artists...
August 27, 2002 - The Gag Family: German-Bohemian Artists in America explores how Minnesota-born artist Wanda Gag transformed children's literature and illustrating in the 1920's. Julie L'Enfant, professor at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, discusses her book with MPR’s Greta Cunningham.
September 2, 2002 - Mardi Oakley Medawar (MAR-dee OAK-lee MED-ah-war) is a Cherokee who lives in Wisconsin. She's written several historical novels and family sagas, and a series of mysteries set in 19th century Kiowa country. Now she's turned her attention to a book about contemporary Indian life in Wisconsin. She says most non-Indians have no conception of what life is like on a reservation today. Mardi Oakley Medawar talked with Mainstreet Radio's Stephanie Hemphill.
September 5, 2002 - When people are asked to name the great photographers of the 20th century, Ruth Bernhard's is unlikely to come up immediately. However she studied and worked with some of the greats: including Ansel Adams. Now 96 years old, Ruth Bernhards work encompasses seventy years of American photography. She is particularly recognized for her studies of the female figure. Ansel Adams called her the greatest photographer of the nude. Her work is now on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr reports.
September 10, 2002 - In the year since the terrorist attacks, thousands of copies of a book by a St. Paul author have made their way to the families of the September 11th victims. The book is called "The Next Place." It's a children's book about dealing with loss and grief. After 9/11, several people contacted author Warren Hanson because they wanted to share his book with people affected by the attacks. Eventually, some Minnesota schools got copies, and students wrote notes in the books before they were shipped to victims' families. Hanson says it all started with an e-mail he received on the morning of September 13th.
September 13, 2002 - Singer songwriter Cliff Eberhardt says if he had known being a folk singer was going to be just as much work as a normal job, he might have steered his life in a different direction. For more than three decades, Eberhardt has toured the country with original songs, recording at least six C-D's along the way. He's also performed and collaborated with fellow folk stars like Shawn Colvin, Lucy Kaplasky and Suzanne Vega. Eberhardt wrote and recorded his new C-D, "School for love," during a diffacult year of his life... his mother became ill and died and he was in a bad car accident that's left him with chronic pain. He says both experiences helped focus the C-D's songs on issues of loss, friendship, family, romance and love:
September 18, 2002 - A new opera, Loss of Eden, portrays one of life's greatest tragedy's, the loss of a child. However, not just any child. In l932 two year old Charles Lindbergh, Jr. was kidnapped and apparently murdered. It was called the crime of the century. Loss of Eden compares the emotions of Anne and Charles Lindbergh with those of convicted kidnapper and murderer Bruno Hauptman and his wife Anna. Vocalessence, formerly the Plymouth Music Series, is co-producing the work with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. The Minneapolis debut is Thursday and Saturday. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reports.
September 19, 2002 - Rocky Mountain peaks, roaring waterfalls, and New England sunsets will fill the walls of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts starting Sunday. The MIA is opening a new exhibit called "American Sublime: Epic Landscapes of Our Nation: 1820-1880." The exhibit features some of America's most influential landscape artists of the 19th century - artists such as Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, and Albert Bierstadt. Patrick Noon is the curator of paintings at the MIA. He says these paintings come from a time when America was finding its identity.