Secrets of the City

City of Lakes Urbanism looks at some new art proposed for the extension of the lightrail line: The Central Corridor LRT project will allocate $2.8 million of its $914 million budget to station art at the 15 new stations originally planned (I am not sure what will happen with station art at the 16th station at Western Ave., which the city of St. Paul agreed to fund). At the October 12th meeting of the Met Council’s Transportation Committee, preliminary artwork designs were submitted for review.

Christy DeSmith looks at Target’s dominating influence on the development of commercial art in the Twin Cities: The company has historically eschewed agency-of-record relationships, and instead has spread its projects among multiple agencies and freelancers. Although the creatives at Fallon admire Target, they have never worked with the corporation in their 28-year history. In recent years, Target has retained a handful of the city’s best ad agencies and design firms—Peterson Milla Hooks and Little & Company are among the regulars—and has also given business (especially in-store graphics and product design) to many freelancers and small boutiques.

[via MPR NewsQ] The Walker Art Center announced today the Coen Brothers will return to their hometown for a retrospective to mark the 25th anniversary of their debut film “Blood Simple.” The Walker will show 13 Coen films: Blood Simple; Raising Arizona; Miller’s Crossing; Barton Fink; The Hudsucker Proxy; Fargo; The Big Lebowski; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; The Man Who Wasn’t There; The Ladykillers; Intolerable Cruelty; No Country for Old Men; and Burn After Reading. Joel and Ethan Coen will take part in a Regis Dialog on Friday September 25th. Tickets will cost $100.

Downtown Journal points out what looks to be quite an interesting collection of scupture on display at the IDS Center: Participants were given one hour to pick their raw materials from the Northern Metal Recycling facility and six weeks to create their original works. Materials included anything found on sight, such as stainless steel and brass. Artists chose their own methods of creation, which ranged from welding to cast iron pourings to metal weaving.

Paul Schmelzer links to an opinion piece by a student at St. Cloud State who who attended the Walker Art Center, didn’t really get it, and proceded to declare it “crazy” and say it “bogs my mind.” I offered a rather pointed response in the comments, and quite a lot of discussion followed on Twitter. Our own Erica sums of the column, some of the discussion, and offers her perspective. The crux of the discussion was: How informed do you have to be about art before you can offer a useful or worthwhile critique of it? And are all opinions equally valuable, or do they become more valuable with more information?

Random Cowboy located this interesting statue of Don Quixote located at 6626 Lyndale South, while The Deets visits a monument to the Hamms Beer Bear and asks if he doesn’t deserve better. What is your favorite piece of public scupture? Your least favorite?

No, it’s not anything written by Kurt Vonnegut. The performance is tonight (7/10), btw.

[via PiPress] Seven Mexican and Guatemalan men who were arrested and detained in a raid on a kosher slaughterhouse last year in Iowa are coming to Minneapolis to perform a play they wrote about the experience.

Our own Kate Iverson interview the Pink Hobo gallery’s Shad Petosky about the Gallery’s newest show, Data Art, which sounds fascinating: With roots in everything from genetics to interactive design, this trio of rogue creatives are part of a booming new movement that reaches beyond traditional mediums and melds technology and art.

City Pages locates these incredible (and very mildly NSFW) examples of topless female art (covered, somewhat, by tape) for sale on Craiglist. Really, words cannot do it justice.

From Minnpost: The CNO has just been awarded a $10,000 grant from the city of Minneapolis to come up with innovative approaches to graffiti prevention, and Gustafson plans to tap the artist community for its ideas. On Wednesday evening at Susan Hensel Gallery, he will lead an open forum  to ask his fellow Twin Citians for help brainstorming strategies that use public art forms to combat “noxious” graffiti.