Hidden Art

The week before Thanksgiving, before the mounds of icy snow hit us in Minneapolis, we were still adventure seekers in exploratory mode. We had picked up every free events paper in town and hungrily scoured the ads and columns in search of something interesting to discover. First stop on Saturday morning was the open studios/ craft show at Casket Arts in Northeast Minneapolis. Literally a former casket making factory building that had been transformed into artist studios. Back home, we were serious groupies of every neighborhood open studios weekend - from Gowanus to DUMBO - so naturally, we were excited to discover this NE Mpls art neighborhood. We took our little Geo Prism, Ruby at the wheel, to the undiscovered country.
We found ourselves among hundreds of hungry shoppers, wine and chocolates in hand, going in and out of studios admiring (or not quite admiring) the canvases, sculptures and 'art pieces' on display and for sale.
Next stop was the MCAD's (Mpls College of Art and Design) annual student art show - where everything was for sale - cheap! Money collected was going back to the school and most of the art was very reasonably priced.

All in all a good day for explorers and art seekers.
Of course, no day is complete without coffee. After our all of our traipsing, we needed a good, hot cup and a snack. And who doesn't after a day like that!!? Did Vasco de Gama sail off to Africa without his thermos full of hot buttered rum? I think not. We settled on one of our favorite spots: Barbette. (Shout out to Jessica!) Barbette is perhaps the taste-of-Paris of coffee scene. Except that the wait staff is superbly sweet and friendly and coffee doesn't cost $12 US. Their live music, awesome decor and generally lovely ambiance makes it a place we love to come back to. A great end to a fabulously colorful day!
Till next time!
-miya