The Object

Free tickets are going fast for our next live taping of The Object podcast with special guest musician Jeremy Messersmith, quizzes, and storytelling—all about the art of love. February 7 at 2PM in the historic Pillsbury Auditorium at our home museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Art. A place to come together in love, beauty, and reflection. Get tickets and details at the Tickets page at Artsmia.org.

Now on with the show: Given the start to this year, we’re trying something—a series of bonus episodes called Fireside Stories. Slow down, get comfortable, and enjoy a short, reflective, AMSR-filled episode on the “gods of compassion,” the bodhisattvas who put others’ needs above their own, even if it means delaying their own nirvana.

There are quite a number of bodhisattvas on view right now at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in the special exhibition “Royal Bronzes: Cambodian Art of the Divine,” on view through January 18.

Big news: Free tickets are now available starting January 7 at 9:30 a.m. (CST) for the next live taping of The Object podcast. It's our Valentine's show on February 7 at 2 p.m. with special guest musician jeremy messersmith in the historic Pillsbury Auditorium at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. 

The Object LOVE! Don't Go Breaking My Art! will include fun quizzes and prizes, music, curator conversation, and of course storytelling, all about the comedy and tragedy of the heart in love. It's an irreverent romp with Orpheus and Eurydice, Eros and Psyche, and other classical couples whose stories have long captured our imagination in art. Go to the Tickets page at artsmia.org and reserve your seats today!

Now on with the show: On January 7, 1889, Vincent van Gogh wrote his family a New Year's letter. He had just been through one of the worst crises of his young life, which would become as much a part of his legend as his art. But Van Gogh was always able to see the silver lining—until he couldn't. A reflection on the hopes we pin to the start of the calendar, and the grace of letting go.

You can see one of the many paintings of olive trees that he made as the year unfolded in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

NEWS! Tickets will be available starting January 7 for The Object LOVE!, our very Valentine's live show with special guest jeremy messersmith on February 7 in the Minneapolis Institute of Art's historic Pillsbury Auditorium. All about the gods in (and often out of) love, whose stories have long captured our imagination in art. Tickets are free but limited—go to the tickets page at the Mia website to reserve or for details. 

Now on with the show: No one lives forever. But that hasn’t stopped people from trying, and for a long time the noble way to avoid getting old and dying was to avoid getting old at all: the Greek notion of the “glorious death” that confers immortality in battle. It’s an idea that resurfaces throughout history—until it meets its match in a war of many deaths and little glory. You can see Kiss of Victory, the famous sculpture that kicks off this episode and launched the career of Sir Alfred Gilbert, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Brand-new episode: Swedish textile artist Helena Hernmarck became an international art star making monumental tapestries, an ancient art she gave a modern Pop Art twist starting in the 1960s. Some 260 commissioned works in all, often for corporate settings. But as the corporate world changed, and her tapestries changed hands, at least two dozen have gone missing. Now, at 84, she's scrambling to track them down, a rollicking story of international intrigue, celebrity, and what it means when culture is lost—and found. 

Also, big news! Tickets for the next taping of The Object LIVE! will be available starting January 7 on the Tickets page at artsmia.org. It's "The Object LOVE! Don't Go Breaking My Art!" with special guest musician jeremy messersmith, all about the gods in (and out of) love, from Orpheus and Eurydice to Eros and Psyche, with quizzes, music, and of course storytelling. Don't miss this special Valentine's edition of the podcast, recorded live at the Minneapolis Institute of Art auditorium on February 7 at 2PM. 

You can learn more about Hernmarck's art in the latest episode of Craft in America, airing December 19 on PBS.

Hernmarck has long had a unique connection to Minnesota, and you can see more than 20 of Hernmarck's tapestries in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, a major repository of her work—including several rescued pieces. 

And you can see more Scandinavian craft in Mia's current show "Crowning the North," featuring Norwegian silver.

Tickets will be available soon for The Object LOVE!, a very Valentine’s edition of our live taping of the podcast, happening February 7 at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, with quizzes, storytelling, and very special musical guest jeremy messersmith, all about the gods in (and out of) love!

It’s good to be the pope in the 1600s. But staying pope is not so easy, as the famous Barberini family finds out when one of their own takes up the tiara in 1623. As Rome fills up with their art, and dungeons fill up with their enemies, can they survive the forces of change threatening their worldview—and the forces of the occult threatening to kill the pope on Christmas Day?

You can read more about the art at Mia commissioned by the Barberini family, including Pope Urban VIII, here.

And of course you can see it all over Rome—in the Piazza Barberini, the Palazzo Barberini, etc. Look closely at St. Peter’s Basilica and you may see the curious Barberini family crest—a trio of bees—on fountains, frames, and even the altar. You can read about its symbolism here.