One of the benefits/drawbacks of growing up near Minneapolis was taking for granted the beautiful sculpture garden at the Walker Art Center. I always thought of it as a Claes Oldenburg installation, but it turns out his wife, Coosje van Bruggen, was very involved in what she called “The Large-Scale Projects.” Spoonbridge and Cherry (obscured here by a goofy vacation photo) was an icon of my youth.

Thanks to the Walker’s Off Center blog for the tip.

Interview excerpted from The Art Agenda. Broadcast on 88.1fm, WESU, Middletown on August 7, 2008.

The Theatre de la Jeune Lune announced today, in a letter to its members, that it will be closing its doors and selling its beautiful building to pay off debts. The company (which took its name from a Bertolt Brecht poem) was one of the brightest lights to inspire me as a teenager growing up in Rochester. We traveled to see shows at the Guthrie, once or twice a year. But the Jeune Lune came to us, trained us and inspired us, and since that time I have come to them–in New London, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis–to watch their darkly beautiful, comical, and physical creations.

Today, upon hearing this news, I can see no good in it. If the Jeune Lune is not possible in Minneapolis, a city renowned for its philanthrophy and for valuing the arts, what might not be possible elsewhere? What can we do to prevent this from happening again? What will happen to the building?

I remember walking into the Jeune Lune for an audition in 1998. The world seemed full of possibilities, simply because there were a few great theater companies, with paid actors, in Minneapolis. And later, sharing it with Dan as I tried to show him the Minneapolis I loved (in the depths of February, with negative 15-degreeweather) on a two-day trip.

And, I have often read and re-read that Brecht poem, which was another gift the Jeune Lune provided, during times of difficult change:

As the people say, at the moon’s change of phases
The new moon holds for one night long
The old moon in its arms.

-Bertolt Brecht

Although I don’t know them personally, my hopes and thoughts are with the artists and administrators who stood by this institution in difficult times.