Step into These Historic Arts and Entertainment Scenes

Whether you’re looking for a legendary bluesman to take you to church in the diviest of dive bars every Sunday, itching to check out a puppet from the library run by the folks behind the iconic Mayday Parade, or want to learn the finer points of carving a wooden spoon from some die-hard lutefisk stans, you’ll almost certainly find your fix in the Minneapolis Cultural Districts.

Cedar Avenue: Enduringly Avant-Garde

Palmer’s Bar

Palmer’s has been a bar since the turn of the 20th century, but its history arguably began in the early ’70s when Koerner, Ray and Glover, Willie Murphy, Cornbread Harris, and a chorus of other Midwestern roots legends perfected the first-coming of “the Minneapolis sound.” Today? The venue is equal parts dive bar and storied monument, rolling out live music almost every night—including Palmer’s OG Cornbread Harris every Sunday at 5:00 PM for the “Church of Cornbread.” This is your last chance to visit the iconic venue, which plans to close this September.

The Southern Theater, Theatre in the Round, and Mixed Blood

Most folks consider Hennepin Avenue to be Minneapolis’s theater district, but the Cedar corridor could easily make a claim to the title, with Theatre in the Round, Mixed Blood, and The Southern Theater falling within six blocks of each other—not to mention the U’s student performing arts stage, the Rarig Center, just a stone’s throw away. Each of these vibrant, historic theaters continues to contribute to Minneapolis’s staid legacy as a prolific home for the performing arts.

Don’t Miss: Minnesota Fringe Festival, on Cedar Avenue and across the Minneapolis Cultural Districts, July 31-August 10.

Cedar Cultural Center

Once a movie theater, the CCC has come of age as a music venue while the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood has come of age as one of the most multicultural areas in town—and the venue’s gloriously global stage is a direct reflection of that fact. From drone music festivals to international folk artists, it all comes together at The Cedar.

Don’t Miss: Open Streets Minneapolis on Cedar Avenue and Riverside Ave, August 17.

Franklin Avenue: A Creative Melting Pot

Norway House

Area Norwegians silently stewed as they watched their Swedish neighbors attend summer solstice parties at the American Swedish Institute—the Swedes’ very own cultural center, replete with a gilded mansion. So in 2015, when The Norwegians found out they were getting their very own cultural center, barely a mile from the Swedes’ and right next door to Mindekirken—the sole Norwegian-speaking church in the country—they celebrated by throwing some cinnamon sugar on their lefse that night. As for summertime to-dos on the Norway House campus, there are regular Thursday night hygge happy hours, and classes like krumkakke-making and wooden spoon-carving.

All My Relations Arts

Founded in 1999 and dedicated solely to showcasing, championing, and creating Native fine arts, Mitakuye Oyasin (Dakota for “all my relations”) sits in the heart of Minneapolis’s Native neighborhoods. Its current Franklin Avenue gallery has shared a wall with Pow Wow Grounds Coffee House since 2011. All My Relations has exhibited works by a cavalcade of internationally regarded Native artists—from Mona Smith to the late Minnesota painter Jim Denomie—and Minneapolis’s own Dyani White Hawk, who once served as the gallery’s director and curator. She has since gone on to show at the Whitney Museum of American Art and earn a Guggenheim Fellowship.

West Broadway: Keepers of The Culture

Capri Theater

In the early 20th century, there were 13 theaters lining the streets of north Minneapolis. Twelve are gone. The Capri (est.1927) persisted—a stubborn Minnesota bite on the dwindling potluck tray of North Side theaters. And though it’s just one theater, the Capri’s historical and cultural heft of programming packs the punch of all 13.

Juxtaposition Arts

When Peyton Russell—a graffiti artist once employed by Prince—and Roger and DeAnna Cummings (he: an artist, she: an arts administrator) founded Juxtaposition Arts in 1995 as an after school visual arts and design program, it was because north Minneapolis was sorely lacking such a thing. By the time they purchased Juxta’s multi-building HQ almost a decade later, this little arts org had evolved into a big, vital community resource—offering everything from career apprenticeship and college pathway programs, to a gallery, artist co-op, and community art archive and library.

Don’t Miss: Open Streets Minneapolis on West Broadway, September 6.

East Lake Street: Hand and Heart Forged

In the Heart of the Beast

Born as the Powderhorn Puppet Theatre (before a name-change six years later), the Midwest’s premiere mask and puppet theater was established in 1973. You may know them by their most famous creation: the annual May Day parade and festival, hosted along Powderhorn Park’s eastern flank. This whimsical celebration makes In the Heart of the Beast top of mind each May for thousands of Twin Citians—but the East Lake Street space they’ve called home since 1987 buzzes with artistic energy year-round, with its public puppet library, all-ages puppetry workshops, and seasonal performances and events.

Mudluk Pottery

One part handmade pottery retail shop, one part gallery and community gathering space (called “Self Taught”), and about a million more parts artist-run ceramics studio, Mudluk is newer on the scene—but no less an arts pillar in this neighborhood. The grassroots studio aims to make the joys of clay arts accessible to all. For those raring to get their hands dirty, Mudluk hosts First Fridays: a $20 intro to the art of ceramics (plus other fun community happenings).

38th Street: Art as Activism

Pillsbury House and Theatre

An offshoot of one of the city’s earliest community centers, Chicago Avenue’s Pillsbury House and Theater emerged in the early ’90s from the center’s original 96-seat stage. Its mission? To create “enduring change towards a just society through arts.” In the decades since, the theater has done just that—through main stage productions (typically three per year), acting classes, kids’ camps, community social justice workshops, the annual Naked Stages artist fellowships, and so much more.