On any given week across Minnesota, there's a wealth of artistic events. There's music, dance, theater, the visual arts, and more. But how do we talk about these events? Many artists and art lovers say that, for such a rich arts scene, there's hardly any criticism to be found in the Minnesota media. As a result, they say the general public is less engaged in the arts, and that affects both audiences and funding.

	The stage of the Southern Theater in Minneapolis, only one of dozens of venues hosting artistic events in Minnesota. Many artists and art lovers say that the arts criticism in the state is lacking, despite the abundance of performers. (Photo courtesy of The Southern Theater)

Critics tend to have strong opinions. It's their job. Ask a critic about critics and you'll get a really definite answer.

"I do not want them to be advocates for the arts," says Claude Peck, fine arts editor of the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune.

"I want them to advocate for the reader. When they write a review, when they see a performance or a concert, or read a book, I want them to think about the reader," says Peck. "I want them to write a review that helps other readers sort through the forest of options for spending their money - for books or concerts or performances or plays - and help guide their consumer decisions."

Artists tend to have opinions on critics, too. Take "The Worst Show in the Fringe," a play written for this summer's Minneapolis Fringe Festival, in which a playwright kidnaps a critic because of a bad review. Another play titled "Bring Me the Head of Dominic Papatola" - the Pioneer Press theater critic - is on the Fringe waiting list to get a venue.

Jeff Bartlett, artistic director of the Southern Theater in Minnespolis, takes a more measured approach.

"A critic should build public awareness of the arts. I would take the position that that is actually advocating for the audience. I'm in favor of a well-informed, knowledgeable, enthusiastic audience base - that's what's going to make people see work!" says Bartlett. "But I don't think those two things need to be mutually exclusive, mutually contradictory - I don't think it's as simple as that."

	Dan Sullivan, left, is a well-known arts critic who now runs the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill Theater in Connecticut. He's shown here with arts critics who participated in the Institute's fellowship program in 2000. Sullivan places part of the blame for poor arts criticism on complacent readers. (Photo courtesy of O'Neill Theater Center)

Artists - and many critics - agree there's not enough criticism in Minnesota, and the criticism there is should be smarter. Long ago, Dan Sullivan was the theater critic at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He later worked as a critic for both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Now he teaches arts criticism at the University of Minnesota Journalism Department. He also runs the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill Theater in Connecticut.

When asked what he thinks may be wrong with Minnesota criticism, Sullivan puts part of the blame on complacent readers. Sullivan says if readers responded more to the criticism that's printed, they'd get more of it. He says the readers are there - he sees them when he gives lectures - they're just not talking.

"I always end the talk, 'Well, I've a big crowd out here. You all seem to care about the arts - why aren't you writing letters to the editors, showing them that there is a constituency for writing about the arts?' These people never do it - I don't understand that," he says.

But Sullivan also blames the papers for not recognizing the obvious public interest driving the thriving Minnesota arts scene. He says newspapers should dedicate more space to long-form, in-depth analysis of the arts, not just a brief thumbs-up, thumbs-down. He says today's media rely too heavily on quick turn-around reviews and don't do enough in-depth reporting.

Freelance critic Patrice Koelsch agrees, but she thinks it's a national problem.

"We don't really talk a lot about ideas. We don't get into complexity," says Koelsch. "We tend to be much shorter attention-spanned, and I don't think that we know how to discuss ideas in a way that's very helpful. We either have something that's utterly adversarial or very superficial."

"It would be as if the Star Tribune, at this point in the history of the Minnesota Twins, would decide to stop covering baseball. That's how I feel about the dance scene in the Twin Cities right now." - Southern Theater artistic director Jeff Bartlett

Koelsch points to a local decline in criticism. The Twin Cities Reader folded a couple of years ago and the Minnesota Daily eliminated its arts section. Now the Pulse weekly is cutting back its criticism.

Koelsch used to be the director of the Center for Arts Criticism. It was created in 1985 to solve the problems that people still complain about today - to increase both the quantity and quality in the critical dialogue about the Minnesota arts. But by the early 1990s, the National Endowment for the Arts had pulled its funding. The Center for Arts Criticism still exists, but it now focuses its efforts on youth media projects.

Now the Jerome Foundation is launching yet another program to improve critical coverage of the arts in Minnesota. President Cyndi Gehrig says while critical discussion still happens within small groups, that dialogue needs to be expanded to the general public.

"Part of our goal...should be to find locations for that to occur that are new locations, in addition to working with what we hav. There's a lot that's possible on the Web. I also think that there is a lot that's possible in terms of scheduled community debates and discussions that are more open," says Gehrig.

While the newspapers get most of the attention for their criticism - or lack of it - newspaper people say other media are just as responsible for the absence of critical thought. Local television does almost no criticism of the local arts. Minnesota Public Radio, a major player in the local arts and culture scene, has never had an on-staff critic.

Gehrig says building a lively critical discussion takes comprehensive coverage of the arts by all media. While the Jerome Foundation's funding for the criticism program was slotted for this year, the poor economy has forced the foundation to push back the project to early next year.

	Matt Peiken, a writer at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, says many local newspapers are lazy when it comes to their arts criticism. (Photo courtesy of St. Paul Pioneer Press)

The Southern Theater in Minneapolis has become one of the primary dance venues in Minnesota, serving both local and touring groups. Artistic director Jeff Bartlett says it's tragic and ironic that at a time when the Minnesota dance scene is drawing national attention, there isn't one full-time dance critic in the Twin Cities.

"It would be as if the Star Tribune, at this point in the history of the Minnesota Twins, would decide to stop covering baseball," says Bartlett. "The Twins are doing really well, there's all this hype about a new stadium - this is not the time you want to not pay attention to the Minnesota Twins. That's how I feel about the dance scene in the Twin Cities right now."

Bartlett says dance reviews are generally by free-lance writers delivering narrative descriptions of what happened, and a simple "thumbs-up, thumbs-down" conclusion. Bartlett says a review should be a critical essay, using the event as a launchpad for a discussion of issues and ideas.

Bartlett fondly remembers the late Mike Steele, the longtime Star Tribune dance and theater critic. Bartlett says through writing about the arts for 30 years, Steele built up an incredible reservoir of knowledge which informed his reviews.

St. Paul Pioneer Press features writer Matt Peiken wants to review dance for his paper. Currently the Pioneer Press has no dance critic on staff, and Peiken sees trends in many papers toward hiring out more of their criticism. Peiken thinks arts coverage is suffering as a result.

"I think reviews - the way they're done in newspapers today - a lot of newspapers are lazy," Peiken says. "A lot of newspapers get by reviewing something, because they don't want to do the reporting to find out what an event is really like, and to give readers the information to make up their own mind on whether a show is worth seeing or not."

"We don't really talk a lot about ideas. We don't get into complexity. I don't think that we know how to discuss ideas in a way that's very helpful. We either have something that's utterly adversarial or very superficial." - Patrice Koelsch, freelance critic

Peiken says being a good critic takes time - being a great critic takes many years of dedication to a beat. He says it's rare today that a critic stays in one place for more than a few years before moving on to the next job.

In addition, Peiken says over time critics develop their own ruts - covering only those shows which cater to their own personal tastes, rather than trying something that might be more challenging, but ultimately provoke greater discussion.

"I think this area needs smart criticism, I think we need consistent criticism. I don't think that's smart for newspapers to not be giving readers intelligent, insightful, consistent coverage," says Peiken.

In Minneapolis, Star Tribune fine arts editor Claude Peck is in charge of the largest arts reporting team in the Twin Cities. Each week, he says, the paper prints an average of 20 to 25 reviews.

But the majority are movie and book reviews, and don't concern the local arts scene. Peck says he's happy with the job the Star Tribune is doing covering the arts, but admits there is always room for more.

"There is just so much going on - and this paper probably has more resources to respond to that activity than any other - and still we can't get to everything," says Peck. "I know from talking to artists and creators that they miss that, and it really hurts if they don't get a criticism. Even a negative review they think is better than no review, because at least it gives them something to build on."

Peck believes good criticism should improve the overall dialogue about the arts in the Twin Cities. Frank Theatre artistic director Wendy Knox feels the same, but she says she's not seeing it in Minnesota.

Knox often produces challenging productions of plays with a feminist bent. Her recent production featured a lesbian on death row for killing a string of men. The play got a lot of press for its story line, but Knox said the reviewers focused on the sensationalism and forgot to treat the ideas that were central to the play - issues of sexism, classism and social justice.

	Wendy Knox is the artistic director at Frank Theatre in Minneapolis. She says she'd like to see more female arts critics. "You have a significant number of theaters which are run by women - which was not the case 10 years ago - and all of the mainstream critics are these middle-aged men. And that does affect things," she says. (Photo courtesy of Frank Theatre)

Knox says not only does she want smarter, more open-minded critics, she wants more women writing criticism.

"That is appalling - that is one of the most galling things. You have Eye of the Storm, headed by Casey Stengle. You have Ten Thousand Things, headed by Michelle Hensley. You have 15 Head, founded by - among other people - Julia Fisher. You have Frank Theatre with me," says Knox. "You have a significant number of theaters which are run by women - which was not the case 10 years ago - and all of the mainstream critics are these middle-aged men. And that does affect things."

In addition to a lack of mutual understanding, Knox says artists and journalists don't have the consistent discussion needed to build a healthy relationship.

"If you get a bad review it's like, 'He just doesn't get anything!' And if you get a good review it's, 'I just love him!' Of course, it's just much easier to sort of love the reviewer because they're writing good stuff about you," says Knox. "I think that we need to create a dialogue between those who write about the arts and those who are producing the art, because I think it can only serve to help us make better art - and have them write in more informed ways about the art," she says.

City Pages arts editor Michael Torturello disagrees.

"Our best critics have relationships with exhibitors and artists, and they're in touch with authors and dancers. They're close to these people. These people are their friends and their peers, and people they have a great respect for. But we're not about having a dialogue with them - we're about writing articles that are intelligent and thoughtful and provocative for readers - that's who we're having our dialogue with," says Torturello.

Artistic directors Jeff Bartlett and Wendy Knox respond that what most arts critics and editors fail to recognize is that their most devoted readers are the artists themselves.

The Jerome Foundation