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Meet at Mia

Live Music Arts & Culture Classes Museum Exhibit

What’s Happening?

Connect, create, kick back! Meet at Mia is a new series of free Thursday evening events for adults. Get to know us—and each other—with live music, art making, special programs, and unique food and drink (for purchase). No registration or secret handshake required.

Meet at Mia ranges from casual open studios to museum-wide art parties. Learn more at new.artsmia.org/programs/adult-events-and-activities/meet-at-mia

Upcoming Programs

January 16 New Year, New Vibes
It may be gray outside, but Mia is full of color! Join Jennifer Davis as we make the new year a little brighter with custom, collaborative murals on canvas for our studio walls. Experience MAEP artist Roshan Ganu’s take on Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, through her immersive videos and paintings. Bleak Roses provides the tunes.

Art Making Murals with Jennifer Davis, 5–8:30 p.m.
Music Bleak Roses
Exhibition “Roshan Ganu: The Night Blooming Jasmine, 5–9 p.m.
Guided Tour Oh, the Weather Outside!, 6 p.m.
City Hour Open mic

January 23 Manet Day
On artist Edouard Manet’s birthday, get inspired by the Impressionists. Capture a moment in time with Manet-style landscapes in an open studio, and learn about his contemporaries—Monet, Renoir, and others—through film.

Art Making Manet-inspired landscapes with Akiko Ostlund, 5–8:30 p.m.
Music Diane Miller
Visit Impressionism Galleries, G369, G373, G374
Guided Tour Oh, the Weather Outside!, 6 p.m.
Live Recording The Object Podcast, 6 p.m. Reserve free tickets here.
Film Exhibition on Screen: The Impressionists and the Man who Made Them, 7 p.m.

February 6 Institute of Ice
Celebrate Minneapolis Institute of Ice with this special program featuring larger-than-life ice sculptures, an ice bar with cocktails and mocktails, a cider and hot cocoa station, and more!
Art Making Winter lanterns with Amy Mester, 5-8:30 P.M.
Music DJ in the Courtyard (weather permitting)
Ice bar 5:30-8:30 P.M.
Guided Tours 5:30 P.M. and 7:00 P.M.

February 13 Institute of Hearts
Start your Valentine’s Day early at Mia! Take part in our annual Institute of Hearts and leave your heart alongside your favorite work in the collection. Then, make your own work in our studios to the sound of live jazz. Not feeling the romance? Celebrate friendship with live performances by Lazerbeak and Friends or join the Lonely Hearts Club on a tour of Mia’s most tragic love stories.

Art Making Community collage with Akiko Ostlund
Live Performance Debbie Briggs Jazz, 5:30 p.m.
Live Performance Lazerbeak + Friends, 7 p.m.
Experience Institute of Hearts
Guided Tour Lonely Hearts Club, 6 p.m.

February 20 Power to the People
This Black History Month, experience the vibrancy of the Black community in the Twin Cities and beyond. Multi-hyphenate Kprecia Ambers shows that art is accessible to all through the art of tracing. Explore the Black Power movement of the 1960s and ’70s through film, then take a tour of African American art in Mia’s collection.

Art Making with Kprecia Ambers
Exhibition The True America: Photographs by Ernest Cole
Film Screening The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, 7 p.m. (free tickets required, available January 20)
Guided Tour Celebrating African American Art, 6 p.m.
City Hour Open mic

March 6 Closing the Gap
Celebrate the countless contributions women have made to arts and culture this Women’s History Month. Enjoy prints by Impressionist icon Mary Cassatt and make your own art with Alexandra Beaumont. Popular DJ/MC Sophia Eris spins tunes. Explore Mia’s growing collection of women artists on a self-guided tour.

Music Sophia Eris
Art Making with Alexandra Beaumont
Exhibition “Cassatt on Paper”
In-Gallery Conversation Women in Art
City Hour Open mic

March 20 Giants 

Mia has partnered with Public Functionary (PF) to curate a five-week series of Meet at Mia programs surrounding our special exhibition “Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys.” Following an opening program on March 20, each week correlates with a theme of the exhibition: Becoming Giants, On the Shoulders of Giants, Giant Conversations, and Giant Presence. Programs include music, film screenings, live performances, tours led by the PF Curatorial Cohort, and more.

The PF Curatorial Cohort will draw on their established relationships within the community, to support artists throughout their entire engagement. PF and Mia are committed to serving as dedicated advocates for artists throughout and beyond their interaction.

March 27 Becoming Giants

In honor of the ways creativity passes through generations, vinyl selector DJ JamEZ showcases the art of the record as a time-tested archive while DJ MxKenna’s musical stylings celebrate Black women with a classic hip hop/neo soul set. The evening culminates in an organic community forum in the “Giants” exhibition, where moderator Yonci Jameson invites local artists and community members to respond to the collection’s featured artists and reflect on their own creative journeys.

DJ Sets DJ MxKenna and DJ JamEZ
Community Tufting NeekaSoDope
Food Truck Que Tal
“Giants” Artist Community Forum Moderator Yonci Jameson, 7:30 p.m.

April 3 On the Shoulders of Giants

On the Shoulders of Giants speaks to the idea that no artist or cultural movement exists in isolation. It acknowledges the influence of those who came before—the pioneers, mentors, and visionaries who shaped the ways we create art and culture today. DJ Keezy and DJ Sci-Fi have both used music as a medium for representation and visibility. Through their work, they create spaces that are more than just gatherings—they’re cultural movements rooted in the traditions of resistance, joy, and collective empowerment.

Join Olu Famule (Cinefilmu) for experimental short film screenings that highlight the work of three local, emerging Black filmmakers who explore fresh takes on moving image traditions. Famule will also moderate a Q&A with the filmmakers and discuss the artist’s visual influences, themes present in their work, and what led them to the medium of film. Screenings begin at 6:30 p.m. Free ticket required; reserve your ticket here.

Featured Filmmakers Meti Mekonen, Wasima Farah, Bakar Elmi, and Love, Ulysses
Filmmaker Q&A Moderator Olu Famule
DJ Sets DJ Keezy and DJ Sci-Fi
Food Truck ParraLily

April 10: Giant Conversations

Artists have always critiqued and commented on the world around them. Reframe your perspective through a conversation with local content curators, moderated by Za’Nia Coleman, participate in a workshop with a speculative fiction writer, and immerse yourself in sensory reflection with a DJ set by Sarah White.

DJ Sarah White embodies the practice of art as a tool for activism and storytelling. As a DJ, vocalist, and producer, her work transcends genres and mediums, blending music with a deep commitment to social change. Her sets are more than just sonic experiences—they’re narratives of history, resistance, and the rhythms of liberation.

Workshop Taiwana Shambley, Writing for Social Change
DJ Set Sarah Maricha White
Food Truck West Indies
Conversation Moderator Za’Nia Coleman, 7 p.m. Free ticket required; register here.

In response to the ethos of The Dean Collection—”by the artist, for the artist, with the people”—Minneapolis-based artists and curators that are reshaping the arts landscape will explore practices that challenge traditional ideas of collection-building, authorship, and audience engagement. Panelists Adrienne Doyle, Wordsworth Musinguzi, Eshay Brantley, and Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski speak with moderator Za’Nia Coleman about what it means to curate in service of artists and communities. What happens when collections, digital platforms, exhibitions, and zines are built around relationships instead of objects?

April 17: Giant Presence

Close out PF’s Meet at Mia series with a robust lineup of performers who’ll take over the museum for a night with big sound and energy. Giant gratitude!

Performers Hooks, Sol Salvation Choir, and Greg Grease
DJ Sets DJ McShellen and DJ Afro
Featuring BLAQ Dance Collective
Custom Portraits by Godfree Spain
Food Truck ParraLily
Unofficial Exhibition Tours Leslie Barlow and Yonci Jameson
Join us for a fresh take on the “Giants” exhibition with informal, artist-led tours guided by Leslie Barlow, PF Studios director, and Yonci Jameson, PF x Giants Curatorial Cohort member and radio host. These tours offer a chance to experience the exhibition through Barlow and Jameson’s unique perspectives—not as museum guides, but as an artist and community member. They’ll share their thoughts on their favorite works and invite open conversation about the themes, process, and impact of the collection.

April 24 Art in Bloom

Join Aspire Artisan Folk School to make a cyanotype print inspired by Art in Bloom. Cyanotype photography dates back before the invention of cameras, and uses light sensitive chemistry paired with UV light to create detailed prints on surfaces. Florals for this project generously donated by Bachman’s.

May 15 Living Legacies

May 22 Human Nature

June 12 Summer Series Kickoff: Bike Night

June 19 Summer Series: Juneteenth

June 26 Summer Series: Pride

Connect, create, kick back! Meet at Mia is a new series of free Thursday evening events for adults. Get to know us—and each other—with live music, art making, special programs, and unique food and drink (for purchase). No registration or secret handshake required.

Meet at Mia ranges from casual open studios to museum-wide art parties. Learn more at new.artsmia.org/programs/adult-events-and-activities/meet-at-mia

Upcoming Programs

January 16 New Year, New Vibes
It may be gray outside, but Mia is full of color! Join Jennifer Davis as we make the new year a little brighter with custom, collaborative murals on canvas for our studio walls. Experience MAEP artist Roshan Ganu’s take on Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, through her immersive videos and paintings. Bleak Roses provides the tunes.

Art Making Murals with Jennifer Davis, 5–8:30 p.m.
Music Bleak Roses
Exhibition “Roshan Ganu: The Night Blooming Jasmine, 5–9 p.m.
Guided Tour Oh, the Weather Outside!, 6 p.m.
City Hour Open mic

January 23 Manet Day
On artist Edouard Manet’s birthday, get inspired by the Impressionists. Capture a moment in time with Manet-style landscapes in an open studio, and learn about his contemporaries—Monet, Renoir, and others—through film.

Art Making Manet-inspired landscapes with Akiko Ostlund, 5–8:30 p.m.
Music Diane Miller
Visit Impressionism Galleries, G369, G373, G374
Guided Tour Oh, the Weather Outside!, 6 p.m.
Live Recording The Object Podcast, 6 p.m. Reserve free tickets here.
Film Exhibition on Screen: The Impressionists and the Man who Made Them, 7 p.m.

February 6 Institute of Ice
Celebrate Minneapolis Institute of Ice with this special program featuring larger-than-life ice sculptures, an ice bar with cocktails and mocktails, a cider and hot cocoa station, and more!
Art Making Winter lanterns with Amy Mester, 5-8:30 P.M.
Music DJ in the Courtyard (weather permitting)
Ice bar 5:30-8:30 P.M.
Guided Tours 5:30 P.M. and 7:00 P.M.

February 13 Institute of Hearts
Start your Valentine’s Day early at Mia! Take part in our annual Institute of Hearts and leave your heart alongside your favorite work in the collection. Then, make your own work in our studios to the sound of live jazz. Not feeling the romance? Celebrate friendship with live performances by Lazerbeak and Friends or join the Lonely Hearts Club on a tour of Mia’s most tragic love stories.

Art Making Community collage with Akiko Ostlund
Live Performance Debbie Briggs Jazz, 5:30 p.m.
Live Performance Lazerbeak + Friends, 7 p.m.
Experience Institute of Hearts
Guided Tour Lonely Hearts Club, 6 p.m.

February 20 Power to the People
This Black History Month, experience the vibrancy of the Black community in the Twin Cities and beyond. Multi-hyphenate Kprecia Ambers shows that art is accessible to all through the art of tracing. Explore the Black Power movement of the 1960s and ’70s through film, then take a tour of African American art in Mia’s collection.

Art Making with Kprecia Ambers
Exhibition The True America: Photographs by Ernest Cole
Film Screening The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, 7 p.m. (free tickets required, available January 20)
Guided Tour Celebrating African American Art, 6 p.m.
City Hour Open mic

March 6 Closing the Gap
Celebrate the countless contributions women have made to arts and culture this Women’s History Month. Enjoy prints by Impressionist icon Mary Cassatt and make your own art with Alexandra Beaumont. Popular DJ/MC Sophia Eris spins tunes. Explore Mia’s growing collection of women artists on a self-guided tour.

Music Sophia Eris
Art Making with Alexandra Beaumont
Exhibition “Cassatt on Paper”
In-Gallery Conversation Women in Art
City Hour Open mic

March 20 Giants 

Mia has partnered with Public Functionary (PF) to curate a five-week series of Meet at Mia programs surrounding our special exhibition “Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys.” Following an opening program on March 20, each week correlates with a theme of the exhibition: Becoming Giants, On the Shoulders of Giants, Giant Conversations, and Giant Presence. Programs include music, film screenings, live performances, tours led by the PF Curatorial Cohort, and more.

The PF Curatorial Cohort will draw on their established relationships within the community, to support artists throughout their entire engagement. PF and Mia are committed to serving as dedicated advocates for artists throughout and beyond their interaction.

March 27 Becoming Giants

In honor of the ways creativity passes through generations, vinyl selector DJ JamEZ showcases the art of the record as a time-tested archive while DJ MxKenna’s musical stylings celebrate Black women with a classic hip hop/neo soul set. The evening culminates in an organic community forum in the “Giants” exhibition, where moderator Yonci Jameson invites local artists and community members to respond to the collection’s featured artists and reflect on their own creative journeys.

DJ Sets DJ MxKenna and DJ JamEZ
Community Tufting NeekaSoDope
Food Truck Que Tal
“Giants” Artist Community Forum Moderator Yonci Jameson, 7:30 p.m.

April 3 On the Shoulders of Giants

On the Shoulders of Giants speaks to the idea that no artist or cultural movement exists in isolation. It acknowledges the influence of those who came before—the pioneers, mentors, and visionaries who shaped the ways we create art and culture today. DJ Keezy and DJ Sci-Fi have both used music as a medium for representation and visibility. Through their work, they create spaces that are more than just gatherings—they’re cultural movements rooted in the traditions of resistance, joy, and collective empowerment.

Join Olu Famule (Cinefilmu) for experimental short film screenings that highlight the work of three local, emerging Black filmmakers who explore fresh takes on moving image traditions. Famule will also moderate a Q&A with the filmmakers and discuss the artist’s visual influences, themes present in their work, and what led them to the medium of film. Screenings begin at 6:30 p.m. Free ticket required; reserve your ticket here.

Featured Filmmakers Meti Mekonen, Wasima Farah, Bakar Elmi, and Love, Ulysses
Filmmaker Q&A Moderator Olu Famule
DJ Sets DJ Keezy and DJ Sci-Fi
Food Truck ParraLily

April 10: Giant Conversations

Artists have always critiqued and commented on the world around them. Reframe your perspective through a conversation with local content curators, moderated by Za’Nia Coleman, participate in a workshop with a speculative fiction writer, and immerse yourself in sensory reflection with a DJ set by Sarah White.

DJ Sarah White embodies the practice of art as a tool for activism and storytelling. As a DJ, vocalist, and producer, her work transcends genres and mediums, blending music with a deep commitment to social change. Her sets are more than just sonic experiences—they’re narratives of history, resistance, and the rhythms of liberation.

Workshop Taiwana Shambley, Writing for Social Change
DJ Set Sarah Maricha White
Food Truck West Indies
Conversation Moderator Za’Nia Coleman, 7 p.m. Free ticket required; register here.

In response to the ethos of The Dean Collection—”by the artist, for the artist, with the people”—Minneapolis-based artists and curators that are reshaping the arts landscape will explore practices that challenge traditional ideas of collection-building, authorship, and audience engagement. Panelists Adrienne Doyle, Wordsworth Musinguzi, Eshay Brantley, and Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski speak with moderator Za’Nia Coleman about what it means to curate in service of artists and communities. What happens when collections, digital platforms, exhibitions, and zines are built around relationships instead of objects?

April 17: Giant Presence

Close out PF’s Meet at Mia series with a robust lineup of performers who’ll take over the museum for a night with big sound and energy. Giant gratitude!

Performers Hooks, Sol Salvation Choir, and Greg Grease
DJ Sets DJ McShellen and DJ Afro
Featuring BLAQ Dance Collective
Custom Portraits by Godfree Spain
Food Truck ParraLily
Unofficial Exhibition Tours Leslie Barlow and Yonci Jameson
Join us for a fresh take on the “Giants” exhibition with informal, artist-led tours guided by Leslie Barlow, PF Studios director, and Yonci Jameson, PF x Giants Curatorial Cohort member and radio host. These tours offer a chance to experience the exhibition through Barlow and Jameson’s unique perspectives—not as museum guides, but as an artist and community member. They’ll share their thoughts on their favorite works and invite open conversation about the themes, process, and impact of the collection.

April 24 Art in Bloom

Join Aspire Artisan Folk School to make a cyanotype print inspired by Art in Bloom. Cyanotype photography dates back before the invention of cameras, and uses light sensitive chemistry paired with UV light to create detailed prints on surfaces. Florals for this project generously donated by Bachman’s.

May 15 Living Legacies

May 22 Human Nature

June 12 Summer Series Kickoff: Bike Night

June 19 Summer Series: Juneteenth

June 26 Summer Series: Pride

More about Minneapolis Institute of Art
Inspiring wonder through the power of art. The Minneapolis Institute of Art enriches the community by collecting, preserving, and making accessible outstanding works of art from the world’s diverse cultures.
When & Where
Multiple Dates
  • Jan 16, 2025, 5:00pm to 9:00pm Timezone: CST
  • Jan 23, 2025, 5:00pm to 9:00pm Timezone: CST
  • Feb 6, 2025, 5:00pm to 9:00pm Timezone: CST
  • Feb 13, 2025, 5:00pm to 9:00pm Timezone: CST
  • Feb 20, 2025, 5:00pm to 9:00pm Timezone: CST
  • Mar 6, 2025, 5:00pm to 9:00pm Timezone: CST
  • Mar 20, 2025, 5:00pm to 9:00pm Timezone: CST
  • Mar 27, 2025, 5:00pm to 9:00pm Timezone: CST
  • Apr 3, 2025, 5:00pm to 9:00pm Timezone: CST
  • Apr 10, 2025, 5:00pm to 9:00pm Timezone: CST
  • Apr 17, 2025, 5:00pm to 9:00pm Timezone: CST
  • Apr 24, 2025, 5:00pm to 9:00pm Timezone: CST
  • May 15, 2025, 5:00pm to 9:00pm Timezone: CST
  • May 22, 2025, 5:00pm to 9:00pm Timezone: CST
  • Jun 12, 2025, 5:00pm to 9:00pm Timezone: CST
  • Jun 19, 2025, 5:00pm to 9:00pm Timezone: CST
  • Jun 26, 2025, 5:00pm to 9:00pm Timezone: CST
Free

No Registration required! Just show up!

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