In a review on the Minnesota Artists (MNartists.org), art critic Ann Klefstad reflects on the “victorious return of story to art, a triumph evidenced by the narrative-rich work of the four McKnight Fellows on view at the MCAD Gallery” (which runs for just a few more days, though Aug. 10).

Klefstad asserts that “stories really haven’t been respectable in art around here lately—let’s say, from the mid-1980s until sometime last year, when everyone simultaneously got sick of ambition-made-visible as an art strategy.”

When she says “around here,” I wonder if Klefstad means Minnesota. Have stories been respectable in art elsewhere, but not that state?

As an appreciator of art, I always enjoy looking for the story in it, whether the artist intended it or not. Here are some snippets of Klefstad’s review:

[Stacey] Davidson [first picture on left] makes dolls, sculpts these characters, and then paints pictures of them. And the artwork is this second-order product, the painting. The process feels like the double level of making you find in the nouveau roman and in the air outside of the book itself — the making both by author and by reader that such a book demands. You become conscious of the intervention of the fabulist, but the fictions she paints are more credible than many real lives, maybe in part because you, the viewer, are actually collaborating with her to make the story.

In [Andrea] Carlson’s world [2nd from left], the everyday reality we experience most of the time is charged with the breathing life of spirit, which maybe you could think of as “meaning” if meaning were alive.

[Amy] DiGennaro has a huge resonator for her images [3rd from left] — and that’s the way story works. It always plays out before the crowded hall of all the other stories that people have told. And the more of them you know, the more every molecule of the one you’re hearing is electrified and, yes, illuminated.

[Megan] Vossler’s recent work is more difficult to take in. All of Our Moments Are Stolen [far right] is an attempt to tell a story that the storyteller has not mastered — hasn’t lived. The need to fake it, to gloss over the crucial unknown detail, to resort to generic gestures of abjection — is clear in this array of human beings grubbing around in a cul-de-sac of broken wood and crumbled rocks.

Not surprisingly, I really enjoy “The Story,” from American Public Radio, hosted by Dick Gordon and produced at the University of North Carolina.

“The Story,”’s Web site “About” section explains that the show is about telling the stories of what one listener called “the ordinary us:”

“The Story,” with Dick Gordon has taken us around the country and around the world, discussing political issues, family issues, health, science, the arts and the environment — what’s in the news as well as what’s in the air. From the beginning it has sought out first-person experiences from real people, not experts, to help us understand what’s happening in the world. Responses from listeners in every market where “The Story,” airs tells us that the program is making its mark. And the regular feature, Ahmed’s Diary, has won three major international awards.

“The Story,” in its current form has been produced since 2006, having started out with Dick Gordon hosting The Connection out of WBUR in Boston. More history:

… But when the station canceled production of the show in 2005, many listeners were upset … Many of them called or sent e-mail messages to the Chapel Hill station urging WUNC to bring Dick Gordon to North Carolina and to continue the program from here. … With financial support and encouragement from its supporters, WUNC invited Dick down to North Carolina to discuss the possibility of doing a new national radio program from Chapel Hill. Shortly afterwards, American Public Media — the national program distribution arm of Minnesota Public Radio, joined in the conversations….

The program now airs on 60 stations.

The program’s Web site tells what stories are in progress and asks for people to get in touch if they have a story to share. Another part of the site offers a way to share stories in general and suggests some prompts.

Sony, as part of its Backstage 101 Learning Center, offers a 3-part course in video storytelling. Not sure how long it is or exactly what form it takes, but the outline is:

• Find a story you are passionate about
• Gather the gear you need to tell your story
• Plan your shoot

Lesson 1: Find Your Story: What’s Your Passion?

Turn your idea into a visual story! This lesson helps you plan what kind of story you want to tell and how you want to tell it. You’ll learn techniques that help you define an approach your story, what to shoot, and how to present it.

Lesson 2: Gather Your Gear: What Kind of Video Do You Want to Make?

Lesson 3: Structure Your Story: Get Ready to Shoot

You can also preview a lesson page.

Found the most awesome toy this week, Wordle. Above is what you can do with a Wordle — make a word/tag cloud. Generated the one above simply by enter the URL for A Storied Career. You can do all sorts of colors, fonts, and designs.

I’ve decided I’ll post one every week as kind of a snapshot of what I’m talking about in this space.

I’m fortunate to live near one of the best photography museums in the nation — though I don’t take advantage nearly enough. It’s the Southeast Museum of Photography at Daytona State College.

Through Aug. 29, the museum has a show by one of its own faculty members, Eric Breitenbach, called Lifestories. I’m disappointed that the museum’s Web site doesn’t tell more, but Daytona Beach News-Journal arts writer Laura Stewart fills in nicely:

Between 1984 and 2006, the Daytona State College photography professor documented subjects that are beyond painful to see, and opened his viewers’ eyes on a long series of telling moments.

Read Stewart’s full review.

As I attempt to categorize my storytelling interests (and the focus of A Storied Career) in my brain, I have a bit of trouble with digital storytelling. This branch of applied storytelling is huge in the education world, and while I’m interested in storytelling and learning, the blog could easily get bogged down in a ton of material about educational digital storytelling. Plenty of other blogs offer this kind of information, so there’s no need to reinvent the wheel here.

But digital storytelling is an emerging area of applied storytelling in many other fields, so it’s appropriate to mention a great resource for those who are interested in creating digital stories.

It’s Katie Christo’s Wiki, which offers a wonderful collection of how-to’s for digital storytellers.

Late-breaking addition: Just came across another set of digital-storytelling resources here, and I’m almost as fascinated by the Zoho Notebooks format in which these resources appear as the resources themselves.