Alexander's great plans

Darsie Alexander

Darsie Alexander, Walker Art Center's new chief curator, talks about her job, the Walker and art today.

Art: 'Dirt on Delight'

Opening Saturday: Arriving a little late to the party, Walker Art Center is opening this weekend what appears to be its first-ever survey of ceramic art. And about time, too.

Art

From Mogadishu to Minneapolis

First Day of School

A Somali-born photographer traces his people's emigration in a sensitive new show.

Spotlight: 'Poverty in America'

Opening tonight: In counterpoint to July 4th celebrations, the Minneapolis Photo Center is opening a documentary show today focusing on pockets of poverty that still blight our affluent country. Organized by In Our Own Backyard, a group of photojournalists committed to social-justice issues, the show will have as many as 100 images from around the country, including some from just over Minnesota's southern border where Danny Wilcox Frazier documented impoverished small-town families in the film "Driftless: Stories From Iowa" (shown here). Eli Reed, affiliated with the international photo consortium Magnum, will sample two decades of poverty among black Americans while Jon Lowenstein will share images from "Shadow Lives," his five-year investigation of undocumented workers and their exploitation in labor camps and as field hands. (Reception 7- 10 p.m. today, free. Minneapolis Photo Center, 2400 N. 2nd St., Mpls. Ends Aug. 30, free. 612-643-3511 or www.mplsphotocenter.com or www.inourownbackyard.us)