Peter Rothstein • Theater director

"I was fortunate to see two productions at the Berliner Ensemble this fall: 'Spring Awakening' and 'Lulu,' both by Frank Wedekind but staged with radically different approaches by directors Claus Peymann and Robert Wilson. Seeing a single ensemble of actors tackle the same playwright with such contrasting styles was a fascinating joy."

Jake Rudh • DJ

"Being a fan of art, music and modernism, a great Twin Cities cultural impact for me this past year would be the reopening of the newly expanded Weisman Art Museum. Having an amplified original structure by renowned architect Frank Gehry only makes this city even more greatly distinctive."

LYNDEL KING • Weisman Director/Curator

"My finalists were Andre Watts playing Liszt at the Schubert Club and 'Man of La Mancha' at Ten Thousand Things Theater, but 'I Am My Own Wife' at the Jungle Theater won out. Bradley Greenwald is amazing, playing about 20 different characters, all convincingly. The true story it is based on is interesting, but his performance makes it compelling."

KEVIN KLING • Playwright/Actor

"My selection is a tie: the Minnesota Youth Symphony at Orchestra Hall and 'The Learning Fairy' at Open Eye Figure Theatre. In a time when I feel like all my generation has done is mess things up, these performances provided a glimpse and a hope for our future. Both events were as telling as they were far-reaching, the work assured and beautiful and entirely their own. The next generation has taken the lead."

DAN WILSON • Songwriter

"My favorite cultural moment that I didn't work on is the first 30 seconds or so of 'Bon Iver' by Bon Iver. I love the whole album, but I vividly remember the first time I heard those molasses-y guitar chords and thought, 'This is going to be amazing.'"

SIMS • Rapper

"The meme superbubble. A superbubble is a large cavity in space created by a series of supernovae sequentially exploding before space has time to back-fill. 'Winning,' planking, swag, owling, cray and Tebowing. This year, memes shined so intensely that you couldn't miss them ... and then disappeared, replaced by a new explosion and a bigger void."

JACK REULER • Mixed Blood Theater

"I was thrilled at Leah Cooper's emergence as a formidable director, from Theatre in the Round to Park Square to Gremlin."

FIONA MCCRAE • Graywolf Press publisher

"Jez Butterworth's riveting new play 'Jerusalem' on Broadway had me spellbound. I was mesmerized from start to finish by Mark Rylance's Tony-winning performance as Johnny 'Rooster' Byron, who is facing eviction from his woodland caravan where he acts as part miscreant drug dealer and part mystic youth counselor. A play to remember."

MONICA HALLER • PHOTOGRAPHER

"Otolith Group's video, 'Communists Like Us,' is teaching me a lot, so is installation artist Jan Mun, and poetry by Bojan Louis. But my favorite cultural moment happened in a café in Racine, Wis., where a virtual stranger stopped a friend of mine and asked, 'What's the name of the guy -- that Italian writer -- who wrote about art provoking its audience?' She said, 'Oh, that's Marinetti who wrote the "Futurist Manifesto."' Satisfied, he urgently returned to his conversation."