Proudly silly When Katy Perry hits the stage at First Avenue on Tuesday, no doubt many people will be there just to see what the notoriously whimsical star will wear. Her stylist, Johnny Wujek, has a pretty good idea. Fresh off a video shoot last week for Perry's next single, Wujek took a few minutes with I.W. to discuss her "adventurous" style. "She wears a ton of vintage," he said. "Always out hunting, always restructuring, rhinestoning. She wears just as much vintage as she does designer." (Her designer favorites include Marc Jacobs, Balmain and Basil Soda, who created her candy-pink Grammy dress.) And Wujek's response to the Katy haters, who gleefully place her on worst-dressed lists? "We're having fun and being different. She's a musician. We are meant to be silly."
KARA NESVIG
Drawing a crowd The Art Institute of Chicago just raised its admission fee from $12 to $18. That hefty jump underscores what a deal the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is. Although it faces the same issues cited in Chicago -- falling revenue and declining donations -- the MIA remains free, aside from a few special exhibitions. And Minnesotans are flocking in. Attendance was up 9 percent in January and February compared with the same period last year -- that's 87,054 people during our most dismal months. Kristen Prestegaard, the MIA's marketing guru, credited the jump to special freebies such as "Rock the Cradle," a January shindig with public radio's The Current that drew 12,000, and a family day in February that pulled in 6,000. "Where else can you take a family of four for free these days?" said spokeswoman Anne Marie Wagener.
MARY ABBE
Smells like hope? Madeleine Peyroux vividly recalled the mood in Minneapolis when she played here the night after the 2004 election. "You were more down than I was," she said Sunday during her encore at the Pantages, introducing a new tune after a night of melancholy and breakup songs: "It's a nirvana song." I.W. thought she meant a song by Nirvana. No, it was an upbeat ditty, "Somethin' Grand," about "there's something grand coming" and "all is forgiven."
JON BREAM
Foundation connection Walker Art Center director Olga Viso has been named to the board of the New York-based Andy Warhol Foundation, which gives money to support artists and nonprofits, mostly in the United States. Last year the Walker received $100,000 from the foundation for a "Quick and the Dead" show, while the Soap Factory got $80,000 and Midway Contemporary Arts $150,000 to fund their exhibition programs. "They're spectacular in their support of alternative spaces like us," said Tim Peterson, director of Franklin Art Works in Minneapolis, which is getting a $50,000 Warhol grant to extend its "capacity building" programs. Viso's presence on the foundation's board "can't hurt" local appeals, he said.
MARY ABBE
