Who (and what) we lost in 2020

Dudley Riggs: He founded Brave New Workshop, the nation's oldest sketch comedy troupe, to attract patrons to his coffee shop. But comedy soon became the main event, and Riggs — who died in September at 88 — nurtured a long list of funnymen and women, including Louie Anderson, Lizz Winstead and Al Franken.

Debbie Duncan: "Minnesota's first lady of song" died Dec. 18 at age 69 after a series of strokes. Duncan "could have been well known worldwide," said fellow singer Patty Peterson. "But she was also a caretaker for members of her family and people in the community, especially younger people who were learning music."

Siah Armajani: Known for his public artworks around the world — and locally for the yellow-and-baby-blue bridge to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden — the Tehran-born artist, 81, died of heart failure Aug. 27 at home in Minneapolis. In 2018, Walker Art Center hosted his retrospective, which feels now like a farewell gift to his adopted hometown.

A trifecta of local hip-hop institutions: Rhymesayers Entertainment called off its 12th annual Soundset fest even before the pandemic hit, then closed its Fifth Element shop in Minneapolis. Finally, at year's end came the demise of Go 95.3 FM, a crucial tastemaker and booster for local artists.

Allan Fingerhut: He was 26, fresh out of the Army and uninterested in working for his father's namesake mail-order empire when he invested roughly $150,000 to convert Minneapolis' shuttered Greyhound station into a rock club called the Depot. He would go on to foster the venue — known around the world today as First Avenue — for 34 of its 50 years. Fingerhut, 76, died in October after suffering from Lewy body dementia.

Lynn Geesaman: The self-taught Edina artist didn't become a photographer until midlife, but her soft-focus, formal landscapes wound up in homes and museums across the country, from Walker Art Center to the Whitney in New York. She died in February at 81.

Al Milgrom: Founder of the MSP Film Society and the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, he was an unstoppable force who inspired generations of filmmakers while creating an audience for art films. He died last Sunday, just weeks after celebrating his 98th birthday.

Daniel Polnau: This puppeteer, theatrician and visionary who died in January created work at places like Barebones, In the Heart of the Beast, Interact and Open Eye. A world traveler, Polnau had a deep curiosity about all things magnificent, strange and wonderful. His work as an artist fused spiritual curiosity with an impish sensibility.

John Pete: Back in the Nixon era, this influential radio DJ introduced listeners to Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt and Shawn Phillips. His approach at KQRS became a blueprint for such hip local stations as 89.3 the Current. Long after retiring, John Peterson kept making mixtapes as if they were radio programs, featuring cool new artists like the National and Billie Eilish.

Leah Ottman: Respected and recruited by a wide array of Twin Cities music stars — including Dessa, Poliça, Jeremy Messersmith and Andrew Broder — the classically trained violinist also performed under the stage name LOTT. She died unexpectedly in December at 33.

Bill Gossman: This potter-turned-mayor helped make little New London, Minn., an arts destination, encouraging artists to set up shop there and attracting grants to keep them busy. "We don't get rich, but we lead a rich life," said Gossman, who loved to welcome visitors to his studio alongside the Crow River. He died in May of cancer at 67.

City Pages: For 41 years the Minneapolis alt-weekly raised expectations (along with ire and eyebrows) while nurturing a host of esteemed writers who covered the local arts scene and dug into stories the dailies didn't want to touch. Shut down by owner Star Tribune in October, it was ultimately done in by the pandemic — hard to rely on going-out ads when no one's going out. Sorry, but nothing we've seen so far on the internet will replace it.

Aldo Moroni: When he came to study at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, the charismatic Chicago-born artist discovered his art form. Moroni was obsessed with creating and destroying miniature "mock civilizations," a commentary on humanity's relationship to the built environment. His love of community and art went hand-in-hand — he was that guy at the bar everyone knew. He died at 67 of pancreatic cancer Sept. 27.

The ArtBox: Performance company Off-Leash Area ran this renovated space near Minnehaha Falls, opened in 2018 by husband-and-wife team Jennifer Ilse and Paul Herwig. The last hurrah was October's "Inbox@ArtBox," a choreographers' festival. Off-Leash plans to continue after selling the building.

Marga Richter: "Women write music — good music," the Minneapolis-trained, New York-based classical composer once told the Star Tribune. She proved it in a career that spanned eight decades before her death in June at 93. Starting at age 15, when she premiered "Jabberwocky" on the stage of Robbinsdale High School, Richter composed nearly 200 pieces of orchestral, chamber and vocal music.

Carei Thomas: Not only did he mentor some of the Twin Cities' best-known jazz musicians (from Jose James to Mankwe Ndosi) and help lead institutions such as the West Bank School of Music and St. Paul's High School for Recording Arts, the Minneapolis composer, pianist and educator also invented new ways of playing after being diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome in 1993. He served the local Buddhist community well, too. Thomas died of natural causes in May at 81.

Michal Daniel: His photos of shows at the Guthrie, Minnesota Opera, New York's Public Theater and many more complemented the artistry onstage. "His photographs captured, in a lovely way, the intimacy of the work. ... They invited us in," said Tony-winning director George Wolfe. Daniel, 64, died Sept. 25 in Prague, the city of his birth, where he returned in 2015.