Thrivent, which sells insurance and financial products to Christians, is the only collector with a religious bent in a group that includes Daimler, Statoil, UBS, Deutsche Bank and other international businesses. Crucifixion and manger scenes, martyred saints and resurrections are typical subjects in the 1,100-piece museum-quality collection that spans 800 years.

Of the 81 featured collections, only eight are American and only one based in Minnesota: the Thrivent collection of religious prints and drawings by Rembrandt, Rouault, Picasso, Franz Marc, George Bellows and other top talents. “I could have given him a much bigger place,” Alexander pointed out.Ĭhristian art rarely gets attention from international culturati, but then comes “Global Corporate Collections,” a sleek, copiously illustrated 536-page book published in Germany with sponsorship from Sotheby’s and the Russian Gazprom group, among others. Alexander contacted Prince’s agent but “that wasn’t going to work.” No, instead Prince is playing three nights this weekend at Paisley Park. But then I was told there was a scheduling conflict.” That was in late spring - before the ’Mats pulled the plug on their tour in early June. “You never know how close you really are,” Alexander told I.W. You wanna know why there’s no MN Music on a Stick concert this year at the Minnesota State Fair? Because neither the Replacements nor Prince would commit, says State Fair Deputy General Manager Renee Alexander, who books the grandstand. Or, as EW put it, “a rosy remembrance of a region already known for its niceness.” Time for some John Sandford thrillers, to cleanse the palate. Because nothing says Minnesota like happy little girls in a bucolic small town. No, we get the “Betsy-Tacy” children’s series, written by Maud Hart Lovelace back in the 1940s and ’50s and set in a town based on Mankato. And what about Minnesota? No Sinclair Lewis, no Garrison Keillor, Charles Baxter or Judith Guest. Others are obscure - “Geek Love,” for Oregon “True Grit” for Arkansas and, happily, Mary McGarry Morris’ “Songs in Ordinary Time” for Vermont. Some are obvious - Anne Tyler’s Baltimore novels for Maryland John Updike’s “Rabbit, Run,” for Pennsylvania Larry McMurtry’s “Lonesome Dove” for Texas. The current Entertainment Weekly features a two-page, full-color map of “The United States of Books,” one work that best defines each state.

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