It turns out Lucille Ball's hair wasn't her only red trait. The FBI had a file outlining its suspicion that Ball was a scheming commie. This little-known nugget of America's history of terror and subversion is just one of hundreds displayed in this exhibit from the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., "The Enemy Within." Although the all-encompassing term "war on terror" has gained substantial popularity since 2001, administrations have been battling terroristic groups and individuals since the end of the American Revolution. A few prime examples include the 1919 bombing of Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer's home in response to his anticommunist raids, the explosion of the Munitions Depot in New York Harbor in 1916, and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. In addition to these past terror threats, the exhibit identifies current hate groups functioning inside the U.S. today, and an eight-minute film, Under Siege (no, not the one starring Steven Segal fighting mercenaries on a Navy battleship, although that film would be fitting, too), analyzing current terror threats to America today. As part of the History Lounge series, this Tuesday at 7:00 p.m., author and Minnesota historian Annette Atkins and Minnesota Historical Society Curator Patrick Coleman will discuss how Minnesotans dealt with fear, terror, and government surveillance in the early part of the 20th century. — Ben Palosaari

Quilting has long been an art form that spans both ends of the practical-whimsical spectrum. Sure, they're great for cuddling underneath on cold nights, but they also brighten rooms, commemorate life events, document family history, and build community. But, as the Fiber Arts Study Group at the Textile Center has discovered, even tradition cannot escape contemporary concerns. Ten members of the group are exhibiting their climate change-centric quilts. Focusing on the psychological effects of global warming, much of the work is, not surprisingly, bleak. Kimber Olson's Point Zero looks like a Doppler radar triptych trimmed in caution tape in which all the landforms are masses of gray and black. More surprising is the streak of hopeful, bright colors that runs through some of the pieces such as Dawn Carlson Conn's Wind, which features dark silhouettes of wind turbines against a pastel sunset. But perhaps the deeper irony is in the very nature of such a show. Will there be a day when quilts serve only as decorative reminders of cold winter nights? Opening reception 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, April 18. — Rhena Tantisunthorn

Can an artist simultaneously celebrate and critique pop culture? Those familiar with the incredibly varied work of Richard Prince have seen appropriation, pop culture, and cultural criticism battle it out over the span of his 30-year career. His medium of expression varies greatly, from recreating photography, paintings, reprints of comics, and even collecting clay auto-body molds. The duality of his work is evident in his 1980s photographic recreations of the Marlboro advertising campaign, which celebrates the iconic image of the cowboy and Western landscape, while drawing attention to the hypocrisy that such an image would be used to advertise an addictive, unhealthy vice. His Nurses, inspired by the covers of pulp-fiction hospital romance novel covers, are both alluring and unsettling. Also, regardless of where his aesthetic inspiration takes him, each series of work explores concepts of artistic ownership, as he recreates and sometimes simply reprints photography, imitating iconic corporate symbols, or reprinting text or quotes from writers. Prince forces the viewer to reconsider context, drawing attention to the irony of pop culture, while bringing what is normally left unsaid to the forefront. After Hours Preview Party features food, film screenings of Rendezvous and The Honeymoon Killers, a text-based art activity, and music by Skoal Kodiak for $35 from 9 p.m. to midnight Friday, March 21. — Jessica Armbruster

One doesn't need a use Twitter account, an emoticon on a LiveJournal entry, or a link to Google maps to understand that the ways we express and comprehend the meaning of "where" is changing with new technology. This is the general premise of Intermedia Arts ongoing show, "W(e are)Here," a multimedia exhibit that explores the new frontier of "place" physically, technologically, and emotionally. Works include artistic visualizations of hard data, interactive elements, and emotional renderings of location. This Thursday, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., guests can partake in a "Psychogeographic Mapmaking Party," which, while it sounds like a mouthful, is really more of an adventure. Participants will be sent off in small groups on tours where routes will be dictated by a rolling of dice. Using a wall canvas, Google Earth, a wall projector, and some booze, tour details and memories will then be layered onto one another to create a map of experiences. An art party featuring live music, food and drinks, and a presentation of the final map will be celebrated the next day from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. — Jessica Armbruster

Though August Sander's photography runs the gamut from nature to architecture to street performance, he is easily best known for his portraits, including his epic series, "People of the 20th Century." The extensive project of documenting German society began in the 1920s, growing to over 600 portraits of individuals who hailed mainly from the Cologne region. Subjects spanned the full spectrum, including wealthy politicians, homeless artists, farmers, housewives, children, and others. Sander sought objectivity in his photography, striving "to see things as they are and not as they should or could be." Perhaps this is why his work was banned by the Nazis in the 1930s; his frank and matter-of-fact photography captured a diverse, cosmopolitan, and culturally rich country, which conflicted with the Aryan ideology. Though Sander passed in 1964, his work carries on today with his grandson Gerhard, and his influence can be seen in the work of many later photographers, including Diane Arbus and Richard Avedon. The Weinstein Gallery will feature 23 large-format images from original negatives from his collection. Opening reception 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Friday, February 22. — Jessica Armbruster

Eugenics, the practice of changing the composition of a population through sterilization, or discouraging reproduction among people with "undesirable" traits and encouraging it among those with "desirable" traits, is an unsettling concept. But what "Deadly Medicine" shows about eugenics in Nazi Germany is downright terrifying. Organized and circulated by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the display demonstrates that eliminating non-Aryans or unwanted members of society from the German population was not and could not have been a solely military or government operation. It took the efforts and compliance of scientists, anthropologists, geneticists, and doctors to plan and execute a path toward eugenics, forced sterilization, and genocide. "Deadly Medicine" shows this tragedy of the rise of eugenics in Germany from before the Nazi regime to its peak through video of survivors, photographs, propaganda, and objects. Throughout the display's run, the Science Museum will host a lecture series with experts discussing the ideas "Deadly Medicine" presents. On April 10, Eva Kor, survivor of Dr. Josef Mengele's harsh experiments on twins at Auschwitz, will speak about her process of forgiveness. — Ben Palosaari

The Jewish-American identity has become increasingly blurred in the past decades as Wonder Bread substitutes for Challah, and Christmas trees rest beside the Menorah. But not speaking Hebrew or observing Shabbat doesn't discount the heritage Jewish-Americans still hold. Lynne Avadenka, Robyn Stoller Awend, and Geraldine Ondrizek come together to drive right at the heart of this identity crisis with their joint exhibit, "Speaking in Code," which adapts the Hebrew alphabet, Jewish texts, images, and symbols of Jewish ceremonial life in various art forms. Fabric, letterpress printing, book, and installation art are all utilized to get at the essential, perhaps unsolvable, questions of who we are, where we come from, and where we are going. The result is stark and eerie; the work abounds with blank spaces on print sheets and a circular hole that cuts through the center of a mock prayer book made from linen and silk. But the art is also alive, pregnant with the loaded emotion that lies between a jumble of English letters and one from the Hebrew alphabet, floating aimlessly, trying to find its place. Public reception 6-9 p.m. Saturday, May 3. — Amy Liberman

Trisha Brown is an artist of and for our time, and has been for over 30 years. She began walking on walls and dancing on New York City rooftops in the hectic post-modern era of the 1960s. Since then she has made excursions into opera, visual art, even robotics. Her movement suggests the fluid architecture of, say, a liquefied Weisman museum: flowing in eccentric and unpredictable ways while maintaining a clarity of design that dazzles both the mind and the eye. This week, the Walker Art Center inaugurates "The Year of Trisha" with a show of her drawings that opens with a live performance by Brown in which she synthesizes dance and drawing by improvising movement across a large piece of paper with charcoal and pastel. Next week her company of superbly articulate dancers performs new and classic Brown works at Northrop Auditorium, including the splendid "Foray Forêt" to the eerie strains of a marching band playing from the lobby; "I Love My Robots" with, yes, honest-to-goodness robots (and one live dancer); and "Present Tense," a new work to music by that iconic innovator John Cage. One of the most articulate artists around, Brown will talk about her career in dance and the visual arts at a "Talking Art and Dance" event on April 22. Then she'll be back in July to remount several site-based works from the 1970s, including a work in which the dancers float on rafts in Loring Pond. Kudos to the Walker and Northrop for bringing us so many aspects of Brown, a major 20th-century artist who is still rocking and invigorating the 21st. Opening reception with dance/drawing performance by Brown is free at 7 p.m. (tickets available at 6 p.m. in the Bazinet Lobby) Thursday, April 17; free artist's talk 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 22; dance performance is $25-$42 at 8 p.m. Friday, April 25 at Northrop Auditorium (84 Church St. SE, Minneapolis; call 612.375.7600 for tickets). — Linda Shapiro

It's true, open-mic nights can be a dodgy venture. Performers can be erratic and lack stage presence; the embarrassment of a failed joke can be almost too much to bear. Fortunately, at this open-mic night, those moments are few and far between. Thanks to the three-minute time limit, if things get awkward, at least it's over quick. The rapid-fire funny bone format also allows for a great deal of variety: On any given night, one might see a local comedian trying out new material, a college student popping his open-mic cherry, or someone's wacky grandpa with a weird stunt worthy of David Letterman's "Stupid Human Tricks." Whether you give a genuine belly laugh, or sit in stony silence while sipping your carafe of sangria, you're only three minutes away from a totally new shtick. 18+. — Jessica Armbruster