Cafesjian Art Trust Museum — Attraction in Shoreview

We're so lucky to have this in our neighborhood! We easily made a no-charge reservation for the guided tour of private collection of Dale Chihuly (and some others) pieces and it was a beautiful and thoughtfuly displayed and presented collection. The space itself is really cool and they have a library I could easily spend hours in. The executive director (I hope that's the correct title) who gave us the tour was incredibly knowledgeable and personable. Easy parking, coat rack, and I'd recommend arriving early to peruse the library before the tour. There were maybe 10-12 people in our group/the whole building.

For parents, we bravely took our 2 and 4 year olds. We made it about 20 minutes into the hour tour before we feared for our retirement funds and had to leave and our kids are pretty chill and easy to wrangle, but that doesn't mean they're not clumsy. I'm glad we tried and that we got a glimpse of everything and exposed the kids to art (they love the Chihuly piece at MIA) and no-touching practice, but I'm eager to go back sans-kids and would not recommend this for under 7 depending on the kid.

My pictures don't show much of it at all, I was focused on the kids...

CAT is a true hidden gem just a few miles from Minneapolis and perfect for an afternoon excursion. I visited yesterday after hearing about it on TikTok. I’ve been dying to go, but the hours are limited, so it’s been tricky to go at the right time. It was 90 degrees yesterday, and I was craving art and AC. CAT was the perfect afternoon treat.

I took myself on a solo date here, and I spent about 30 minutes thoroughly enjoying each sumptuous piece in the small, well-curated gallery room. The museum is small and can be enjoyed in under an hour.

There’s a beautiful side room with a Chihuly glass ceiling that took my breath away. The way the light reflected on the walls and floor was awe-inspiring. The patio is also not to be missed. There were some incredible pieces, including a complex wind-powered glass mobile. It was my favorite piece in the whole place. Just stunning.

And to top it off- the museum is free! It was so calm and not too crowded. More people should know about this wonderful place. I’ll...

Mr Cafesjian had a truly fine eye for great art created by artists of his time. He seemed drawn to wonderful glass pieces but also collected paintings of various types. In one exhibition he had quite a few paintings that appeared 3-dimentional all painted on an entirely flat piece of paper! No neen to use any aids to see them pop out either! Unfortunately you can't just pop in to the place. It is likely that reservations are full well in advance, however things may be easing up since the opening several years ago. I should warn you that while exhibitions change, the museum is a private museum displaying only art that Mr Cafesjian collected in his lifetime and it is not as big as an art museum in a...