Arts & Culture

Idaho’s capital city turns 150 this year and to mark the occasion the ticketing lobby at the Boise Airport will be home to a commissioned mural. The city of Boise will commission the work. A national panel has narrowed the field to proposals from three Idaho artists.  

Ketchum is known for its recreational opportunities. Hiking, camping and river sports have long been touted as reasons for people to visit the Wood River Valley. But a distinction from a national arts organization could give the small community another claim to fame.

You hear NPR’s popular quiz show Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! every Saturday morning on KBSX. Thursday night the radio show will be beamed into select cinemas across the U.S. including in Boise for the first time. You’ll see host Peter Sagal along with Carl Kasell and the whole cast of characters live on the big screen.

NPR has been bringing you stories about coffee this week.

We’ve learned about coffee habits in Scandinavia, how growers in Central America are going green, and how coffee consumption has changed world history. Now, we learn a little bit about coffee here in Idaho.

Boise’s Treefort Music Fest made some big strides in its second year. A month after the festival wrapped up, organizers say the festival grew more than was previously thought.

Ballet Idaho premieres Swan Lake tonight. Here’s what you need to know about this classic ballet. There’s Prince Siegfried. He falls in love with a beautiful woman named Odette, who’s actually trapped in the body of a swan.

Phyllis Rothwell Affrunti dances the part of Odette. The lead dancer calls her character “fragile,” a beautiful creature that has been imprisoned as a swan by the evil wizard Von Rothbart. “She’s waiting for true love to come to save her,” explains Affrunti. “It’s the only thing that can.”

Boise State’s football team will hold its annual spring scrimmage on its famous blue turf Saturday. Nearly 7,000 miles away in Japan, the Hosei University football team will also play a spring game.  But the schools have more in common than just that.  The Broncos and the Tomahawks have an unusual football relationship that’s rooted in the two  schools’ academic partnership.

Five years ago Boise Mayor David Bieter proposed a $60 million trolley for downtown Boise.  When federal funds for the project didn't come through, the project was put on indefinite hold. 

The Treasure Valley actually had an electric railway that linked Boise, Meridian, Eagle, Nampa, Caldwell, and Middleton many years ago. That story unfolds in a new pictorial history book called the “Treasure Valley’s Electric Railway.” Barbara Perry Bauer is one of the authors and she says the trolley started more than 100 years ago.