Take this month of free time to experience culture missed during a school year crammed full of grad school applications and binge drinking. For your wintertime pleasure, A&E has listed the best art and culture experiences during holiday period. Art âÄî Brightly Shining: Interact’s Annual Holiday Exhibition and Sale WHERE: Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, 212 Third Ave. N. WHEN: Dec. 11 âÄì Jan. 31 The nice thing about American holiday shopping is that most presents are usually purchased for oneself. But if you actually do have to impress someone special, original art is a good bet. Interact Art Center is the perfect place to start shopping around this season. Originally founded as a performing arts studio for the disabled, Interact has expanded to feature the work of stylized visual artists, as well. During their holiday sale, peruse works in every medium from expressionist painting to moving brass sculptures and support the local arts scene. Art âÄî âÄúArt Form 1040: Re-ArtedâÄù WHERE: The Gallery at Fox Tax, 503 First Ave. N.E. WHEN: Jan. 16 âÄì April 15 Collaboration is posed frequently in art, but how rooted in individuality is artistic creation? Fox Tax’s upcoming exhibition âÄúArt Form 1040âÄù aims to answer just that question. A play on the tax form 1040EZ, local artists are asked to take colleagues’ work and âÄúre-artâÄù it, in the same way a rep from Fox Tax will rework your tax form. Curator Emma Berg of nonprofit MPLSART seeks to find out what would happen if a series of Minneapolis artists âÄúmatedâÄù their art. The results will be available in print form for just $40 and will be excellent gifts to have on hand for 2010. Art âÄî Heavy Sleepers WHERE: The Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Avenue WHEN: Dec. 17 âÄì March 14 Chinese avant-garde artist Zhao Liang draws on his Chinese background to comment on American structuralism. The work that he has done so far crosses lines between documentary film, sculpture and photography. LiangâÄôs Walker exhibition âÄúHeavy SleepersâÄù portrays the struggles of the working class Chinese with solemnity and dignity. His work frequently deals with the lower class, examining their propulsion of culture, collective nostalgia and the tolls of forced modernization. Art âÄî âÄúalmost (t)here: New Bearings from contemporary artists in EuropeâÄù WHERE: Katherine E. Nash Gallery, 405 21st Ave. S. WHEN: Jan. 22. âÄì Feb. 18. The upcoming exhibition at the University of Minnesota’s Nash Gallery âÄúalmost (t)here: New Bearings from contemporary artists in EuropeâÄù features the work of several international artists from Finland to Iraq. Each artist portrays the experiences and hardships associated with immigration or the crisis of patriotism in an interdependent global world. The explorations come in all forms and media. âÄú2 x 3 BordersâÄù by Pauliina Salminen and Andres Jaschek is a video installation that explores when natural resources lie on manmade national borders and each country decides differently how to handle the natural beauty and money-making raw material within. The series of poignant photographs by photographer Jaakko Heikkilä details the experience of a group of Armenians today as an allegory for the massacre that occurred during the reign of the Ottoman Empire. Reading âÄî Alex Lemon’s âÄúHappy: A MemoirâÄù WHERE: Magers and Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Avenue WHEN: 7:30 p.m., Jan. 7 Alex Lemon’s memoir âÄúHappyâÄù follows him through his years in the late âÄô90s at Macalester College in St. Paul. The book begins as another American coming-of-age novel but takes a nasty turn when Lemon has his first stroke and finds comfort in drug and alcohol abuse. The memoir deals with what exactly it means to be young when the body goes awry. Lemon’s cynical prose and sharp wit construct a dark work with interludes of humorous anecdotes. Each little quip carries a heavy undertone as Lemon journeys out of âÄúhappyâÄù and into self-acceptance. Honorable Mentions Art âÄì The Last Polaroid Show: Capturing the Flora and Architecture of Como Park’s Marjorie McNeely Conservatory WHERE: Marjorie McNeely Conservatory, 1225 Estabrook Drive, St. Paul WHEN: Dec. 5 âÄì Jan. 19 Theater âÄì American Sexy WHERE: The Guthrie Theatre, 818 Second St. S. WHEN: Jan. 15 âÄì 23 Mindless Entertainment âÄì MacyâÄôs Minneapolis 47th Annual Santaland WHERE: MacyâÄôs, 700 Nicollet Mall WHEN: Nov. 21 âÄì Dec. 30