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Minneapolis • It might be art or it might just be cute, but a Minneapolis museum is giving serious attention to the online phenomenon of funny cat videos with a film festival in their honor.

The Walker Art Center's "Internet Cat Video Film Festival" is Thursday night. The museum programmer who hatched the idea says it's part social experiment to see if a popular online activity will translate into a shared community experience.

But program associate Katie Hill says it's also because cat videos are funny and cute.

And hugely popular. Some classics of the form rack up YouTube views in the tens of millions. Some of those videos will be shown Thursday, with a total of about 70 clips scheduled for the festival.