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From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.
Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.
Authoring and illustrating childhoodArt fan Deborah Bartels of St Paul took a delightful trip The Kerlan, which is one of the premier collections of children’s literature, housed in the Elmer L. Anderson Library on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota.
Called “Journey to Joy: Rise, Relevance, Representation in Children’s Picture Books,” the exhibit is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., with docent-led tours available by appointment each day at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Please note: the Kerlan is closed on weekends and from Dec. 21-Jan 1 for the University’s holiday break.
Deborah describes. the exhibit: The entrance to the exhibit welcomes viewers with life-sized, colorful cut-outs of joyful children doing cartwheels and reaching for the stars. A wall behind is covered floor-to-ceiling with enlargements of the covers of books that have won the Ezra Jack Keats Award.
Displays invite visitors to see the process behind the published award winner: the submitted manuscript, the sketches that evolve into beautiful artwork and the notes of the authors and illustrators.
One of the surprising things I learned was that it is the editor who selects the illustrator for a submitted manuscript and that often the writer and artist never meet!
“Journey to Joy” is displayed over four floors of the Anderson Library. A short elevator ride to the third floor brings you to the beginning of the exhibit which succinctly illuminates the history of children’s picture books, a history which is not always one to celebrate.
The exhibit doesn’t dwell long on this exclusionary past; it reveals a lesser-known history of positive efforts to represent the diversity of people and cultures and of the awards which encourage and publish more diverse children’s literature.
I have long been aware of Newbery and Caldecott Medals which are well-known prizes in children’s literature. I knew little about the Ezra Jack Keats Award, which celebrates books that embrace all ethnic and social groups. The ground floor devotes an entire room to feature three indigenous Minnesota artist illustrators: Jonathan Thunder, Annette S. Lee and Marlena Myles.
— Deborah Bartels
Healing artsMartin DeWitt, former director and curator of the Tweed Art Museum in Duluth, recommends making time to see the Twin Ports exhibit “Loaded” by Duluth artists Rob Quisling and Jonathan Thunder.
It’s showing across the High Bridge at the Kruk Gallery Holden Fine Arts Center, University of Wisconsin-Superior through Dec. 20 and by appointment until Jan. 15, 2025.
Martin says: The exhibition is truly a collaboration by Quisling and Thunder, featuring a thoughtful and poignant selection by curator Annie Dugan of each artist’s diverse artistry that deals directly with their struggles and recovery from alcohol addiction. The exhibition is a powerful testament, not only to the artists’ long-term friendship, but also to their unique and powerful creative expression in a variety of media.
A dramatic, monumental acrylic painting on canvas by Thunder, smaller oil paintings and intimate prints and drawings by both artists, and a provocative mixed-media art installation by Quisling, fill the Kruk Gallery with inspiration, forthright honesty and beauty.
The notion of “Loaded” takes on new meaning, not only as a celebration of the artists’ sobriety but also how passion, friendship and creative expression can offer the potential for healing and resolve in this increasingly challenging world. This is an exhibition not to be missed.
— Martin DeWitt
A note before we goFrom Art Hounds producer Emily Bright: This is the last Art Hounds for 2024, rounding out our 15th anniversary year. Don’t worry, we’ll be back in January. But before we take a little holiday break, it’s worth taking a moment to appreciate what a distinct joy this show is.
This year, Art Hounds featured nearly 130 artists and events, from Worthington to Ely, from Fergus Falls to Winona, plus in venues across the Twin Cities metro area.
Artists regularly tell me that folks turned up at their show because they heard about it on Art Hounds.
And the range of shows is just as wide-reaching: visual arts exhibits and stage performances of all kinds. (And even some off-stage: we had not one but two dance performances on or near bodies of water, because that’s how we roll in Minnesota.) There were jazz concerts, community quilt projects, art strolls and cabarets, plus art collections at four different colleges.
This is work that sparks conversation about the biggest topics of our day! Shows that make people feel seen. Art that spreads joy.
Thank you to everyone who’s been on Art Hounds this year, for taking time to shine a light on someone else’s work.
It’s not too soon to let me know about the shows you’re looking forward to seeing in 2025.
Happy holidays, and we’ll see you soon.
— Emily Bright
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From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.
Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.
An arts retreatAndrew Rosendorf of Minneapolis says he wouldn’t be the playwright he is today without the support he received early in his career from the Tofte Lake Center.
He wants artists at all levels of their career to know that applications for next summer’s artist retreats are open now through the end of December.
Andrew says: I just want you to imagine going to a pristine lake near Ely, Minnesota, that’s adjacent to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. You paddleboard, you canoe, you wade feet into the lake.
You sit around a fire pit at night looking up at the crystal-clear night sky, like you’re at a planetarium. And you also get a work on your art surrounded by a community of artists. That’s Tofte Lake Center. I find it’s a soul-centering place that leaves lives and breathes the value that nature is nurture.
It gives access to artists at all levels of disciplines, and identities: those who are emerging, parents, BIPOC artists, arts educators who need time to center their own work and small collaborative teams.
I first got introduced to Toffee Lake Center because about 15 years ago, when I was in my late 20s, I went there to work on a play, and Liz Engelman, who is the founder and who runs Tofte Lake Center, said, “Come work on your play. We believe in you and your voice.” And for any artist starting out, there’s a huge sense of imposter syndrome, and here was a place early in my career telling me I belong, and that’s kind of everything for an artist.
— Andrew Rosendorf
Gratitude and celebrating loveKerry Johnson is the high school choir director in Worthington. This Sunday, she’s headed to the Worthington Chamber Singers’ Christmas concert. The theme of the concert is “Love Came Down,” and for this 30th anniversary performance they will sing a work they commissioned from Venezuelan composer Reinaldo Moya, entitled “Ya Germinaba.”
The concert is Sunday, Dec. 8 at 2 p.m. at First United Methodist Church in Worthington. The concert is free, with a free-will offering.
Kerry adds: Eric Parrish, the director, just really kind of has a knack for choosing themes and music that just really become more timely as the process of preparing that music goes on.
This year, the focus is on hope and on gratitude and on celebrating love, and the fact that we are more similar than we’re not. And I think this fall, especially, that’s an important message to to put out into the world, just that we have a lot of common ground that we need to tap into.
— Kerry Johnson
Escape into the world of dreamsMabel Houle appreciates the vibrant community of artists living in her Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis, and she recently got a sneak peek at a show by three local artists at the Vine Arts Center.
“Dreams and Abstract Schemes” features the works of Kim Pickering, Susan Kolstad and Karen Brown. It will be on view for the next three Saturdays, including during this Saturday’s Seward Frolic.
Mabel appreciates art that transports us away from reality and into another world.
Mabel says: I find Susan’s collages of these earthy landscapes very soothing, very comforting.
Her paper has such wonderful textures, and the colors are just calm and peaceful; and that’s quite different [from] Kim’s vivid dream images, which are more mind-bending, very colorful, very, very abstract — just beautiful images of something that's not in this world.
Karen creates these very unique sculptures that are not completely human and not completely animal.
— Mabel Houle
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From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.
Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.
The M’s new wing triples its exhibit space in downtown St. PaulArchitectural historian Marjorie Pearson of St. Paul wants people to know that the new, expanded wing of the Minnesota Museum of Art, commonly known as the M, is now open in the historic arcade of the Endicott building in downtown St. Paul.
The major renovation triples the available exhibit space for Minnesota’s oldest art museum. The exhibit in the new wing, entitled “Here, Now,” features 150 works from the M’s permanent collection, ranging across centuries and styles. The museum is open Thursdays through Sundays and admission is free.
When you visit, Marjorie recommends you take time to admire the architecture in addition to the art.
Marjorie says: This is a premier office building that was designed by Cass Gilbert in the early 1890s and the arcade with its wonderful arch stained-glass ceiling, beautifully restored by Stonehouse Stained Glass Studio in Avon, Minn., really enhances the whole gallery space.
The Endicott building was constructed around the historic Pioneer building … the two buildings were combined. The galleries now are in the historic arcade, which was a shopping arcade for people in the offices downtown — a precursor to a shopping mall.
[Note: Cass Gilbert (1859-1934) was a prominent architect who lived and worked in Minnesota for portions of his life; he designed many important buildings, including the Minnesota State Capitol and the U.S. Supreme Court Building.]
— Marjorie Pearson
Artist created, student-curated Black joyBilly Nduwimana Siyomvo got an early view of the exhibit “Layers of Joy,” which he called “mind-blowing.”
The exhibit features five Minneapolis artists — Leslie Barlow, Alexandra Beaumont, Eyenga Bokamba, Cameron Patricia Downey and seangarrison — whose selected works celebrate Black joy and identity. Billy loved the work, and he recommends taking your time to take it in from all angles.
He was also struck by the exhibit’s backstory: the show was curated by University of Minnesota students enrolled in ARTH 3940: Black Art in Minneapolis, taught by Dr. Daniel M. Greenberg and Dr. Dwight K. Lewis, Jr.
Billy describes the show: When you walk in, the first thing that embraces you is colors —different textures, colors, different stories. Each art piece I felt like was made with love.
What I love about this [exhibit] is that this class is basically giving these artists a platform. I don’t think it’s every day that you hear about curating art; people need to understand that, yes, these artists are very important, but without the right curated spaces, their art is not put on a platform that it deserves to be on.
— Billy Nduwimana Siyomvo
Where design meets playRebecca Montpetit of Rochester is a lifelong fan of the Rochester Art Center, and she’s already making plans to go back again with her family to see Mini Golf and Chairs.
The interactive exhibit consists of 20 chairs from the private college of an Owatonna family, which artist then used as inspiration to create five mini golf holes. You can’t sit on the chairs, but you can play the golf holes. Clubs of all sizes, including adaptive clubs, are part of the exhibit, and there is a par for each hole. The exhibit runs through May 4, 2025.
Rebecca describes what it was like to visit the exhibit with her kids, aged 8 and 10: The beginning of the exhibit leads you through this hall of chairs. And it was a really fascinating discussion with our kids to talk about.
We said, all of these have the same purpose: to sit! But look at all of the materials and ways that you can create ways to sit. They’re everything from corrugated cardboard to molded plastic to, a kind of a shag material.
So we had all sorts of different ways to explore, ways to sit. So it gave the artist creative license as well to really be inspired by the materials or the shape or even the thought process as they created the mini golf elements.
— Rebecca Montpetit
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From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.
Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.
Hankering for a crankeringNorah Rendell is the executive artistic director of the Center for Irish Music in St. Paul. She saw — and loved — the original storytelling musical “The Well Tree” by the Heartwood Trio last spring.
The trio consists of Sarina Partridge of Minneapolis, Heidi Wilson of Vermont and Willie Clemetson of Maine. They’re back for performances of “The Well Tree” tonight at 7 p.m. at the Twin Cities Friends Meeting House in St. Paul and Friday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. at New City Center/Walker Church in Minneapolis.
Norah says she imagines the acoustics of the church venues will be well-suited for a show with beautiful harmonies.
Norah says: It’s an original singing story performance that includes songs and instruments and acting and illuminated paper cut art called a “crankie” [so named because a person turns a crank to scroll to new images].
It tells a story of a young woman who finds herself running away from home, and along her journey, she meets songbirds and snails and ancient trees as she finds her way home. And the three artists who perform are super talented. They’re beautiful harmony singers. There’s a fiddle player, a banjo player and they’re all actors and they invite the audience to sing along.
It seems like it would be geared towards children, but it really suits anybody of any age who loves the experience of singing together with other people. You leave the show feeling great; it’s very inspiring, very positive. The show itself is really inspiring.
— Norah Rendell
The male gazeErin Maurelli is an artist and educator in the Twin Cities. She wants people to know about the MCBA / Jerome Book Arts Residency show which is up now at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, inside Open Book in Minneapolis.
Free and open to the public, this show displays the work of the three winners of the Jerome Book Arts Residency: photographer Christopher Selleck; papermaker Jelani Ellis; and artist and printmaker Louise Fisher.
Erin says: Christopher Selleck is a photographer who takes on the body, the figure and what we think of as idealism, and through the lens of the camera, he’s able to capture kind of the ideal masculine body — which, in my experience, we don’t see a lot of that in art and art history. Christopher brings issues of identity and sexuality into his work as a gay man, I think the male gaze becomes part of his narrative.
Christopher was selected to be part of the Jerome book arts fellowship, and the show is through January 4 of next year. He’s one of three artists that are part of that show, there are some hand-crafted books featuring his photographs as well as sculptural elements. He’s exploring bringing the photographic process into bookmaking.
— Erin Morelli
Baroque in GaylordCharles Luedtke is a retired professor of music at Martin Luther College in New Ulm, and he is heading to Gaylord tonight to see La Grande Bande.
The group specializes in performing music written from 1600-1800, using instruments of the period. Their November concert celebrates the 340th birthday of Handel with two of his works set near water, his famed “Water Music Suites” as well as his cantata “O come chiare e belle.”
Handel’s "Water Musicks" is tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Gaylord. Michael Thomas Asmus, the founder and artistic director, will give a talk before the performance at 6:45 about the music.
Charles says: It’s rather spectacular because he lives in Gaylord, just outside of Gaylord and his music performances have been kind of centered around that area, sometimes in St. Peter, sometimes in New Ulm.
So, it’s kind of local, but [it’s] tremendous quality. They’re not amateurs, never amateurs. They are all really professional performers and on period instruments — baroque instruments.
— Charles Luedtke
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From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.
Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.
Dance a mile in another’s shoesErinn Liebhard is the artistic and executive director of Rhythmically Speaking, a jazz and American social dance-based company.
She’s looking forward to the Threads Dance Project’s fall show, “Impressions,” this Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at the Luminary Arts Center in Minneapolis.
Erinn elaborates: Their artistic director, Karen L. Charles, is a really fascinating artist. She was a mathematician and statistician who ended up shifting into dance education and eventually was able to open her own company. So she’s got a really sort of methodical yet artistic way of creating choreography.
Something that I love about Threads’ work is that I feel like it’s really artistic and accessible at the same time. So it’s saying something, but you don’t have to have special training in dance in order to understand.
(As part of the show), Threads is going to be re-exploring a piece about shoes. The piece is called “Abolition in Evolution, Part 2 – Shoes,” and it’s based upon the shoes we wear and what they say about us.
I think it’s really interesting that they’re taking this metaphor of walking in someone else’s shoes into a visual and artistic representation that causes you to ask questions about identity, race, class and how we see each other.
— Erinn Liebhard
Alice in NorthfieldMargit Johnson of Northfield appreciates the work of ArtMakers, and she’s looking forward to their new, original musical, “Alice’s Wonder.”
Shows are this Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. (with audio description) at Northfield Arts Guild Theater. Admission is free for this family-friendly show.
Margit says: What I like about ArtMakers’ storytelling through music and theater is the genius of the artists with and without disabilities.
For 10 years now, ArtMakers start with individuals from the Northfield area, from Colorado and even from Norway; they craft a production around and adapt to the talents and special needs of each participating artist. This way, they create authentic, artist-centered projects in the community.
I know that “Alice's Wonder” is going to surprise and delight me. Alice is blind, and so is her friend, the White Rabbit. Their Wonderland is going to come alive with sound and what they call the brave idea of living your life as you choose. The ensemble includes local performers with disabilities alongside professional musicians from Northfield and the Twin Cities.
— Margit Johnson
Take me to the riverAuthor Marcie Rendon of Minneapolis recommends that people see “The Adventures of a Traveling Meskwaki,” written by and starring Oogie Push.
Originally a one-woman show, the multimedia performance has been expanded to a cast of five. Full Circle Theater is producing the show, which will be staged at Park Square Theatre in downtown St. Paul.
There’s a preview performance tonight ahead of the opening Friday. The show runs through Nov. 24, and tickets are pay-as-you-are-able.
Marcie says: It follows her adventures as she’s exploring and working with other Native people around issues of protecting the water.
It’s broader than just the water: it incorporates many of the things that she’s learned on all of these different travels that she’s done, from Alaska to Vancouver to Washington to California to out East. As a young person, she was a pow wow dancer. So she’s also got stories from that part of her life that she incorporates into her work.
The thing to know about Oogie is that she has a wonderful sense of humor. She can also go really deep into the emotional aspects of a piece, like into a character that she's taking on.
— Marcie Rendon
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This week’s Art Hounds look at an art exhibit about a walk along the Mississippi, Gilbert and Sullivan relocated to Scotland and a blend of concert band and technology.
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From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.
Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.
Portraits of immigrationRachel Coyne, a writer and painter in Lindstrom, loves outdoor arts events. She’s looking forward to seeing Cadex Herrera’s outdoor exhibition on the campus of the White Bear Center for the Arts in the north metro.
“First Person Plural” features 10 larger-than-life black-and-white murals, each featuring the faces of immigrants living in White Bear Lake, where Herrera also used to live.
The installation is intended to honor the diversity of immigrants in the area and their contributions. Herrera also directed a documentary about the project, which will be on view. The exhibit opens to the public Thursday with an artist event and celebration from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Rachel says: I just like the idea that, you know, this could be somebody you’re passing on the street. But also they’re a work of art.
— Rachel Coyne
Worthington marks Dia de los MuertosEric Parrish is the instructor of music and theater at Minnesota West Community and Technical College and the conductor of the Worthington Chamber Singers. He’s looking forward to a series of free events in Worthington to mark Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead.
Events start this weekend and run through next week, culminating in a performance by 512: The Selena Experience, a Selena cover band, on Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. Most events are held at the Memorial Auditorium in town.
Among Saturday’s events: Puppeteer Gustavo Boada will unveil two commissioned 8-foot Catrina sculptures at noon. His performance group Little Coyote Puppet Theatre will perform “Skeletons in the Closet: A Day of the Dead Story” at 1 p.m., followed at 2:30 by a puppet-making workshop.
The event coincides with the annual meeting of the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council, which comprises 18 counties and two sovereign nations. Art studios and public art will be open for self-guided tours.
About 512: the Selena Experience, Eric says: This is the premier Salena cover band in the country. So it’s a really big swing for our small community.
People don’t know Worthington is one of the most diverse communities outside of the Twin Cities in the state of Minnesota. And it’s very exciting for us as a community to embrace this holiday and in this way with all the artists and activities.
— Eric Parrish
Reflecting on water as a relativeDiane Wilson is a Dakota author living in Schaefer, and she got a sneak peek at the art exhibit Mní Futurism at Metro State University’s Gordon Parks Gallery in St. Paul. Mní is the Dakota word for water. In this exhibit, two Minnesota-based Native American artists reflect on our relationship with and use of water.
The exhibit is a joint show of photographer Jaida Grey Eagle, who is Ogalala Lakota, and multimedia artist Abby Sunde, of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe. The exhibit opens with an artist reception Thursday at 5 p.m. and runs through Dec. 5.
Diane says: Their work is very thought-provoking. It’s visually stimulating, and it ranges from impacts on water from pipelines, from pollution but also looking at the impacts on issues like food sovereignty and treaty rights and access to healthy water.
Jaida Grey Eagle’s photographs, for example, evoke the beauty of some of the traditional food practices. There are photographs of wild ricing. And there’s one that is so poignant of a young boy in a canoe, and it just evokes that generational relationship to wild rice and how dependent that traditional food is on clean water.
And then Abby Sunde looks at from a little more of a critical thinking lens. She looks at, for example, some of the impacts that pipelines have had on water in her community. So there is one series of drawings that are created from rust on glass, and it’s called “Stolen Water.”
It’s about aquifer breaches that occur when a pipeline piling is driven too deep, and it breaches into the aquifer, and all this water is released that isn’t supposed to be released. It’s stolen water.
It’s a small and intimate gallery on the first floor of the library. The work of these two women complements each other beautifully in terms of the way that they think about and portray water as a relative.
— Diane Wilson
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From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.
Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.
Let’s meet at the Halloween TreeKira Pontiff of St. Paul is a self-described occasional actress and full-time lover of all things autumnal and Halloween. She was thrilled to catch a rehearsal of the play “The Halloween Tree,” which she described as a magical Halloween adventure.
It’s playing at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis, Oct. 20 – 27. The world-premiere play is adapted from Ray Bradbury’s 1972 novel of the same name. The 90-minute show is recommended for ages 8 and up.
Kira describes the show: A group of trick-or-treaters meet up on Halloween night, and they get taken on a magical Halloween adventure by a very mysterious character who takes them through time and to different locations to teach them about the origins of Halloween, how different cultures celebrate where the holiday come came from.
It is a very fun adventure story. Light tricks, some shadow puppetry. It’s really a good, magical time, so definitely appropriate for kids. But if you're anything like me and grew up on the story of “The Halloween Tree” by Ray Bradbury, or watched the movie when you were a kid, it definitely hits those nostalgia notes.
I think the cast is just a ton of fun. A lot of very funny moments, a lot of really poignant, heartfelt moments. There will be trick-or-treating at some of the productions in the lobby, and there will be a place to light a candle to remember lost loved ones. So really, I think they’re really creating an environment in this space to celebrate the season.
— Kira Pontiff
What will people say?Ellen Fenster-Gharib is a freelance director in the Twin Cities, and she had an opportunity to read in advance an original play that takes on mental health stigma and community pressures.
The world premiere of “Log Kya Kahenge (What will people say?)”, written by Aamera Siddiqui, is a co-production of Exposed Brick Theatre, Lyric Arts and South Asian Arts & Theatre House. (“Log Kya Kahenge” is a well-known Hindi and Urdu saying that translates to “What will people say?”)
The show runs at Lyric Arts in Anoka Oct. 18 – Nov. 3. The play is recommended for ages 16 and up and takes on themes of mental health and grief.
Ellen says: I love Aamera’s playwriting voice and how she investigates her own history with such wit and sensitivity. The play is about a family, and specifically about some daughters who are trying to navigate their way in the U.S. with pressures put on them by their family and by their community.
I loved what Aamera had to say about it. She said that in her particular South Asian culture, there is this sort of collective interest and investment in everyone’s personal business. And she said in her playwright’s notes [paraphrase]: Now this might be making some of you feel very uncomfortable, like, Get out of my business. Shouldn’t you live for yourself? This is what happens in collectivist cultures, cultures in which each individual is seen as being responsible for the reputation of the whole community, and it’s sort of for better and for worse.
Everybody has your best interest in mind and also has a lot of opinions about how you’re living your life and the decisions that you’re making. So everyone’s in this pressure cooker of achieving and then also you can’t display any weakness. So the play addresses the stigma around mental health issues.
— Ellen Fenster-Gharib
A tale of monsters and menLoren Niemi of Minneapolis is the founder of the American School of Storytelling. He’s heard Chris Vinsonhaler perform excerpts of her new translation of the old English epic “Beowulf: Monsters and Men,” and he’s looking forward to her bardic performance next Wednesday, Oct. 23 at 6 p.m. at the Episcopal Church of Saint John the Evangelist in St. Paul.
Loren says: What is interesting to me about this performance is that A) it’s been a long time since there’s been a new translation that updates the language, and B) she is translating it with a slightly feminist view, so that her concerns, at least as I understand it, is that it's not “boys with swords” so much as the larger issues of politics and heredity and obligation.
So when I say heredity, I mean the who begat who, and who succeeded who, and how they arrived at power. One of the things I think I like about her performance is that she is very she is faithful to the rhythms of the material. The Beowulf text has a very rhythmic form to it.
— Loren Niemi
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From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.
Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.
Not your kids’ Halloween playActor Julie Ann Nevill of St Paul is looking forward to getting into the Halloween spirit when the play “Broomstick” opens Thursday at the Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis. The one-woman play features Cheryl Willis as a witch telling the story of her long life. The show is recommended for ages 14 and up. It runs through Halloween night, with a mask-required performance Sunday.
Julie Ann says: “It is billed as both a spooky and hilarious comedy. I am very intrigued by that. So many things around Halloween become kid-centric, and there are many of us adults, myself included, for whom this is our favorite holiday. And so we want something like this that speaks to us and not just to, you know, the small children or the family situation.”
“The Open Eye space is so very intimate. And for a one-person show, I think that really gives you a chance to connect with the artist that you’re watching. Joel Sass is a wonderful director. Cheryl Willis is an amazing actor who is so intriguing and sucks you in and really connects with audience members.”
— Julie Ann Nevill
Commonweal stages ‘Doubt’Delia Bell, a potter in Lanesboro, recommends seeing the play “Doubt: A Parable” at the Commonweal Theatre. The play won a 2005 Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for Best Play. Performed by a local cast, the show explores both fact and faith, and Delia says it leaves the audience questioning. The play runs through Nov. 10.
Delia explains: “I felt like I was thinking about it for days after. ‘Doubt’ is a story about two sisters, two nuns at a school, and a priest. They suspect that he’s done something inappropriate with one of the students. And so that’s how it stems: it’s this story of which side do you believe? And this nun is adamant about this, and the priest is adamant that he is innocent. It just creates doubt within the viewer. That’s the whole point; the story is never truly resolved.”
As for the production, “It’s a simple set. There’s a huge window that’s very striking. And with the music, you really felt like you were in a church at times. It was just what the story needed.”
— Delia Bell
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From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.
Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.
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Grief without wordsTheatermaker Kurt Engh saw The Moving Company’s performance of “SPEECHLESS” in 2017, and he’s thrilled the show is back again. The show opens Friday and runs through Nov. 10 at the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis.
As the name implies, the play is entirely without words, but the emotions run deep.
Kurt explains: Someone passes away in the play, and that person is ironically or symbolically named Hope. I think it’s intentionally left to be ambiguous.
The play is about five people going through grief in this very melodramatic but real way, and they find that the only way forward is to support themselves, but also support each other. The play shows how people are able to support each other when they don’t even know what to say, when they’re so upset and they’re so at a loss, truly, that they move forward through physical kindness to each other.
The collaborators of this production have been working together for many years. They are my favorite theater company in the Twin Cities, and this was voted as a best play of the year in 2017 by the Star Tribune. There are performances on Wednesdays that are pay-as-you-are starting at $15.
— Kurt Engh
A smorgasbord of short films — or hot dish, if you willRachel Coyne of Lindstrom is looking forward to seeing the Franconia 5 Minute Film Fest, a short film festival featuring works from Minnesota and Wisconsin artists. The top 15 judge-selected films will be screened at Franconia Sculpture Park this Saturday, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. and at the Trylon Cinema in Minneapolis Thursday, Oct 10.
The Franconia screening is free with a suggested $10 donation. Seating on benches is limited, so Rachel recommends bringing a blanket or lawn chairs.
Rachel adds: There’s a claymation artist, some live film, some animation. In the years in the past, when I’ve gone, you know, it’s kind of like eating like a really pungent spice. You’re just like, wow, that’s an idea, and it hits you over the head, and then before you know it, you’re onto the next film.
Given that the filmmakers are all from Minnesota and Wisconsin, Rachel adjusts her metaphor: It’s more hot dish. So there’s peas, there’s carrots, there’s tater tots and there’s probably even some mushroom soup in there.
— Rachel Coyne
Did you hear that classic Irish epic about the cow?Anna Maher is a classically trained singer and actor living in the Twin Cities, and she’s glad that one of her favorite theater companies, Clevername Theatre, is remounting a fan-favorite from the 2022 Minnesota Fringe Festival.
“Connor’s gonna tell: The Tain Bo Cuailnge” is a one-person recounting of the “Táin Bó Cúailnge,” an old Irish epic tale about a cattle raid. See it at Bryant Lake Bowl & Theater in Minneapolis, Fridays, Oct. 4 and Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 13 at 3 p.m.
Anna says: It’s kind of like the Irish Odyssey. It’s an epic, and it chronicles a war that was waged between two factions, and then there’s a hero. And the whole thing, the whole fight, revolves around a cow.
And so, Connor will tell the story. He uses different voices. There are some different outfits that happen. There’s a mask, there's a little bit of puppetry involved. And then he has a mandolin player who accompanies him for the entire show.”
(Note: Anna Maher works for American Public Media Group, the parent company of MPR News.)
— Anna Maher
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Divine narratives in theaterSuzy Messerole, co-artistic director of Exposed Brick Theatre, is raving about the play “A Walless Church: The Black Woman’s Guide to Making God.”
The original play was written by AriDy Nox and developed at the Playwright Center, and it includes music by Queen Drea. The play runs through Oct. 13 at the Pillsbury House +Theatre.
Suzy says: It is a beautiful combination of ritual and movement and storytelling. It is about three godlings that come back to Earth, and they are exploring how Black women experience divinity, so they are here searching for the divine. There is an incredible ritual that happens, really gorgeous movement, and there’s also three concrete storylines that you can really latch onto.
There’s all kinds of ways that this society tells Black women, explicitly and not explicitly, that they don’t deserve divinity, and this is a reclamation of the kind of faith and joy and beauty that Black women need and deserve and should have.
The three actors drop in and out of multiple different characters, from a mom to a grandma to an auntie to a teenager and back to a godling. And the great thing about seeing a show at Pillsbury House + Theatre is that it’s an intimate setting, so you’re getting up close and personal with these powerhouse actors.
— Suzy Messerole
Landscapes alive with lightArt lover Bill Adams of Erhard appreciates the arts scene around Fergus Falls. He wants people to know about a current show at the Kaddatz: “Scott Gunvaldson: Paintings, Drawings, Graphic Art,” which runs through Oct. 19.
Bill says: Scott is a former student of [the late] Charles Beck, and like Charlie, he really captures the essence of west central Minnesota in his landscapes. Scott uses light in just an extraordinary way to bring out the heart and essence of the landscape. Scott is also just an extraordinary portrait painter.
He has several portraits in this show that I think are just amazing. When you stare at those portraits, the people really come alive. And again, he uses light in just an extraordinary way to bring life to those portraits.
— Bill Adams
Rising from SuperiorArtist and educator Marjorie Fedyszyn of Minneapolis recommends Annie Hejny’s multidisciplinary solo show about humanity's impact on Lake Superior. “Imminent Change/Rising Potential” runs through Oct. 26 at Kohlman & Reeb Gallery in the Northrup King Building in Minneapolis.
Supported by the Kolhman & Reeb Project Space Grant, Hejny spent 24 days circumnavigating Lake Superior in 2023, during which time she took water samples that she incorporated into paints and gathered images and video.
Marjorie describes the show: In the gallery, you will see large-scale acrylic paintings based on Superior’s vast shoreline, rusted steel wall sculptures in response to the years of taconite tailings running off into the lake, intimate watercolor works in a mesmerizing, layered video projection of water, highlighting the entanglement of personal, political and social aspects of our magnificent Lake Superior.
Humans have altered this highly revered and significant waterscape, and inevitably, more changes lay ahead as shoreline development, invasive species mining threats and water temperatures continue to increase. Annie’s care and interest in the stewardship of the environment inspired her solo journey and informed these new artworks, aligning her firsthand experience with imaginative experimentation, she reckons with the past and finds hope in the possibilities ahead.
This body of work is so surprisingly different from her former work that it feels like it’s a launching point for whatever’s coming next in her career.
— Marjorie Fedyszyn
Correction (Sept. 27, 2024): An earlier version of this story misstated the title of AriDy Nox's play. It has been corrected.
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From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.
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Remembering the Great Hinckley Fire and those who saved livesChristine Wade of Elision Playhouse was able to see snippets of Bucket Brigade Theater’s original play “Survivors of the Fire” when it was at the Hinckley Fire Museum, and she’s looking forward to the full production at Art House North in St. Paul.
The play with music tells the stories of people who died and people who saved lives during the great Hinckley Fire of 1894, which was 130 years ago this month. The show runs Sept. 20-Oct. 12.
Christine says: This play tells the story of the tragedy and the people that died in the fire — anywhere from 400 to 600 people, they don’t really know for sure — and also the heroism of people who saved a lot of lives.
The show tells stories that you may have heard from the fire, but it also tells a lot of untold stories of people whose acts really didn’t get highlighted and celebrated in the way they should have at the time, including a Black porter who saved many, many lives by bringing the train back out of Hinckley with people on board.
The story is tragic, but there’s a lot of joy involved. There are multiple instrumentalists playing along. There’s singing; there's some dancing.
So it really is the whole gamut that we experience in a tragedy: we see the hope, we see the fear and the sadness and they tell it in a really all-encompassing way that leaves you ultimately hopeful, I think, at the end of the day.
— Christine Wade
Dancers unveil solo artistryCláudia Tatinge Nascimento is chair and professor of Theater and Dance at Macalester College in St. Paul. She’s planning to take students this weekend to see “SOLO,” the performances of the McKnight Dancer Fellowships.
In this 20th anniversary event, six dancers — three fellowship recipients from 2022 and three from 2023 — will perform original solo dance pieces, choreographed by artists of their choosing. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the O'Shaughnessy, with an artist talk-back following Saturday’s performance.
Cláudia says: One of the things that really is exciting to me is because you have six different dancers who have pieces commissioned for them by these very specific choreographers, then it’s an opportunity for the audience to see a really wide range of styles, and to also see dance as research because each one of these dancers have a particular way of connecting with dance.
If they choose a specific choreographer it’s because that other artist is going to help them with their research.
This year, the six dancers will present solo pieces by international guest choreographers from Beirut, London, Amsterdam or affiliated with major U.S. organizations such as the José Limón Foundation. This is really a unique opportunity to view works executed by some of the strongest dancers in our community.
— Cláudia Tatinge Nascimento
Artists in their natural habitats: Visit artist workshops in St. Peter this weekendEli Hoehn of St. Peter is the executive director of the Minnesota Original Music Festival, and he’s happy to share about another event in his town: the St. Peter Art Stroll.
Local painting, sculpture, ceramics, fiber arts and more will be displayed in artist studios and local businesses. The event runs, rain or shine, this Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Find a map of artist locations in St Peter and nearby Kasota here.
Eli says the Art Stroll is worth a visit to St. Peter, adding “I’ve been to these in years past, and it’s pretty much a full-day event.”
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Thinking about the future with all your sensesTheater artist and educator Kathy Welch of Minneapolis saw the multidisciplinary show “Legacy Dream Space” at the Owatonna Arts Center last year. She’s thrilled that the project has continued to expand and will now be on view at Modus Locus Expansion in Minneapolis.
Created by Craig Harris and Candy Kuehn in collaboration with Kym Longhi and Jim Peitzman, “Legacy Dream Space” opens Wednesday and runs through Sept. 25.
Kathy says: This is an exhibition that evokes all of the senses. It’s an immersive and interactive exhibition that includes sound and lights and projections.
The theme is “legacy,” so the exhibition asks you to think about what sort of legacy we want to leave behind. The audience gets to interact with buttons, and they can record responses, and they can be captured on video, and all of that is incorporated into future iterations of the work.
It was a way to think about the future with all of my senses. It does apply to your intellect, but also when you walk in there, the sounds and the colors and just the tactile [experience] — it was absolutely enlightening to me to see a way to think with your entire body, with all of your senses.
— Kathy Welch
Learning from strong women of the pastRebecca Damron of Lanesboro appreciates how History Alive Lanesboro looks to the past to draw connections to our present and our future. She’s looking forward to seeing their production this weekend, entitled, “Time for Women: 150 Years of Leadership.”
The original play highlights the roles of real women in southeast Minnesotan history who have worked for women’s rights and civil rights. The play also celebrates the centennial of Indigenous suffrage in 2024. The two acts span 1870 to 1970.
The show wraps up its tour, which has included Red Wing, St. Paul and historic Forestville, back in Lanesboro this weekend, with performances Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. at the St. Mane Theatre. Tickets are free for people under 18.
Rebecca adds: Something really fun that will happen is that History Alive Lanesboro will invite the audience to take part in a suffrage rally during the intermission of the show, and then the show will end with a discussion that’s led by the League of Women Voters.
I’d really love for people to come see it, because women’s issues are still at the forefront, especially in this political year.
— Rebecca Damron
And now, let’s all look at horsesDoris Rubenstein of Richfield is the arts reporter for the American Jewish World newspaper. She recommends seeing the new show of equine portrait artist Nanci Fulmek.
The opening date for the show is currently being revisited, but check with the ArtBarn52 Gallery for updates.
Doris tells it best: The State Fair is over, and since I fractured my ankle, I wasn’t able to go to my favorite place, the horse barns. The little girl who loved horses desperately still lives on inside me, and I need a horse fix badly as soon as possible. Looks like I’m going to get it, though.
Oil painter and instructor at the Atelier Studio Program of Fine Arts Nanci Fulmek will be exhibiting her fantastic portraits of beautiful horses, amongst other subjects, both serious and whimsical.
Please refrain from trying to feed the horses any carrots or sugar lumps. The paintings are so lifelike that you’ll be tempted!
Nanci shares that same girlish adoration of horses of all breeds as me, and she went on to paint amazingly life-like portraits of horses. You can almost feel the breath escaping from those flaring equine nostrils, and you'll have to control yourself to keep from patting one of those velvety noise noses.
— Doris Rubenstein
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Space cowboys and stolen moonMaria Ghassemlou of Minneapolis is a longtime Minnesota Fringe house manager, and that’s where she saw the play “Moonwatchers” in 2022.
The two-person show won the Best in Venue and Underdog awards that year. Now, she’s delighted to share that the show is back at Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis. The show is created and performed by Corey Farrell and Nigel Berkeley, who attended the University of Minnesota / Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training program together. The show opens tonight and runs through Sept 22.
Maria says: “Moonwatchers” is a show where there's two office workers, and their job just happens to be watching the moon and making sure that things happen on time — just a normal office job — but something goes awry when somebody steals the moon. Now they have to go on an adventure to go find it.
This is a two-person show where they play multiple characters. There’s Space Cowboys, there’s aliens, cows, space Jane Austin and space grass. It’s just a lot of silly and fun.
— Maria Ghassemlou
Cloudland celebrates DIY spiritPhil Schwarz of Minneapolis volunteers at Extreme Noise Records, and he wants people to know about Cloudland Theater, a 150-seat music venue on East Lake Street that celebrates its first anniversary this fall.
He describes Cloudland as filling a need for a small venue for DIY musicians (read: artist book gigs themselves) outside of a traditional bar setting.
Phil says: There’s not a lot of smaller venues in town. And when venues came back [after pandemic closures], there was an explosion of new bands and stuff, and a lot of these venues were a lot harder to book shows in, so Cloudland came along at a perfect time. The shows are very intimate: you can converse with the musicians and stuff like that, and it’s very kind of communal.
I’m super excited for Feast of Lanterns, which features Alan Sparhawk of the band Low and also Pete Biasi, who used to be in a great post-punk band from here called Signal to Trust. It’s kind of different than what Alan’s done with Low: I would say noise punk and more abrasive. They will be playing Saturday, September 21 at Cloudland.
— Phil Schwarz
Portraits of fame on displayGabi Marmet is a senior at The Blake School in Minneapolis, where she works on the student journal, Spectrum. She had a chance to interview Blake alum Thea Traff, who has photographed portraits of President Joe Biden, the Rolling Stones, Rachel Weisz, Sofia Coppola and Jessica Chastain, among a host of other entertainers and newsmakers, for such publications as The New Yorker and New York Times Magazines.
A selection of her mostly black and white photography is on display at the Bennett Gallery at the Blake School, open to the public through early October.
Gabi was struck by how Thea got her start as a Blake student taking photographs, and how her current schedule means sometimes she’ll get a call and have 48 hours to show up and photograph a subject.
Gabi says: They’re all very different styles, depending on the person. The Rolling Stones looked like they were having such a fun time in their photo shoot; they were just like laughing or like smiling really big.
(Most impressive photography subject, in Gabi’s opinion? Actor and singer Ben Platt — Gabi’s a fan.)
— Gabi Marmet
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From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.
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Memory and magicNanci Oleson describes herself as a visual artist, Montessori teacher and musician. She recommends the play “Five More Minutes” from Sod House Theater, which is currently on a tour of western Minnesota.
This moving play about an elderly couple facing dementia will be at the YES! House in Granite Falls Thursday, the Little Theater Auditorium in New London Friday and at the Madison Mercantile in Madison, Minn., on Saturday night. Social worker Adenike Ade provides a post-show talk-back about Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Nanci says that show creators and performers Luverne Seifert and Joy Dolo are two of her favorite performers in the Twin Cities: You are watching an old couple who is playing” they’re imagining adventures under the sea, into space … this is a way that they escape from their sort of mundane older lives.
But as the show goes on, we see that one of them is starting to lose memory, starting to move into dementia, and the fear that accompanies this from both of them and the poignant way that they tell this story, the ups and the downs, [makes this play] just this really incredible, important piece.
It provides everything I love, very good acting, amazing, delightful use of props and space, just gorgeous symphony between the two of them, as well as an educational experience and familiar experience of confronting dementia.
— Nanci Oleson
Dreamscape at duskSinger and artist Sarah Lynn of Brooklyn Park admires the work of Rimon, the Minnesota Jewish Arts Council. She wants people to know about Rimon’s “Gallery of Dreams” Thursday night.
It’s the organization’s annual fundraiser and an immersive art experience, featuring five local visual artists. The event is at 6:30 p.m. at the Machine Shop in Minneapolis.
Sarah says: Every single one [of these immersive fundraisers] that they’ve had has been incredible, and it will help support the broader arts community and start building some bridges of understanding.
— Sarah Lynn
Painted dialogues exhibitElizabeth Millard is delighted to have the 210 Gallery & Art Center in her town of Sandstone located north of Hinckley.
She recommends the current show “Deja Vu,” which features the work of two local artists, Jodie Briggs and TJ Rajala, who have created paintings in response to each other’s work. That show runs through Oct. 20.
Elizabeth says: The gallery is just delightful. It’s in a former church, and it does have a kind of community-church kind of feel to it. They’ve brought a lot of cultural resources there: they have different types of shows, music and events.
I’ve lived up here in the Northwoods for about 10 years and it’s very challenging to find a lot of kind of passionate, cultural, artistic community-oriented resources and I think that this is really leading the way in terms of showing people that it can be done up here.
— Elizabeth Millard
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From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.
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Cabaret of ancestorsMusician and cultural organizer Sarah Larsson wants people to know about singer-songwriter Carlisle Evans Peck’s show “Iconoclasm,” which is touring in western Minnesota.
She describes the show as part cabaret, part ritual, where the audience travels back in time to re-imagine stories from Carlisle’s family through a queer and often trans lens.
The show, originally developed as a Cedar Commission, will be at the YES! House in Granite Falls on Thursday at the Little Theater Auditorium in New London on Friday, and at the Madison Mercantile in Madison (the one in Minnesota) on Saturday.
Sarah says: So many of these stories are dramatic and amazing to begin with. Like, there’s a story of a great-grandfather who actually was hit by a train. But coming out of these kind of fantastic true stories, Carlisle is exploring, you know, in those times and places, maybe people’s queerness wouldn’t have been able to come out or be public in the same kind of way.
So what if there were some of these queer identities among these people, and they were just waiting to be told. Or maybe not! Maybe for these individuals, that’s not the way they would describe themselves. But there’s power in telling those stories and in seeing ourselves in these people from the past.
It’s an all-musical production with an amazing five-piece band and two backup singers, and then Carlisle embodies each of these characters, kind of like a series of sung monologues. Carlisle is this amazing, amazing, totally stunning performer carrying on the music throughout the entire piece.
— Sarah Larsson
Folk fusion nightFolk musician Emily Wright recently traveled to Montevideo for an evening of poetry and music, and she’s thrilled that these western Minnesota artists are bringing their work to the MetroNOME Brewery in St. Paul, Saturday at 7 p.m.
Brendan Stermer will read from his new book of poetry “Forgotten Frequencies” with musical accompaniment by his brother Andy Stermer and their friend Malena Handeen. (Sidenote: Andy and Brendan also produce the “Interesting People Reading Poetry” podcast.)
Emily says: Andy’s poems and their music are wide open and make me think about the prairie. They remind me of Montevideo, where they are all from.
Brendan’s book of poetry has this amazing section in it where he took the writings from the Journal of an explorer whose last name was Nicolet and turned them into poetry.
I think my favorite poem is this one called “Forgotten Frequencies,” which is the title of his of his book, and it’s talking about how the muse of poetry and the muse of art is there, you just have to turn your dial just a little bit to hear her voice.
— Emily Wright
A feast of puppetryMinneapolis puppeteer David Hanzal is looking forward to attending the Minneapolis Puppetry Palate: a Taste of Puppetry,” which is this year’s Midwest regional puppetry festival.
The four-day event promises to be a smorgasbord of puppetry performances and events. More than a dozen workshops held at St. Paul’s Church in Minneapolis encompass the craft and business of puppeteering and how to incorporate puppetry into classrooms and therapy settings.
The festival runs Thursday through Sunday at several Minneapolis venues. You can purchase passes for the whole festival, individual performances or for Saturday only.
David says: Something that’s really exciting for me as a puppeteer is being able to see, you know, such a diverse array of performances from all across the region, and also artists from other parts of the country. [I enjoy] that really saturated three- or four-day window where you just get to see lots of different kinds of puppetry.
There’s a mix of puppet performances for the family as well as adult-only audiences. There’s a puppet slam. There’s a puppetry panel on education and therapy. There’s also the puppet flea market.
And there’s the community puppet build and performance workshop, which is immediately followed by the puppet parade in Stewart Park on Saturday, Aug. 17.
— David Hanzal
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Winds of changeKate Saumur of White Bear Township is a freelance bassoonist, and she recommends seeing the Neoteric Chamber Winds Saturday, Aug. 10 at 7 p.m. at Roseville Lutheran Church in Roseville.
Kate says it’s a wonderful opportunity to see very contemporary, push-the-envelope compositions for winds.
Kate offers this background: They started as an offshoot of a really wonderful group called Grand Symphonic Winds, which is an adult concert band. I would say it’s the best in the Twin Cities area.
They don’t have a summer season, so the folks who are involved in that group decided that they wanted to do something in the summer. And that’s how Neoteric Chamber Winds got started. It’s self-directed, self-run.
They specialize in contemporary music. I would say for sure everything from the 20th century on. And in fact, they really do focus intentionally on 21st-century music.
— Kate Saumur
Artistic emotionsTina Burnside is the co-founder and curator of the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery in Minneapolis. She recommends seeing the art exhibition “Blak Grit,” opening at the Northrup King Building’s 3rd Floor Gallery in Minneapolis on Friday.
Tina says: They’ll be showing about 35 pieces in the exhibit, and the art ranges from abstract realism, Afro-futurism, sculptures and projection design.
And it’s a really powerful show because it shows a range of emotions reflected in these pieces, from love, violence, pain, heartache, beauty, joy and determination.
What I really like about this exhibit is that all of the artists are Black men, and I think that that’s really important, because in society and in the United States, men, in general and particularly Black men, are not allowed to show emotion.
So, this exhibit is a collective of Black men coming together to take space and to have the courage to express themselves and to show their emotions, show a range of emotions, and show their humanity.
— Tina Burnside
Jake’s Waits odysseyArt lover Lanny Hoff of Minneapolis is looking forward to A Tom Waits Revelry this Saturday. Hoff says he’s seen various versions of this performance, in which St. Paul artist Jake Endres embodies the spirit of musician Tom Waits.
This Saturday, Endres will be joined by a full band when he takes the Belvedere Stage at Crooners in Minneapolis. The show starts at 8 p.m., with dinner and cocktail seating 90 minutes before showtime.
Tom Waits began his career as a mellow crooner, Lanny says, and his work evolved to include such off-the-beaten-path instruments as circular saws and car horns. "His songs range from, you know, crazy sort of demonic sounding celebrations to deeply heartfelt lyrics that will rip your heart out. It's beautiful music that rewards a lot of re-listening.”
Lanny says: Jake takes a deep dive into Tom Waits: his catalog from beginning to end. He uncovers a lot of gems we haven’t heard before, and he fully inhabits the spirit of Tom Waits.
It’s not a tribute band. He’s doing his own take on it, but it’s the spirit of the performance. And the show has an arc to it that is beautiful: it’s up and it’s down, it’s raucous. It’s a gospel meeting.
It’s also a therapy session. It’s a high-energy, high emotion, fantastically professionally done show that I have enjoyed greatly every time I’ve seen it.
— Lanny Hoff
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Troll trail trekAnn Treacy of St. Paul has a radio show with Macalester College called “Mostly Minnesota Music.” Recently, took a drive with a friend to Detroit Lakes to see the new troll installation.
Created by Danish artist Thomas Dambo, these five enormous, playful trolls created from recycled materials are hidden in and around Detroit Lakes. Local Project 412 offers several map options to start you on the scavenger hunt, which begins with Alexa’s Elixir in accessible Detroit Lakes City Park.
Ann says seeing the trolls was worth the day trip: The trolls are amazing. When I say they’re giant, they run between 15 and 20 feet tall. Although there is one, Long Lief, who is 36 feet tall!
I had childlike expectations of the trolls, and they were far exceeded. There’s a scavenger hunt that helps you find them, and each troll will have little tasks that you can do.
If I still had small children, we would have done each task, but as an adult, I felt less need to. There’s a clue that each troll has that will help you find the golden rabbit.
What we ended up doing was driving about 20 minutes to each location. And then it’s about a 30-minute walk there and back. Not all the trolls are accessible to all: some are stroller-friendly, some are not. It was a good four-and-a-half-hour day for us.
— Ann Traecy
Navigating identitiesChristian Novak of Minneapolis recently visited the Public Functionary Upstairs Gallery in the Northrup King Building in Minneapolis, where he saw BearBOI’s photography exhibit. Titled "Blackness in Transit (BGBM)," the portrait series focuses on two Black trans individuals.
The show runs through Aug. 17, with an event Aug. 8 at 7 p.m. that features BearBOI and Word M. Musinguzi in conversation. The gallery is open Wednesdays through Saturdays 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Christian says: What I love about [this exhibit] is that it really challenges expectations, to think about what it means to be a man or a woman, and how these individuals have to navigate a society that really focuses on this binary idea of gender. And then on top of it, what it means to be Black.
Walking out of this exhibit, it reminded me that I need to understand my own expectations and I need to understand my own assumptions.
— Christian Novak
Bluegrass bonanzaDerek Johnson is a bluegrass/folk musician who performs with Monroe Crossing and Gentleman Dreadnought and as a solo artist. He wants people to know about the Minnesota Bluegrass August Festival, a multi-day campout music festival that’s happening next weekend, Aug. 8-11 at El Rancho Mañana in Richmond, southwest of St. Cloud.
Derek describes the scene: El Rancho Mañana is kind of a dude ranch and a camping ground, and they have one of the finest outdoor amphitheaters in the state because it’s in a shaded, wooded area.
There will be a whole host of bluegrass entertainers and old-time music from local bands to national acts performing on multiple stages throughout the weekend.
It’s a very family-friendly event. People camp out and listen to music all day and into the evening. And not only that, they gathered around the campfires after the live shows on the stage and they pick all night long.
There’s also a dance tent, so there’s going to be a lot of square dancing and a lot of line dancing throughout the weekend.
— Derek Johnson
A Bluegrass Jam Camp and Old Time Jam Camps run Aug. 6-8 before the start of the festival.
Correction (Aug. 1, 2024): An earlier version of this article misspelled Ann Treacy. The post has been updated.
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From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.
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Winona wondersStephanie Lynn Rogers is the executive and artistic director of Anderson Center at Tower View in Red Wing, and a visual artist in her own right. Amid preparations for this weekend’s Red Wing Studio Tour, she pointed listeners to Winona to see Judy Ofronio’s exhibition “Deep Dive” at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum.
Stephanie says: It’s an absolute must-see. Judy has had a phenomenal impact on Minnesota’s arts community over the past 50 years, and she’s one of the artists I respect most in our state.
She’s reinvented and reinvigorated her artistic style multiple times over a storied career, which takes guts and vision. This exhibition is not a retrospective, but it is definitely a very broad survey of the last two decades, going from colorful mosaic works from the early 2000s, through works that Judy made out of bones and bone castings that were more monochromatic in the 2010’s.
And in the last two years, her work has exploded back into this colorful three-dimensional collage that is one of her most known styles.
I’m also really excited about the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in general. They’ve been through a leadership and programming transition in the past few years, and they’re really hitting their stride with top notch exhibitions. I also think they do family-friendly museum experiences better than any other museum I’ve seen that isn’t focused just on kids.
For me, the expansion of their rotating exhibition program has changed MMAM from “must see when in Winona” to “Must plan to visit Winona so I make sure I see these shows.”
— Stephanie Lynn Rogers
Energetic ecosystemsVisual artist Pete Driessen of Minneapolis recently traveled north to Park Rapids to see the new exhibits at the Nemeth Art Center, which he recommends.
The two solo shows each take a look at the natural world. Wayne Gudmundson’s exhibit “What Stillness Has to Offer” encompasses large-scale photographic prints that zoom in close on forest scenes. Gudmundson is a retired art professor from Moorhead State University. Madeleine Bialke’s exhibit “The Long View” consists of landscape paintings. Both exhibits run through Sept. 28.
Pete says of Madeleine Bialke’s work: The vibrant acrylic works, recently created during her residency at the Nemeth, are highly energetic and expressive works, with brilliant use of color.
Her works have a unique idiosyncratic style, visually embracing the natural beauty within the gentle shapeshifting that occurs in our local ecosystems and environments.
Of particular interest to me as a viewer is how Madeleine captures the transitional glowing light qualities of sunrises, sunsets, moonscapes and how that light filters through flower petals, long grasses, tree leaves, or branches in a dense forest.
Whether it’s a becoming pinecone, wiggly birch or pine branch, the tipped Big Dipper, or night lights in cottage windows on side of lake, the body of work electrifies our innate and subtle connections with rural bucolic countryside.
— Pete Driessen
Shakespeare squashedTheater artist Stephanie Kahle saw Jackdonkey Productions’ staging of “The Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged)” when it was at the Phoenix Theater in Minneapolis, and she thought it was hilarious.
The show now heads to Stillwater, presented by the Zephyr Theater, July 25-27. The performance is at the Washington County Historic Courthouse at 7 p.m.
Billed as London’s longest-running comedy, the high-energy show features three actors attempting to squash all of Shakespeare’s works into two hours.
Stephanie says: It is so fun. It has three really talented actors who are very smart in their playfulness and very committed to the silliness of the show, and is just a treat to see new and young artists taking new approaches to the classic arts.
And I think that Zach Christensen, the director, has also given a lot of freedom to modernize and make it local and fresh, so not only is it really fun as a script, but I think their interpretation is also really fun.
Not only is it completely local talent who are amazing actors, but they take a lot of of modern social media trends. For example, they have an entire bit featuring chamoy pickles [referencing a TikTok trend.]
— Stephanie Kahle
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From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.
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Rustic gallery glamFood writer Amy Thielen of Park Rapids recommends a gallery space in Detroit Lakes with a show that opens Thursday for the peak summer season.
The gallery, run by ceramicist Ellen Moses, is called Art Project 605. Visitors can see the abstract landscape paintings and drawings of Jennie Ward of Lake Park. Entitled “Love Song in the Chaos,” the show will be up through Aug. 2.
Thielen offers this background: Ellen moved back from New York City during the COVID time. I feel like we gained in the North Country — we gained a lot of very cool people who moved back up north, where they are now working remotely. She and her wife Lori O’Dea bought a storefront.
In the back, it’s Ellen’s studio: She makes plates, cups and 3D sculptures. In the front space of the storefront there’s a gallery, and [Thursday night] a show opens by Jennie Ward, an artist who lives a little bit further west in Lake Park.
Jennie’s paintings are really interesting. They’re very beautiful. They’re abstract expressionist landscapes. The colors are big, swaths of thick paint; she’s a great colorist. I’m very excited for this work. I think everybody in town will love it.
It’s a beautifully renovated storefront: a beautiful, clean, minimalist working space. It reminds me of a corner in a bigger city, like New York or Chicago.
— Amy Thielen
Global grooves galaPadma Wudali is an amateur musician who plays the veena, a South Indian classical carnatic instrument. She loves the band Maithree, whose work combines Indian and Western classical music styles and instruments.
Maithree will be performing this Saturday, July 13 at 6:30 p.m. at the Hindu Society of Minnesota’s campus in Maple Grove. The concert is a fundraiser for a new Cultural, Arts and Heritage Center.
Padma says: Maithree is a band of Minnesotans who collaborate with classical music, both Western and Indian. So it to me it’s not about them diluting any of their art forms, but rather stepping into each other spaces to create amazing music. The music that we will get to hear is Indian, classical Irish, Turkish melodies all seamlessly blended together and various compositions.
Shruthi Rajesekar is the youngest member, and I’m super excited to see her work be represented by this group. She is a Western classical music composer who very much grew up in Plymouth and how her work is just being admired by so many people in the United States and abroad.
— Padma Wudali
Band blitz bashAmanda H. Malkin runs the PaperLoves Conservation in St. Peter, where she’s involved in the local arts scene. She’s looking forward to the 2024 Minnesota Original Music Festival, which starts next Wednesday, July 17 and culminates in two days of live, local music on July 20 and 21 at MN Square Park in St. Peter.
Amanda describes the events leading up to next weekend: There are workshops and jam sessions. There’s also this really awesome event called the 48-Hour Band Challenge. They basically invite musicians who are interested to put their names in a hat.
New bands are formed by picking names out of the hat, and then those new bands have 48 hours to write a song together and then perform it. It’s a way for musicians to find each other, workshop together, learn, practice, vibe!
— Amanda H. Malkin
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