Art Hounds

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 original submission.A path to healingRuth Sloven is a St. Paul-based artist. She recommends the group exhibition “WITNESS עֵד,” a group art show by Jewish artists for Palestinian liberation, at Modus Locus in Minneapolis.Ruth says: This exhibit includes ceramics, sculpture, community, quilting, painting and video. Many of the works are traditional Jewish subjects, which have been repurposed in non-traditional ways. What I'm excited about is that it's a doorway into experiencing and expressing the grief about the destructive war in Israel and Gaza, and hopefully can be part of a path to healing.— Ruth SlovenStop, collaborate and listenJoseph “JoJo” Howsley is a music enthusiast based in Fargo. He recommends a showcase by Human Artistic Collaborations on Saturday, May 31, starting at 6 p.m. at Brühaven in Minneapolis.Joseph says: I met Kyle Krause last weekend. He is the head of Human Artistic Collaborations, whose aim is primarily to champion human-led art in a space that's constantly being inundated by artificial intelligence.They're doing an event with one of my favorite producers in the scene. His name is Deerskin, and they have over, I believe he said, 12 artists who will be showcasing and selling their art.— JoJo Joseph HousleyEpp squaredKari Olk is a Brooklyn-based teaching artist who grew up in Minneapolis. She recommends “Orlando: A Rhapsody,” playing at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis through June 8.Carrie says: “ORLANDO: A Rhapsody” by Vinora Epp and Steven Epp is a thoughtful reflection about art, gender, storytelling. It's both based on Virginia Woolf — a few of her writings: “The Waves,” “A Room of One's Own” and, of course, “Orlando” — and it's also combined with writing from Vinora and Steve. To see them working together is really special. And so it's really exciting to see her directorial debut, and it's really exciting that she's doing this work with her dad, Steve. The story of “Orlando” is a story about a person who, over 300 years, goes back and forth between being a young woman and a young man, and they both perform as Orlando, and they both perform as versions of themselves.— Carrie OlkCorrection (May 29, 2025): An earlier version of this story misspelled Kyle Krause. The story has been updated.

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 original submission.Celebrating the work of Duluth artist Oddio NibJeff Schmidt, owner of Lizzards Art Gallery & Framing in Duluth, recommends visiting a retrospective show for Duluth painter Oddio Nib. Nib is a prolific artist whose work includes still lifes as well as abstract and narrative paintings.Over 100 of Nib's paintings spanning more than 40 years of work will be in the exhibit, which opened this week at Zeitgeist's Gallery Cafe and runs through July 30. The exhibit will expand to the Zeitgeist's Atrium July 2–30, where some of Nib's larger works will be hung. The paintings are for sale as well.Sing me a SongAmanda Helling is an improviser from Minneapolis, and she appreciates the musical improv abilities of Hannah Wydeven. Her ability to make up engaging songs on the spot is on full display in her show “Sad Songs for Happy People,” which runs Fridays in May at 9:30 p.m. at Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis. It's part of The Residency at the venue that pairs two 25-minute improv shows in an evening; Darth Hogbeef is the partnering act.“Sad Songs” will also help kick off the Twin Cities Improv Festival, which runs June 5–8 at the Phoenix Theater in Minneapolis.Amanda says: Hannah is an engaging musical improviser, and her show is very interactive. I'm always blown away by people who can improvise songs that sound almost preplanned, and Hannah is at the top of that game. Between the total 4th-wall break and the music that, despite being called “sad songs,” is often riotously funny.Hannah's show is a tour de force. “Sad Songs” would be at the top of my list of suggested shows to introduce someone to long-form improvisational theater.— Amanda HellingTell Me a StoryPeter Bretl of Minneapolis calls himself an enthusiastic amateur storyteller, and he's really been enjoying taking classes and attending open mic nights at the American School of Storytelling in Minneapolis.He appreciates the coaching to help him tell stories more comfortably before a crowd, and he recommends that anyone who is interested show up at an open mic night and add their name to the list of speakers for an opportunity to tell a story of up to 10 minutes in length.Open mic nights for storytelling are the third Monday of the month (next event: Monday, May 19 at 7 p.m.) and open mic nights for poetry are every fourth Monday (next event: Monday, May 26 at 7 p.m.)Peter says: The venue itself is delightful. I think seating capacity is 36, so you feel almost surrounded by friends. There's an intimacy to it that I really, really like. And the crowds there are very supportive. Everyone wants you to succeed.— Peter Bretl

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.Showcasing dance from across SomaliaSabrin Nur is a multi-disciplinary artist living in Minneapolis, and they are excited to see “Dhaxal-suge: the Somali Museum Dance Troupe Showcase.” The Somali Museum has maintained a youth dance troupe since its inception, teaching young people the widely varying folk dances from across Somalia. This will be the first performance by the museum's dance group residency program. There are two upcoming performances: at the Paramount Center for the Arts in St. Cloud, Tuesday, May 13, at 6 p.m., and at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis next Sunday, May 18, at 7:30 p.m.Sabrin reflects on the themes of the show: The storyline is “when a beloved leader falls, who carries the crown?” and I think the question they're asking is a big question for Gen Z and also the Somali millennials who have grown up in the wake of the war, right? I'm 25 years old. For people like me, we've never known a peaceful Somalia. We've had a lot of our elders looking down to us and being like, “This is your history. This is what we used to be like. Now, what are you gonna do?” They've put a lot of responsibility on our shoulders, and a lot of us are ready to take it on, but it's like, what kind of future do we envision for ourselves? How do we carry that responsibility? How do we wear that crown?— Sabrin NurBooks meet architecture meet sculpturePeggy Korsmo-Kennon of Eagan, a former museum and arts administrator, recommends that people see “Building/Books | Karen Wirth: A Retrospective Exhibition” at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts Main Gallery in Minneapolis. The exhibition spans 40 years of Wirth's work, and the pieces spread through the space include architecture, photography, sculpture, books, and the spaces where these disciplines meet. The exhibition is on view through June 8.The exhibition also marks the 25th anniversary of the Open Book Building and the 40th anniversary of the Minnesota Center for Book Arts.Peggy says: Karen has an extraordinary ability to think spatially and structurally, creating work with both conceptual depth and visually engaging images. Her projects range from small handheld artist books to major public artworks. Her art is playful, both thought-provoking, blends clever wordplay with striking visuals. You'll see this in her handwritten text that spirals through the Gale See staircase and in the whimsical assemblages of the Grammar of Architecture. Upstairs there are more works: my favorite are her “Follies.” She takes books and found architectural objects and put them together in a really interesting way.— Peggy Korsmo-KennonPhoto exhibit asks us not to look away from homelessnessGabriel Brito of Minneapolis is a graduating senior at the University of Minnesota and an Arts and Entertainment reporter for the Minnesota Daily. He wants people to know about “No More Turning Away,” a photography exhibit about homelessness in the Twin Cities by photographer David Fallon. The exhibit is on view at the Kenwood Burroughs Gallery in Minneapolis through May 31.This exhibit is a fundraiser for People Incorporated, a nonprofit mental health provider that also serves people experiencing homelessness.Gabriel says: [David] spent months in the Twin Cities, photographing homelessness in a very raw, real, captivating way. His photographs are raw, unflinching depictions of life on the street meant to challenge our society's tendency to look away from homelessness.— Gabriel Brito

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.Happy Homegrown!It's that time of the year when, for eight days, local music reigns in Duluth and Superior. The Homegrown Music Festival continues through Sunday. Emily Lee of Duluth is attending Homegrown for her twelfth year, and like many music lovers, she's studied up on the Field Guide to make sure she can see her favorite bands. Check out the schedule here.Emily says: I'm going to see [Blues-rock band] The Adjustments Saturday night. Strikepoint is playing this year, which is kind of unique. They're an amazing handle choir here in town. My husband can't wait to see Bratwurst, and you have to watch out at that show, because Bratwurst throws raw meat off the stage. So a lot of people show up in ponchos.Something new this year is the Homegrown Variety Showcase on Friday night at Studio Four, and it's kind of like a variety talent show with poets, comedians and dancers. So that's something cool this year to check out.There's also different dress up nice each week for Homegrown, so that's kind of fun to see what everyone wears. Tonight is Eccentric Art Teacher & Gym Coach Night. Friday is Leather & Lace Night. Saturday is Pirates & Princesses Night. Sunday is Relaxation Sunday; they have a couple of daytime shows on Sunday because that's the last day of the festival.— Emily LeeNative stories on screenActor Silvestrey P'orantes of Minneapolis highly recommends checking out “Framed Differently,” an evening of four short films by local Native filmmakers with a Q&A to follow. Hosted by Sequoia Hauck, the event is Saturday, May 3 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Public Functionary's Main Gallery 144 in Minneapolis. The films are Ajuawak Kapashesit's “The Comedian,” Rosy Simas's “yödoishëndahgwa'geh (a place to rest),” Oogie Push's “Hunting Morels: Mushroom Secrets” and Moira Villiard's animated film “Love Lessons in a Time of Settler Colonialism.”Silvestrey says: [They're] all doing different films about Indigenous perspective outside of just the title of being Indigenous. There's a lot of pressure sometimes to fit into the stereotype of like, well, we got to talk about language and reclamation and what have you. But sometimes, you know, we just want to talk about what we want to talk about. We're really emphasizing that we are artists who have things to say outside of just who we are.— Silvestrey P'orantesYouth strings take the spotlight in MarshallSt. Paul musician Mary Adamek wants people to know about a musical opportunity in Marshall, Minn., this Saturday. Southwest Minnesota StringFest invites string players aged 13–18 to rehearse and perform alongside professional musicians on Saturday, May 3. The event is free and sign-ups are still open for students in Minnesota and southeast South Dakota. The festival culminates in a free concert performance, open to the public, on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Fine Arts Theater of Southwest Minnesota State University.Mary says: The festival is organized and funded through a partnership by three organizations: the St. Joseph School of Music, St. Paul Conservatory of Music, the Southwest Minnesota Orchestra and Southwest Minnesota State University. This is the only string festival available to string students in southwestern Minnesota.— Mary Adamek

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.Dioramas of the Twin Cities' most beloved landmarksShari Aronson is the creative Co-Director of Z Puppets Rosenschnoz, whose work was featured on Art Hounds last week. Continuing the chain of paying it forward, Shari recommends a “charming project” by Felicia Cooper called “The Agency for Tiny Tourism,” which is on view at In the Heart of the Beast Puppet & Mask Theatre. Cooper was selected by the National Humanities Center's 2025 Being Human Festival. She conducted interviews asking people about their favorite Twin Cities landmarks and also led workshops to make dioramas of those landmarks. Visitors to the free exhibit can get a new view of the Twin Cities on Friday evening from 7 to 10 p.m., with additional showings Saturday and Sunday.Shari said: Everybody loves a diorama and peeking into a miniature world. I also am really curious to see which sites people depicted.— Shari AronsonA love of natural stone and kiln-fresh potteryKevin and Pam Bishop of Glenville enjoy the Bluff Country Studio Art Tour that spans southeast Minnesota each spring. Kevin is a custom wood furniture builder, and Pam calls herself an admirer of the arts. The art tour this year includes artists in 22 locations on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.The Bishops each have a favorite artist. Kevin likes the work of Ryan Palmer, whose studio in Lanesboro is called Livingstone Carver.Kevin said: He does very unique work, sculpting natural stone, and we're totally enamored with the outcomes of what stone can be with some correct tooling and knowledge of what you're working with.Pam recommends visiting Lanesboro potter Sue Pariseau.Pam said: She's got a really unique place where she designs and creates her pottery. What I really appreciate is every year she does a special invite so that we can open the kiln as part of the weekend and get to see what's been in the kiln, and have the first choice of what we want to maybe purchase while we're there. But as important as that is just being with other artists.— Kevin and Pam BishopGraffiti, chance and found object artKylie Linh Hoang is the assistant curator at the Minnesota Museum of American Art. Last week she attended the standing-room-only opening of graffiti artist SHOCK's gallery show at the Chambers Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. The exhibit “Daydreaming at Midnight” runs through May 10. It's a unique space for a show, dressed up with couches and plants for an “anti gallery space” feel, says Hoang, and the work on display derives from a unique artist residency.As Hoang describes it, SHOCK was on his way home from St. Louis when his car broke down in Springfield, Ill., on a holiday weekend, so he set about doing some graffiti work at an abandoned flour mill. The building owners took a liking to his work and invited him to create an art installation in the space.Kylie said: They couldn't pay him, but they did tell him that he could take whatever he wanted from the building, because it was going to be demolished. And so a lot of the work in this show is their assemblages and paintings on found materials from that mill. And so you'll see things that were see things painted on, like doors from the facility, signs from the facility. He also created a number of lamps from materials found at the facility. He taught himself how to wire lamps. It's a very cool assemblage of multimedia work.— Kylie Linh Hoang

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.Time-traveling puppets and Cherokee futurismOogie Push is a Minneapolis-based actor and playwright. She wants people to know about Z Puppets Rosenschnoz's upcoming performances of “Tales of ᏓᎦᏏ Dagsi Turtle & ᏥᏍᏚ Jisdu Wabbit,” a time-traveling, Cherokee-language-learning puppetry adventure for ages 5 and up. Shows are Saturday, April 19 at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. at Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis. There are also upcoming performances at two libraries: April 26 at 10:30 a.m. at East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul and April 29 at 5:30 p.m. at Hosmer Library in Minneapolis. The show runs 45 minutes.Oogie Push described the show: It's a musical adventure that goes into Cherokee futurism, and it's just a really fun sort of sci-fi adventure. Dagsi Turtle and Jisdu Wabbit are racing through time and space to save Grandmother Turtle. So they hop aboard their Turtle Ship and travel across space and time. I find it amazing that they find a way to get to historical, important events in Cherokee history. So you visit Sequoyah and Ayoka when they are coming up with the Cherokee syllabary, for example.Chris Griffith, who is Cherokee and part of Z puppets Rosenshnoz, was an adult language learner of the Cherokee language, and so the language came to him in the form of song. And so he thought, How can I incorporate this into a puppet theater? And so he just started envisioning futurism, sci-fi, fantasy and just sort of like this hero's journey.— Oogie PushLaughter, identity and healing at the OrdwayTerri Thao of St. Paul loves the Funny Asian Women Kollective (FAWK), and she booked her tickets early to see The FAWK Hmong (+ Friends) Super Show this Saturday at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Thao remembers when FAWK was packing the house at Indigenous Roots Studio in East St. Paul, and she's looking forward to a night of laughter as a mix of familiar FAWK members, stars and some local newbies bring their comedy to the Ordway stage. Thao said: When they came together, I just thought this, this is a great idea. You know, Asian American women can be funny! My understanding about comedy is a lot of people talk about real life, right? They're making observations about things happening.And I think so many times in communities, you know, refugee communities, there's been a lot of strife but at the same time, we've used humor to cope with so much. I just think they're able to just offer a lens into that experience with some humor. Seeing people on stage who look like you matters.— Terri ThaoHonoring Minnesota's poetic legacyJoshua Preston grew up in Montevideo, Minn., and he's proud of western Minnesota's poetry heritage, including the work of Minnesota's first poet laureate, Robert Bly (1926-2021). Preston's looking forward to the launch of Mark Gustafson's new book “Sowing Seeds: The Minnesota Literary Renaissance & Robert Bly, 1958-1980.” The book explores how Minnesota became the literary hub it is today. Mark Gustafson will discuss his new book with poets Jim Lenfestey and Nor Hall at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis this Saturday, April 19 at 6 p.m. People are encouraged to pre-register here. Preston says people who arrive early can see a slide show of The Loft through the years. Preston shared why this history matters to him: I believe Robert Bly is one of the most consequential poets of the 20th century. And I'm not just saying that as a Minnesotan from western Minnesota who's very proud of our literary tradition, but I'm saying this as someone who has had the immense fortune of being able to grow up in a state that takes its arts and culture seriously. How do you get to a point in a state's culture to where that is seen as a civic good? It begins with poets. It begins with our creatives. And “Sowing Seeds'” is about the influence of one individual, by no means the only, famous writer from Minnesota, but from someone who is very intentional of wanting to go out and set a new course for American poetry.— Joshua Preston

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.Vanishing flora, captured on handmade PaperMinneapolis-based visual and teaching artist Ilene Krug Mojsilov recommends “Vanishing Flora: Fiber Art,” an exhibition by Amanda Degener at the Northside Artspace Lofts Gallery in Minneapolis. The show runs through May 25. Visitors can enter the gallery by calling or buzzing the office, open Thursdays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Fridays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. A poetry and potluck event will be held May 18.Mojsilov explains that Degener's work highlights endangered plant species. The exhibition includes 18 framed handmade paper works, with pulp manipulated to form plant imagery. Eight handmade planters, constructed from up-cycled wood, spell out “in danger.” Suspended discs depicting endangered plants, made from frozen paper, gradually melt into the planters, which are seeded with native flowers that will grow over the exhibit's duration.Krug said: I could go on and on about Amanda's artwork, because she's part scientist. She's a chemist. She researches all her subjects to the T. She's a specialist in handmade paper and the history of handmade paper, she collects fibers from all over the world.— Ilene Krug MojsilovA 21st Century Take on Theater of the AbsurdTheater maker Harry Waters, Jr. attended the opening night of Pangea World Theater's staging of “Rhinoceros,” directed by Dipankar Mukherjee. The absurdist play by French playwright Eugène Ionesco was written in 1958 and follows the transformation of a town's residents into rhinoceroses — all except one, the least heroic character.The show runs through April 19 at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis.Waters praised the production's creativity: inventive lighting, a soundscape of Indigenous music, strong choreography and a diverse cast of professional and amateur actors.Harry said: The gift, I would have to say, of what Dipankar gives to this adaptation [is] that it starts huge, and then, as the story goes, it winnows down to this very simple, important issue of the one human being that's standing in resistance to all the totalitarianism and the conformity ... how are we also taking our own stands in spite of everything that's being thrown [at us] that really allows us to know that we're not crazy, that it is not insane that you're standing strong. So that's a conceptual thing that I was really quite pleased to see without being beaten over the head by it.— Harry Waters, Jr.A Multimedia Symphony in the South MetroRetired attorney and former St. Olaf Choir singer Maren Swanson of Burnsville is excited for a joint choral performance at Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church in Prior Lake this Saturday at 4 p.m. South Metro Chorale will perform alongside Singers in Accord and Kantorei, with the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kathy Saltzman Romey.The concert features “The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci,” a multimedia symphony by Minnesota composer Jocelyn Hagen.Maren said: I heard Jocelyn speak once about having grown up in a musical family in a small town in North Dakota, and about singing and playing piano from the age of three, she said that she lay in bed as a as an older child, hearing orchestral music in her head and wishing she knew how to write the music down. Well now we get to hear the enchanting music in her head. The work has been performed all across the country and internationally. I actually heard it in Croatia in 2023. The libretto features an English translation of select texts from the notebooks of Da Vinci. The score is soaring, sometimes lyrical, sometimes percussive, always gorgeous. The video uses a new technology that allows it to be synced to the nuances of the music as conducted in a live event. In effect, the video is played like an instrument of the orchestra responding to the conductor, and so every performance is spontaneous and unique. The video features an unfolding of text and images from the notebooks and other animated images that bring the music to life.— Maren Swanson

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.Musical premiere in Bemidji tackles small-town healingKevin Cease of Bemidji is a funeral director and fan of community theater. He's looking forward to the world premiere of “Water from Snow,” a new musical by Janet Preus, co-written with Robert Elhai and Fred Steele. The show runs through Sunday, April 13. Tickets here.NOTE: The “Water from Snow” premiere has been postponed until April 11.Kevin said: I'm looking forward to the world premiere of local playwright Janet Preus's show “Water from Snow.” It is an original musical play co-written by her and Robert Elhai and Fred Steele of the Steele family. As it is set in a small town on a lake in northern Minnesota, Bemidji seems perfect for its premiere!Important and universal themes drive this story: healing wounds caused by abuse; overcoming racism against Indigenous people; bridging generational differences; valuing elderly community members; and championing women supporting each other. They hope to generate meaningful conversations among audience members, performers and the creative team.The roughhewn nature of the Rail River School venue in Bemidji lends additional character and dimension to the play. The music is diverse from a mix of music from country and blues, to pop, ballads and R&B, even a song from old farts at the setting of the café — there are 22 original songs! The lively local cast has chosen their roles carefully, with a range of characters drawn from the writer's lifetime in rural Minnesota.— Kevin CeaseMacMillan's transformative choral workStephen Kingsbury is a choral director and educator who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan. He recommends two upcoming events celebrating MacMillan's music.MacMillan will conduct seven Twin Cities choirs in a free performance called “Voices for a Cathedral” at the Cathedral of St. Paul, Friday, April 4 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. VocalEssence will also perform an all-MacMillan program Sunday, April 6 at 4 p.m. at the Ordway in St. Paul, with both MacMillan and Philip Brunelle conducting. The program features “Seven Last Words from the Cross” and “The Sun Danced,” with soprano Goitsemang Lehobye joining the U of M University Singers and orchestra.Kingsbury describes his first encounter with MacMillan's work over 25 years ago:Stephen says: One day, in deep frustration, I was going through my collection of recordings looking for inspiration. I found a disc that I had no recollection of purchasing. It was of MacMillan's “Seven Last Words from the Cross.” I popped in the player and spent the next hour laying on the floor of my apartment, wrapped in the music, staring up at the ceiling, silently weeping. I had never encountered anything like it. In that hour, I was transformed by a new awareness of what the choral art could be: how it touch the soul in deep and transformative ways. I knew then that MacMillan had to be the topic of my study. Since then, MacMillan's music has served as one of the centers of my artistic and scholarly life. I've since written a number of additional articles about his music and had the pleasure of being able to conduct many of MacMillan's compositions. His music strikes a balance between passion and craft; it is both deeply emotional and thoughtful.— Stephen KingsburyZappa's legacy lives on in Mankato tributePaula Marti of New Ulm is a classically trained oboist and manager of Morgan Creek Vineyards & Winery, where she curates summer concerts. She also has a lifelong love of Frank Zappa's music, and she recommends a tribute concert this weekend.Joe Tougas and his ensemble Joe's Garage return to perform “Joe's Garage, Act Two,” a Frank Zappa tribute concert. The event is Saturday, April 6 at 7 p.m. at the Morson-Ario-Strand VFW in Mankato.Paul says: What's unique about this particular group is because there's so many professional musicians in it, they really have been able to achieve the sound that Frank Zappa attempts to create in his works. He has this diverse sensibility about sound and rhythm. It's integrated in a marvelous way that has this orchestral effect. It's just amazing as a classical musician myself, enjoying what comes out of these interesting themes that Zappa puts together, which are unique, they're cultural expressions of our time and our era. And he does that in a way that's very, very respectful to the instrumentation that has to go on that represents, you know, the harmonies, the diversities and the the challenges of the message of the music.— Paul Marti

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.Resting as resistance Folk musician Emily Youngdahl Wright of Minneapolis admires writer and community-space-maker Amọké Kubat. She wants people to know about the final step of Kubat's ongoing project to honor those who mother children by offering them a place to rest — literally. The exhibit features rocking chairs that were created during a community build and then painted, collaged or otherwise re-created by Minnesota artists. “Rocking Chair (Re)Evolution” is a free, drop-in show at the Weisman Art Museum on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. The exhibit is open Friday, March 28 and Saturday, March 29 from 11-5 p.m., with a ceremony on Sunday from 1-3 p.m. The rocking chairs will be gifted to 12 mothers and grandmothers previously chosen with community feedback. Emily said: The whole project itself is just such a beautiful example of thinking about what kind of rest do you need, and what kind of support do you need? The chairs are an example, I think, of tending to the spirit and the heart and the body [in] this work that really doesn't end when you're a parent and when you're a grandparent, and when you are tending to this world that is in so much need of tending right now.— Emily Youngdahl Wright21st century opera Composer Eric Heukeshoven of Winona plans to head to Rochester to watch Hometown Opera Company's New Media Opera performance, featuring scenes of new and familiar works staged in a multimedia format. The first act consists of scenes from Rochester composer Kevin Dobbe's “Tempus Fugit.” The second act centers women's voices with scenes from Verdi, Puccini, Dvořák, Wagner and Strauss. Performances are Friday, March 28 and Saturday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the Rochester Civic Theatre. Eric Heukeshoven said the staging is: As 21st century as I can possibly imagine.It is an opera that explores the human experience and time, and it does this by combining live performances of vocalists and dancers with digital projections, what Kevin calls motion-capture ‘metahumans' and singing projected avatars. I've seen a clip that he sent me recently, and it is absolutely mesmerizing.(He adds that Act Two scenes are “fully staged and choreographed, but also using projections that Kevin has created.”)— Eric HeukeshovenMinneapolis hosts breaking qualifier for national competition Kelly Rabe of Champlain started taking hip hop and breaking classes over the pandemic, and she wants people to know that Minneapolis will be in the national eye this weekend when it hosts the Red Bull BC One Cypher One competition. Local and regional b-girls and b-boys will compete in one-on-one battle style for a spot at the National Finals in Denver. The event will be held in a new venue on the Minneapolis scene: Royalston Square, located in the North Loop. There are open qualifier preliminaries on Friday. The main event is Saturday, starts at 7 p.m. and costs $10. Kelly described her experience: This is probably maybe my third year going to the BC One, and I have to say, it is like the most hyped event I have ever been to in the Twin Cities. I mean, it's better than music festivals. It's better than dance parties. There's just an energy like nothing else. The spectators are really supportive of the dancers. They'll be cheering, they'll be screaming, jumping up and down when they see the dancers do amazing things. It's a really welcoming community. Not to mention they have, like, world-renowned DJs that are spinning the tunes for these dancers. So, I mean, it's a full dance and music action. — Kelly Rabe 

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.A spring garden in ceramics Cindy Pope is a ceramic artist from Waite Park. She got a dose of early spring by visiting the ceramics exhibit “Garden Party” at the Paramount Center for the Arts in St. Cloud. Created by Stacy Larson, who is originally from Cold Spring, the exhibit features wheel-thrown and hand-carved cups and tableware that look like delicate leaves and flowers, glazed in springtime colors. The exhibit runs through March. Voices of the Asian American experienceJulia Cheng of Duluth had a chance to hear the world premiere this fall of “mOthertongue: Lived Experience in Asian America.” Soprano Jennifer Lien of Duluth performs three song cycles commissioned by Asian American women composers, accompanied on piano by Lina Yoo-Min Lee. Lien commissioned these new works in partnership with the Cincinnati Song Initiative with support from the Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Individuals grant. The duo has continued to perform these works in what Cheng refers to as “a living collaboration.” They'll perform highlights of the song cycles at the College of St. Scholastica's “Lunch With Friends” on March 25, with the full performance on March 28 at the college's Mitchell Auditorium. Julia Cheng was touched by the performance and looks forward to hearing it again.“I have to say that, as the child of immigrants from China, these songs really resonated with me,” Cheng said. “I always wondered, you know, how did they deal with the dislocation of leaving home, family, language, culture, developing new community, the wrenching loss of being separated from family? These are all things that I heard bits and pieces of in the song cycles by Melissa Dunphy and the other two composers.” Wood sculptures at Tettegouche Annalisa Buerke follows her former colleague artist Rick Love on Instagram, where she enjoyed watching his process of creating a series of sculptures now on view at the Tettegouche State Park Visitor Center in Silver Bay.The five sculptures are all made of wood — some painted, some charred — that celebrate both forests and sustainability. The works evoke the moon, the sun, a tree, a waterfall and Lake Superior. They'll be on view through March.Tettegouche State Park's Visitor Center includes both juried art shows (of which Love's exhibit was one) and an artist-in-residence program. 

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.Generations of sewingDaniela Bianchini is a Minneapolis mosaic artist who is originally from Argentina. She's drawn toward an exhibit at CLUES' Latino Art Gallery in St. Paul that celebrates the art of sewing as it is passed through generations of women. The exhibit, by Columbian-Minnesotan artist Adriana Gordillo and Nena's Atelier, is titled “Connective Thread.” It opens Friday, March 14 and runs through May 14. There is a Cafecito de Hermanas (Coffee with Sisters) on Saturday, March 15 from 9 a.m. to noon that offers a time for workshops, resources, music and community connection. Register here.  Daniela says: I feel very related to it. We all in Latin America grew up seeing our grandmas and our mothers sewing. I've seen a couple of images that the artists have been posting in their social media: collages of different compositions of fabric and flowers and needles, and things that you see that represent the art of sewing. The community will be able to write something: their emotions, or their feelings about the exhibition, and some sort of petals that will then be sewed together and put in a dress.— Daniela BianchiniCelebrating Latinos on BroadwayAnne Sawyer, executive director of Art Start in St. Paul, is looking forward to seeing Teatro Del Pueblo's “Voces Latinas: A Broadway Musical Revue.” Directed by Mark Valdez of Mixed Blood Theatre with musical direction by Brenda Varga, “Voces Latinas” celebrates Latino artists' contributions to Broadway through the years. Shows are at Park Square Theatre in St. Paul, beginning Friday, March 14 and continuing Saturday, March 15 at 7:30 and Sunday, March 16 at 2 p.m. Anne says: If you love musicals, this production promises to be so much fun. Teatro del Pueblo's performers will sing a curated, eclectic collection of songs that is a take on the Latino experience on Broadway. There are some older, really iconic numbers made famous by the likes of Chita Rivera, such as “A Boy Like That” from “West Side Story” and “Bye, Bye Birdie's” “An English Teacher.” But there's also pieces like Selena's "Amor Prohibido” and the “Hamilton” song “Dear Theodosia,” which was sung on Broadway by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom Jr. What is so engaging about this production is the range of musical styles and how they encompass so many themes, societal differences and passionate love, pride in one's mother country, family and the struggle to survive. It's a show that will take you on a real roller coaster of emotion.— Anne SawyerLilith Fair lives on Laura Hotvet loves the cover band Pandora's Other Box, and she's excited for their upcoming concert, which feels tailor-made for Women's Month. “The Legacy of Lilith Fair” celebrates the female musicians who took part in Lilith Fair in the late 1990s, and the artists who have followed in their footsteps. The concert takes place at the Women's Club of Minneapolis on Saturday, March 15 at 7:30 p.m. Laura says: Pandora's Other Box is one of the most energetic and fun-to-listen-to, fun-to-dance-to, talented pop rock cover bands in the Twin Cities. The show features songs from [Lilith Fair concert tour] founder Sarah McLachlan, along with Paula Cole, Sheryl Crow, The Chicks, Bonnie Raitt, Tracy Chapman, Pat Benatar, Indigo Girls and more. The second act will journey through the 25 years that followed, and this will be showcasing more current artists who benefited from the bravery of the original female pioneers in the Lilith era, such as Brandi Carlile, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Carrie Underwood, Paramore and more.— Laura Hotvet

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.Strange Paradises Visual artist Brian Frink of Mankato is looking forward to an exhibit newly opened at the Carnegie Art Center featuring the sculptures of Todd Shanafelt, Pocket Toscani and Jim Shrosbree. “Strange Paradises” is on view through March 22, with an opening artist reception Friday from 5-7 p.m. Brian says: Todd Shanafelt and Pocket Toscani are both Mankato residents, and Jim Shrosbree is from out-of-state. Jim and Todd are ceramic artists, and Pocket is more of a traditional sculptor, but what their work shares together is a kind of playful quirkiness. They are very abstract in their approach. But I would also say they're kind of obliquely recognizable in terms of the content in the work. There;s also an interesting intersection of functionality and non-functional in all three of them.  They are also very involved in painting and drawing. So, the exhibition will include their three-dimensional work as well as their two-dimensional work, which I think adds another texture and level of interest to what they're presenting.A show about making the most of the days we haveTheater lover Brad Pappas of St. Louis Park is looking forward to seeing the indie rock musical “Hundred Days.” It runs through March 22 at Theatre Elision, a black box theater in Crystal. The show is 80 minutes with no intermission. Brad describes the show: Abigail and Shaun decide to get married three weeks after they meet. Abigail is plagued by these dreams, and she's convinced that the man she loves is going to die within in a little over three months. Abigail and Shaun concoct a plan. They're going to live their whole lives in 100 days. They'll have Halloween in the morning, Christmas in the afternoon, birthdays at sundown. This performance sounds so intriguing to me because it's eight musicians. They're all a part of the show, but they're all playing instruments throughout the performance.Opera shrouded in mysteryBurlesque dancer Renata Nijiya of Minneapolis is intrigued by An Opera Theatre's “Opera Underground.” There are four performances whose exact Twin Cities location and details will be revealed to ticket holders 24 hours before showtime. Performances are March 12 and March 13 in northeast Minneapolis at 7 p.m., March 16 in the Longfellow neighborhood at 5 p.m. and March 25, 7 p.m. in the West Seventh area of St. Paul, with ASL interpretation. Shows run 90 minutes. Renata loves the ways AOT makes opera accessible, through the work it chooses, its pay-as-you-can performances and ASL interpretation. She also offers this tip: “After each show, it's going to roll into an after-party and have a local band performing … each location has a different local band,” she said.

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.One-act plays in WinonaDaryl Lanz, owner of Chapter Two Books in Winona, is glad to see Theatre Du Mississippi's One Act Play Festival returning for a second year. Playwrights from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa submitted original work earlier this winter, and the winning four short plays will be performed together to make a performance running about two hours.The result is a grab-bag of comedy and drama by regional writers ranging from 10 to 50 minutes. Shows will be performed at the Valencia Arts Center's Academy Theatre in Winona this weekend and next, Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.  A family of artistsVisual artist Fawzia Khan of Hopkins recommends the exhibit “Reflections and Conversations: Monica Rudquist and Jerry Rudquist” at the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery at St. Catherine University in St. Paul. Assistant professor Monica Rudquist explores the relationship between her ceramic art and paintings by her late father, Jerry Rudquist (1924-2001), who taught painting at Macalester College for 42 years. On the gallery's second floor, Sophia Gibson — an honors student of Monica's — extends the legacy one step further by curating an exhibit of Jerry's portraits. The exhibit runs through March 16, with an artist talk by Monica Rudquist on March 5 at 6:30 p.m. There will also be a screening and panel discussion of the short film “The Painted Eye,” which documents Jerry Rudquist's painting process on March 12. In the East Gallery, Monica Rudquist's deconstructed and reassembled bowls, plates and cylinders reflect the shape and textures of her father's work.  “Both artists deconstruct objects and put them together in new ways to create imaginary forms and leave the marks of their hands on the works,” Khan said. Pining for the fjordsDiane Hellekson, retired writer and former art critic for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, was inspired by the mixed media exhibit “Sund: Notes from the Sea” showing at Form + Content Gallery in Minneapolis. Minneapolis artist Moira Bateman created works reflecting on her summer 2024 residency in Ålvik, Norway, and on the human impact of its fjords. The exhibit includes found objects pulled from the fjords, textiles and an audio element that immerses listeners in the sounds of the sea and underwater noise pollution. The exhibit is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through March 8, with an artist coffee reception on Saturday, March 1 from noon to 3 p.m. Hellekson called it an intimate show that gave her a feeling of  “wonder and curiosity.” She says you have to look closely at each piece and see “What is this? Oh my gosh. This is a plastic bag, and you find out that Moira dug it out from among some rocks in a fjord in Norway, and yet, here it is in this strange, deteriorated condition on the wall of a gallery.”“And it makes you think [how] this thing probably was there for years, and yet, if Moira hadn't plucked it out, it would have kept breaking down, and all these little shards of plastic would have gone on to pollute and end up in some animal's belly. It's very emotionally affecting, and yet it's also beautiful.” 

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.Artists at work Diane Richard of St. Paul worked for 21 years at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), and she wants people to know about “Artists at Work: the Mia Staff Art Show.” It's tucked away in the community commons area just past the cafe and the family center (pro tip: you can bring your lunch with you to the exhibit!) The show runs through April 13. Diane explains: You might never have thought about it, but the people who work in museums are often artists themselves — and good ones, too. They work as security guards, and they create public programs, hang art on the walls, help you figure out where you're going, and sell you stuff in the shop. And they work in everything from oil painting to watercolor and prints, ceramic sculpture to embroidery, video and collage. There's even a tarot card created from crop seeds.  One work waves from the wall: the menacing loon flag was security guard Rob McBroom official entry into the state's flag contest.  As I strolled around, Cara O'Connell's portrait of Myrna drew me over. It's from O'Connell's series on caregivers. Myrna is a beatific presence under a halo of robins. For me, the showstopper was Adam White's “It Came with the Room.” White's triptych collage is layered with thousands of cartoon bubbles filled with intriguing messages, many about the hellhound Cerebus. You could spend hours in front of it searching for meaning. Overall, the show gives insight into the mostly unseen hands responsible for MIA's daily operations. What comes through is their passion for art.— Diane RichardThe art of mental health Carla Mansoni is the director of arts and cultural Engagement at CLUES, one of the largest and oldest Latin organizations in Minnesota. She wants people to know about “The Art of Mental Health,” a group show of art created by people who work in the mental health field, curated by Kasia Chojan-Cymerman and Thrace Soryn. The exhibit at the Vine Arts Center in Minneapolis opens this Saturday, Feb. 22, with an artist reception from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. featuring a performance by psychologist/musician Mindy Benowitz. The show runs on Saturdays through March. There is a performance by bluegrass Americana trio Echo Trail on March 15.  Carla says: The idea is to focus on the mental health professionals who also use art to heal themselves. This is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the diversity of art forms and how art and culture also heals the healer, elevating the humanity of those working in mental health spaces. — Carla MansoniSEENJennifer Bowen, founder and director of the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, was deeply moved by the exhibit “SEEN” currently on display at the Weisman Art Museum on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. Curated by Emily Baxter of We Are All Criminals, this show is half a decade in the making. Seven artists partnered with seven incarcerated artists to create installations. The show runs through May 18, with a panel conversation planned for Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 6 p.m. Some installations respond to incarcerated life, such as work by Sarith Peou and Carl Flink, which reflect the steps of traditional Cambodian dance Peou used to keep himself active and healthy while on COVID lockdown in his cell.  Jennifer says: There's another exhibit of a poet named Brian, who's got a massive chandelier of bird cages hanging from the ceiling with some of his poetry being read and voiced over by himself and other folks that he lives with. And I think the title of the poem is “We Can't Hear Ourselves Sing,” and it's about the kind of chaos and cacophony of life inside a prison. It was the first thing I saw when I walked into the exhibit. And it literally took my breath away, the way that it speaks metaphorically not just to the pain that incarceration causes, but to the kind of human need to still find beauty in the midst of that pain. But then there are other artists who chose to think about what the future would look like, or what healing might look like. There's an artist named Ronald who has a garden reminiscent of the garden his grandfather grew when he was in Detroit that's meant to be this kind of healing look forward. It's a really heavy but beautiful exhibit.  And one thing this exhibit does is offers the community, not only a chance to listen on phones to the artists' voices and to see interviews, but it also gives the public a chance to write notes to them that will go back to them. — Jennifer Bowen

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.Take your valentine somewhere that's green Writer and art lover Susan Montag recommends the work of Theatre 55, a Twin Cities-based theater company whose shows all feature casts of actors over age 55. Their production of the musical “Little Shop of Horrors” is playing at the Gremlin Theatre in St. Paul through Feb. 22. She's particularly looking forward to hearing vocalist Patricia Lacy, who is known for her work with Luther Vandross and with Sounds of Blackness, sing out “Feed me, Seymour,” when she plays the hungry plant from outer space, Audrey II.  Susan says: I've seen a lot of the Theatre 55 shows. They are always so much fun. I like to see on the stage the folks who represent someone in my age group, showing that people over 55 are still very vibrant, very energetic and have a lot of talent to share!— Susan MontagTake your Valentine to see a rom-com play in Duluth MacKenzie McCullum is a writer and podcaster living in the Twin Cities, and she suggests taking your Valentine to see a Minnesota-original rom-com play at Zeitgeist Theater in Duluth. “String” opens tonight and runs through Feb. 22. There is an ASL-interpreted performance Wednesday, Feb. 19. The play was a runner-up for the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Comedy Playwriting Award. MacKenzie says: I like to say that this play is like your favorite Nancy Meyers or Nora Ephron romantic comedy that you see on screen, but it's on stage. It's just a beautiful showcasing of genuine love that you can find every day. It's an unlikely courtship between a poet and a pizza delivery boy. It's a great ensemble play: there are lots of great characters that will make you laugh out loud.  The playwright, Jessica Lind Peterson, is a Duluth native. She actually wrote this play while she was in school at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She went on to co-found Yellow Tree Theater based in Osseo. “String” had kind of a life of its own in productions all over the country, and now it is back in Duluth for the 20th anniversary.— MacKenzie McCullumMatch made in heaven: Mathematics + art Freelance mathematics writer Barry Cipra of Northfield recommends a solo art show that celebrates the connections between mathematics and art. John Shier's exhibit “From Order to Chaos” features visual art created from equations. The show at the Steeple Center in Rosemount runs through March, with an artist reception and talk on Wednesday, Feb. 19 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.  Barry points out art and mathematics are both fundamentally creative endeavors, adding that John is part of a long tradition of artists using mathematical thinking to create their work. Leonardo da Vinci, anyone? Barry offers this introduction: John Shier's a retired physicist. He taught for many years at Normandale Community College here in the Twin Cities, and has been doing his own kind of art, using equations and algorithms to create interesting, colorful [works], everything from landscapes to completely abstract works. He also uses a lot of randomness. He calls it stochastic geometry — a term of art in the mathematical world. You let chance play a big role in what you get. He then, of course, uses his own eye to make selections. If he doesn't like what the computer produces, he'll try it again and see if he gets something that looks better.— Barry Cipra

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.Somebody Say HallelujahLinda Sloan of Hopkins, Minn., is the executive director for the Council for Minnesotans of African Heritage. She predicts audiences will be on their feet at the Fitzgerald Theater in St Paul this weekend, moved by “The Sound of Gospel: An Anthology Depicting the Rich History and Evolution of Gospel Music.”The play is written by Rev. William H. Pierce of 2nd Chance Outreach and directed by Academy Award-nominated artist Jevetta Steele, with musical direction by Grammy Award-winning artist Billy Steele. The all-ages show will be performed Saturday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 9 at 3 p.m. Linda says: I cannot say enough about this performance. It is amazing. When I went to the show a couple years ago, I was just blown away by the caliber of the talent and then the meaning of the songs. It's just a phenomenal show. You'll hear anything from spirituals to praise and worship. It is just an opportunity for individuals who maybe have never really experienced gospel to understand the roots, the roots of where it comes from and why it is spiritual music. It's so energetic. There are a couple little somber moments, because it is a history of gospel music, and there have been things in the past that maybe occur that required spiritual music. But for the most part, it's just one of those “toe-tapping, get-on-your-feet, clapping, as if you were in a Baptist church” shows. — Linda Sloan  A play about DREAMers navigating life Actor and singer Anna Hashizume of Minneapolis recommends seeing Frank Theatre's current production of the play “Sanctuary City,” about two undocumented teens growing up in Newark, N.J., post 9/11. She describes the play as a series of very short scenes performed by an outstanding three-person cast. The play runs in the intimate Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis through Feb. 23. Masks are required for the Feb. 7 and Feb. 16 performances. Frank Theatre, which mounted the play, specializes in works that spark conversation, and Anna says this show feels incredibly timely.Anna says: I know when [director] Wendy Knox first chose the play we didn't know the political climate that was going to be happening at this moment in time, but it is a very timely play for what is happening in our nation right now.  Theater has a lot of different functions. It can just be entertainment, which is also lovely at a time like this, but also being able to be educated and see different life experiences in front of your eyes in a relatively safe space can open something up in all of us. — Anna HashizumeA breath of spring Donna Winberg of Deephaven, Minn., loves to walk the trails at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, so she's been able to pop inside the visitor center to watch preparations for the Spring Flower show. The enchanted garden displays are now open to viewers with an Arboretum ticket daily through March 16.  In addition to the Spring Flower show, Donna recommends continuing through the Synder Building to the Conservatory, which is currently packed with orchids and tropical blooms, with a stop at the Rootstock Café for a bite to eat. Additional ticketed events include an Art Fair on Feb. 15 and 16, After Hours with Flowers and Afternoon Tea events. MPR chief meteorologist Paul Huttner is also a fan; see his pictures in a recent Updraft Blog here. Donna describes the scene: You'll be amazed when you see the huge tree trunks they've brought in there, and the mosses and the lichens and the mushrooms. It's just like a breath of spring, which we all need this time of year! What I really love is the local artist work that is incorporated into the displays. There'll be different artists coming in [through the course of the show.] [This week] there are mosaic glass birds and ceramic birds and all sorts of wonderful little fairy houses, bird houses. So you have to stand there and look at things for a while to have it all revealed to you, which is fun.— Donna Winberg

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.Flute takes center stageRoma Duncan is a piccolo player in the Minnesota Orchestra. She recommends a concert this Sunday where the flute will take center stage. Flutist Adam W. Sadberry, accompanied by Joe Williams on piano, will perform this month's Coffee Concert at the Lakeville Area Arts Center, Sunday, Feb. 2 at 2 p.m.  Roma says: Adam's really put together an interesting program with a lot of music from Black composers. Perhaps the one that catches my attention most is the finisher on the program, “Wish: Sonatine” by Valerie Coleman. Valerie is a living composer. She's a Black woman who is a flutist and a composer, and she's gotten a ton of attention in recent years with with great reason; she always has such engaging, exciting works.  One of the big pieces that I'm also excited about is the [J.S.] Bach Partita [in A minor]. It's a real tour de force for flutists. It's not very often that we have these solo pieces where we just never stop playing. He has so many different composers on this program, so I think it'll be really fascinating to hear him switch gears so many times between different eras, different styles, different feels to his repertoire.— Roma Duncan13 years of musical marriageTheater artist Laurie Flanigan Hegge from Minneapolis recommends a light-hearted musical to see with your sweetheart: the musical “'Til Death.” Written and performed by real-life married couple Jeremiah and Vanessa Gamble of Bucket Brigade, the musical, now in its 13th season, opens Friday and runs through Feb. 15 at Art House North in St. Paul. Laurie says: This show is a Valentine to marriage and commitment and a love letter to their community on the west side of St. Paul [where they live and perform].  “‘Til Death” features two sets of couples: a married couple who have been together for 15 years but are on the brink of separation, and a newly married couple who are goofily in love with each other. The two of them come together on a snowy night in a blizzard and end up spending a kind of madcap, silly night together, where the realities of what it means to be married and committed kind of crash into each other.  It's a fun musical: warm, funny and light-hearted, and it's performed in a really intimate space called Art House North, which is an old church.— Laurie Flanigan HeggeRochester JazzJazz musician Eric Heukeshoven of Winona recommends spending your Wednesday nights this February at the Rochester City Jazz Fest. Hear live jazz at the Thesis Beer Project from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., starting Wednesday, Feb. 5.  Eric describes the line-up: Next Wednesday, Feb. 5, is Darren Saner Quartet. Darren is a crooner from Rochester, very well known. There is a wonderful band backing him up. The next Wednesday, Feb. 12, is a group called TakeTwo & Friends. They're very much straight ahead, right in the pocket. It's piano, drums and tenor sax, but I think the “friends” indicates they're going to have people sitting in with them that night. Then on the 19th is a new group from Minneapolis called 3-D. It features guitar, bass and drums. And wrapping it up [on Feb. 26], just in time for Mardi Gras, is Loud Mouth Brass, which is a New Orleans-style brass band. They will bring down the house, I'm sure.— Eric Heukeshoven

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 River Connects Us Jim Voegeli of Rochester visited to Winona Arts Center recently to see the opening of a photography and poetry exhibition entitled “The River Connects Us.” Retired environmental engineer Pete Mutschler spent six years taking photographs along the full length of the Mississippi River, and for the past two years retired state demographer and poet Tom Gillaspy has written poems to pair with the photographs. The resulting 26 images and poems are on display through March 2 at the Winona Arts Center, which is open from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends.   Voegeli appreciated both artistic halves of the exhibit. He says the enlarged photographs, encompassing all types of transportation along the river, “looked almost like paintings.” The title has a dual meaning.Jim says: The river does just physically connect all of these photos together and poems. But as Peter said in the reception, the people that he met along the way, all the way up and down the Mississippi were such nice, friendly people that the meaning also has to do with all the people that live along the river, that we're all connected together.— Jim VoegeliIn June, the exhibit will be on view at the Great River Road Visitor and Learning Center (also known as Freedom Park) in Prescott, Wis. View the ongoing project at theriverconnectsus.org. A daughter sings her love for her father Delta Rae Giordano is an actor and teaching artist based in Falcon Heights. She recommends the show “Loudly, Clearly, Beautifully.” Elena Glass wrote and performs this show about her father, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was 14. The show includes original music by Twin Cities duet The Champagne Drops. It runs Jan. 24 through Jan. 31 at the Hive Collaborative in St. Paul. Delta says: I'm really interested to see how Elena is going to talk about this, present it to an audience, and create art out of something that's, you know, a really sad personal loss. But from the description that she has on her event information, it sounds like she really wanted to let people know about this wonderful relationship she had with her dad, and probably some wisdom that he imparted. It's directed by Allison Vincent, who is a very well known local performer and theater maker. She actually did a show about [losing] her own father that was just performed at the fringe last summer.— Delta Rae GiordanoHigh school thespians' 35 minutes to shine Georgette Jones is an arts educator and advocate in Watson and she is excited to enter the competition season for the Minnesota State High School League one-act plays. From Pipestone to Mora, Detroit Lakes to Mountain Lake, each competing school has 35 minutes or less to shine with a play of their choosing, and Jones says the styles of show vary from comedy to drama to everything in between. The subsection tournaments begin today across the state. Find your nearest host school here. They competition culminates in a state festival held at the O'Shaughnessy at St Catherine University in St. Paul on Feb. 6 and Feb. 7. Georgette says: Some of these schools are coming from well-funded programs with huge, wonderful facilities. And some of these schools have a stage at the end of a gym and a volunteer director. And yet, the quality of student acting and performance and different theater making criteria is just amazing. Every year, I never cease to be surprised by what I see on a stage at a one act play festival.— Georgette Jones

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.This play is

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.Actually a very active lifeLife-long art lover Ted Pfohl of Little Falls wholeheartedly recommends that people see the work of Charles Gilbert Kapsner while it's on view at Studio Pintura Fine Art Gallery in the Northrup King Building in northeast Minneapolis. Kapsner is based in Little Falls but trained in Florence, Italy in the studio of Nerina Simi (1890-1987). The retrospective includes over 30 still lives, portraits and other works, gathered under the title of “Odyssey — A 50-Year Artist's Journey: Not a Still Life!” The show's run has been extended through Feb 8. Ted Pfohl muses on the odyssey of Kapsner's work: I can in all integrity state that I am captivated by the stories within the works of Master Artist Kapsner, a designation earned within and from his colleagues in the world of fine art. Today, he voyages within oil and charcoal. He has been at several harbors within fresco. He has created a monument of paintings honoring the five branches of the United States military. Each carefully chosen and curated piece provides glimpses into the creativity of a gifted helmsperson. There are flowers, bottles of wine, his wife — whom he calls Lady Catherine — still lives and portraits. As I was moving within the currents of the visuals before me, there were several times where my feet would not move as my gaze rested upon the piece before me.— Ted PfohlTickets to ParadiseJewelry artist and silversmith Jessica Prill of Faribault works across the street from the Paradise Center for the Arts, and she says the exhibits there are always a source of inspiration. She recommends taking in the new visual arts show, which opened this week and features painters Laura Andrews and Montana Becker as well as stained-glass artist Bob Vogel in the main gallery. Art by students of Bethlehem Academy will be featured in the Creger Gallery, which often features student work. There is an artist reception on Friday from 5-7 p.m., and the exhibit runs through Feb. 15. Speaking about the stained glass art of Bob Vogel of St. Peter, Jessica Prill says: [His work] blows my mind. He has done stuff with glass that I didn't know was possible. He has found a way to make it look like he's painting with glass. He uses the patterns in the glass like brush strokes. He does lamps, panels, fused glass: they're just incredible.— Jessica PrillRemember: They're on Thursday nightDana Drazenovich of St. Cloud loves live music, and she wants people to know about Monday Night Jazz, a band that has been performing jazz for 20 years in St. Cloud. Despite its name — a holdover from a previous location that was open on Monday nights — the sextet plays most Thursdays from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Veranda Lounge in St Cloud. Dana says: I feel like Monday Night Jazz is just a gift to St. Cloud's music scene, because I'm sure it's introduced plenty of people to the genre, and it's probably even made fans out of people who might not have otherwise even heard jazz performed live. They take a lot from the Great American Songbook, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein. You'll hear songs like “All the Things You Are” and “Mood Indigo.” They throw in a few originals here and there, too. They've got drums, piano, bass, guitar, sax and trumpet, so it's a big, full sound. And if you're lucky, you'll get to hear guitar player and vocalist, Muggsy Lauer, scat. There's a lot of laughing between songs, a lot of joking back and forth and they just put out the tip jar and go.— Dana Drazenovich

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 BartelsHealing 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 DeWittA note before we go From 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

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 RosendorfGratitude 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 JohnsonEscape into the world of dreams Mabel 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

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. Paul Architectural 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 PearsonArtist created, student-curated Black joy Billy 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 SiyomvoWhere design meets play Rebecca 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

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 RendellThe 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 MorelliBaroque 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

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 LiebhardAlice 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 JohnsonTake 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

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.

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 CoyneWorthington marks Dia de los Muertos Eric 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 ParrishReflecting on water as a relative Diane 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

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 Tree Kira 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 PontiffWhat 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-GharibA tale of monsters and men Loren 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

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 play Actor 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 NevillCommonweal 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

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. Click hereGrief without words Theatermaker 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 EnghA smorgasbord of short films — or hot dish, if you will Rachel 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 CoyneDid 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

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. 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 Creating 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 

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. Click here.Remembering the Great Hinckley Fire and those who saved lives Christine 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 WadeDancers 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 NascimentoArtists in their natural habitats: Visit artist workshops in St. Peter this weekend Eli 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.” 

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. Click here. Thinking about the future with all your senses Theater 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 WelchLearning from strong women of the past Rebecca 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 horses Doris 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

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. Art Hounds podcast serieshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/art-hounds/id525807829Space 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 GhassemlouCloudland 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 SchwarzPortraits 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

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. Click here.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 

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. Click here.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 LarssonFolk 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 WrightA 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

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. Click here.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 SaumurArtistic 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 BurnsideJake'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

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. Click here.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 TraecyNavigating 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 NovakBluegrass 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.

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. Click here. 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 DriessenShakespeare 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

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. 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 ThielenGlobal 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 WudaliBand 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

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. Click here. Shakespeare in the sculpture park Rachel Coyne of Lindstrom is looking forward to heading to nearby Franconia Sculpture Park on July 27 to see Shakespeare in the park. Classical Actors Ensemble will perform Shakespeare's mistaken-identity comedy “Twelfth Night, or What You Will,” The show is free. Picnics are encouraged, as are patrons of all ages. This week's performances include Friday at Newell Park in St. Paul, Saturday at Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis and Sunday at Vermillion Falls Park in Hastings. All shows start at 7 p.m. and run for two hours. “Twelfth Night” runs at various Twin Cities parks through July 14.  The Franconia Sculpture Park is a particularly special location, Rachel says, because the actors move around the sculpture park and incorporate some of the art into their performance. She still remembers the group's performance of “The Tempest” last year, which staged the show's happy ending with Franconia's giant ring sculpture in the background, forming a literal full circle for the story. She looks forward to seeing which sculptures the performers play around — and on — this year. Pro tip from Rachel: Bring a picnic, and don't forget your bug spray. — Rachel Coyne Romeo and Juliet with Latin flair Claudia V. Garcia, who describes herself as a “paralegal by day, actor/singer/artist by soul,” loved Teatro del Pueblo's adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet,” entitled “Love in a Time of Hate.” Developed in association with the Bach Society of Minnesota, the show's run continues tonight through June 30 at Luminary Arts Center in Minneapolis.  Claudia says: I laughed, cheered, got butterflies cried and was very proud, mucho orgullo, to see our raza represented in such a beautiful production. The cast is excellent, represented by a plethora of talented local Latinx artists and people of color in the Twin Cities. You hear hip hop, spoken word, little bit of bilingual Spanglish. A lot of connections to modernity. And that really resonated with younger crowds, bringing “Romeo and Juliet” into the now.— Claudia V. Garcia A North Shore soundscape Minneapolis musician Crystal Brinkman wants people to know about “The Seeker,” a self-led audio story with original music designed for Sugarloaf Cove in Schroeder on the North Shore. Created and voiced by Diver Van Avery, “The Seeker” is a 45-minute story that unfolds along an easy, one-mile hiking trail. The story is available through October. Avery has been very connected to that specific location in their own life and got the opportunity to research and be at that site over many months, creating an immersive story experience to connect with the land. There are two upcoming events this summer. On July 27, there will be a free, family-friendly community concert featuring the musicians Crystal Myslajek and Peter Morrow, who contributed to “The Seeker” soundtrack. The concert is 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. On Aug. 18, Diver will conduct a free creative writing workshop at the Sugarloaf Cove Nature Center. Registration required.  “The Seeker” is available through October. Crystal says: This story really brings you through Diver's very gorgeous and poetic words through the headphones that you are wearing — which can either be your own or Sugarloaf Cove Visitor Center does have headphones to borrow. Their voice is leading you through spaces and places that very much have to do with where you are but then also is grounded in themes of love and connection. And it's all supported by this gorgeous original music.— Crystal Brinkman

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. Swipe right for this modern romance Minneapolis playwright Liqing Xu is looking forward to seeing the play “Only Ugly Guys” at Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis. Written by local playwright Kurt Engh, the play coincides nicely with Twin Cities Pride this weekend. The show runs June 21 – 30 and is recommended for ages 17 and up. “I think so often a lot of queer media these days have to do with coming-out stories. But I think in Kurt's play ‘Only Ugly Guys,' what's really nice is that these characters are queer, but they're just trying to look for love like everyone else in the world.  “The play is about four queer men who are sort of entangled in these relationships with the with each other and are trying to find like love or romance or affection, but they're doing it in all the wrong ways. And the play is sort of looking also at the way that technology nowadays allows us to find anything that we want, but we're not really able to hold on to  important or genuine connections because there's just so many options. “I think it's an excellent choice for people who are celebrating Pride because it's a really interesting, thought-provoking, raw, sexy play that will definitely get people talking and having conversations about intimacy and privilege.” Liqing Xu Say ‘Yes, and' to improvised art films Comedian and improviser Jex Arzayus of St. Paul is a big fan of the improv group Babe Train, and they recommend checking out Babe Train Presents: B24 Improvised Films. The final shows are Friday June 21 and 28 at 7:30 at the HUGE Improv Theater's' relatively new location at 2728 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis  “It's a parody of the very artsy surreal films of A24 Production House. The audience gets to choose what they want, and what adventure they want. They're gonna take a name of a movie and a word of inspiration, and then Babe Train — which is made up of Hannah, Laura, KQ, Nora and Shelby — they are going to play all of the characters, all of the scenes, and give you a narrative long-form improvised version. You can get horror; you could get a coming-of-age story; you can get a story about time travel! Every show is different.“And then after the movie, they're gonna have an actual art talkback where people can ask questions, just like if you were going to be in a film festival. There's a different improv guest-interviewer each time.” Jex Arzayus Dance that honors our connection with water, performed along the MississippiEileen Moeller, director of the Frozen River Film Festival in Winona, is looking forward to attending an outdoor dance collaboration by two dancers as part of the McKnight International Choreographer Residency. The performances were co-created by local artist Sharon Mansur and visiting choreographer Meryl Zaytoun Murman. The free performances take place Tuesday, June 25 and Wednesday, June 26 at sunset at the Prairie Island Campground, located along the banks of the Mississippi River near Winona.  “I think there's something really spectacular about seeing a performance that has to do with a specific piece of nature and being in the nature at the time. These performances are going to be especially related to the river: the way it is right now, and the way that the artists relate with water. Meryl is typically based in Greece, and so a lot of her relationship with water had to do with the Mediterranean. Whereas Sharon is here, and so a lot of that has to do with the Mississippi River.Sharon is a very active community members. She's a very talented dancer and interdisciplinary artist and we have worked together on film related projects. Sharon's pieces always feel really relatable. A lot of Sharon's work is really grounded in community and accessibility. These performances are free.” Eileen Moeller