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 Holmesian holiday twist

Heidi Dybing of Lanesboro loves the arts scene in her community. She’s seen the Commonweal Theatre’s production of “A Sherlock Carol” twice and plans to go back for more.

The story, she says, is equal parts Sherlock Holmes mystery and Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” with recognizable lines from each woven into the script. The show runs through Dec. 21.

Heidi says: This show is absolutely fantastic. It's eye candy because of the amazing sets with the amazing vintage props all over the stage and the walls and the ceilings. It is very Victorian, with authentic Victorian costumes and music.

— Heidi Dybing

Classical guitar meets civil rights anthem

Joe Haus, former president of the Minnesota Guitar Society, recommends seeing the vibraphone and guitar team of Vincent Hyman and Robert Ekstrand in concert at Lynnhurst Congregational UCC in Minneapolis.

The duo will perform music spanning three centuries, including classical, jazz, and tango. The Lynnhurst choir will join them to perform Oscar Peterson’s “Hymn to Freedom,” a civil rights anthem. The concert is 7 p.m. Friday. Admission is free, with donations accepted for the Sabathani Food Shelf.

Joe says: Vince Hyman is one of the best vibe players in town. Bob Ekstrand has been playing guitar forever: playing in rock bands, playing as a solo blues artist, jazz ensembles studying classical guitar. I can't recommend them enough.

— Joe Haus

Sketch comedy meets Santa Claus

Megan McDonough is a high school theater director who celebrates the season by seeing “Letters to Santa... With a Twist,” a one-woman show by Janelle Ranek.

Each year, Ranek co-writes and performs 10 new and returning characters who update Santa on their year and share their holiday wishes. This year’s run is at Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis, Dec. 5–22, with all shows at 7 p.m.

Megan says: This show is hilarious! It is, it is essentially an individual sketch comedy... the likes of a “Saturday Night Live,” or like a Smosh comedy, where she creates a character, runs with it for a few minutes, and then we change characters, and we get to meet somebody new right afterwards.

My favorite is Marjorie. She's a motivational speaker, and there's usually a prop that the audience gets when Marjorie comes up to talk to you.

— Megan McDonough

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 harmonious gathering of voices

Singer and voiceover actor Jen Maren always enjoys seeing the Twin Cities Women’s Choir perform. Their fall concert, whose theme is “Ignite!,” takes place 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23 at South High School in Minneapolis.

Maren says: This is an incredible group that is 140 voices, all non-auditioned, but incredibly professionally sounding. There's percussion, there's a string quartet happening.

There's some great jazz arrangements that are happening. There's all six-part harmony of all these women's voices raised in song. And I don't know about you, but we're living in a rather divided time right now, so a little bit of harmony would actually be soothing to my soul.

— Jen Maren

Celebrating Latinidad on screen

Filmmaker Maxie Rockymore is looking forward to the inaugural Serpentina Arts Film Festival at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 25. at The Parkway Theater in Minneapolis.

The free event promises a range of styles of short films, all created by Minnesota-based Latin filmmakers. The theme is “Celebrating Latinidad Through Short Films.”

Rockymore explains why this film festival is important to her: When people share stories, and share other people's stories, that's when we connect and realize that we are all one. That's what filmmaking, I think, does for people.

— Maxie Rockymore

Holiday jazz with heart

Aaron Lohmeyer is an associate professor of music education and jazz band director at Winona State University, and he wants people to know about the holiday album release of a Winona band that’s also a family affair.

H3O Jazz Trio is the work of Eric Heukeshoven and his sons, Max and Hans, with wife Janet Heukeshoven as a frequent musical guest. They celebrate the release of their second album, “Combo Carols,” at the Steele County Historical Society in Owatonna at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22. The songs are mash-ups of holiday carols and jazz standards.

The trio also holds jam sessions at Two Fathoms Brewing in Winona on the third Sunday of every month.

Aaron says: One neat thing about the H3O trio is that their jam sessions also function as a fundraiser for area nonprofits. So it's not only a family band, but it's a band with a mission, and their commitment to give back to the community through music is really unique.

— Aaron Lohmeyer

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.

Centering voices of experience

Mankwe Ndosi is a community-engaged artist at Pillsbury House + Theatre in Minneapolis. She admires the work of zAmya Theater, whose original plays focus on housing and homelessness, drawing from the lived experience of the communities in which they perform.

Their show, “Living in America: The Waiting List is Full,” takes place in conjunction with Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. The hour-long performances are today through Friday, Nov. 21, at venues across the Twin Cities, including Minneapolis Central Library, Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis and 825 Arts in St. Paul.

Mankwe says: I think this group is really important, because a lot of times when we talk about making change, often things are happening from the top down, from large institutions or academics or policy makers, and we really seldomly actually are listening to folks who are in some of the hardest challenges situations, but they actually have the most information about what works and what doesn't work.

And so I think in this time, when there is room for change and transformation, it's helpful to be able to see people who are living it, who are the experts, who are also the visionaries of how to transform what can be some of the toughest situations that people can experience.

— Mankwe Ndosi

Wordplay and wonder in Longfellow

Sara Rothholz Weiner is an architect and potter living in Minneapolis, and she recommends a visit to the Snakpak Gallery in the Longfellow Neighborhood, where a sidewalk community makers event is also happening this weekend. The gallery features the work of Jim Ockuly.

Sara says: Jim Ockluly’s witty and evocative art explores the relationship of image and language. It's quirky, it's fun, it's thought-provoking, and it's accessible to all audiences. He explores our world with a sense of irony and a big dose of wonder that's very relevant to our times.

This [weekend] event, importantly, includes several local artists and craftspeople from the Longfellow neighborhood on a sidewalk art show and yes, bundles of local firewood [will be] for sale with proceeds going to Soup For You Cafe, a local soup kitchen that's free for all.

— Sara Rothholz Weiner

Jazz and emotional honesty on stage

Meghan Kreidler is a musician and actor in Minneapolis, and she’s shining a light on fellow musician Leslie Vincent, whose new album “Little Black Book” has its Twin Cities premiere on Sunday, Nov. 16 at the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis.

The jazz album of original songs explores the ups and downs of dating and marriage. Leslie and her band will be joined on Sunday by guest musician Jeremy Messersmith.

Meghan says: It's really hard not to fall in love with [Leslie] the minute she steps on stage. She just creates a really warm and fun atmosphere.

I remember the first time I ever saw Leslie perform, and it just felt really accessible and fun and kind of new, and it broke my kind of preconceived notions about what jazz can be and how it can feel from an audience perspective.

— Meghan Kreidler

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.

Music, storytelling and Ojibwe voices

Singer-songwriter Molly Dean of Minneapolis sees the musical group Bizhiki perform as often as she can, and she plans to drive to Grand Marais to see their concert on Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts at 7 p.m.

Bizhiki consists of Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings (Bad River Ojibwe), Joe Rainey Sr. (Red Lake Ojibwe), and S. Carey (who is also drummer for Bon Iver). It's a multimedia performance, including video from filmmaker Finn Ryan.

The concert is presented by the North Shore Music Association, which Molly says curates “an excellent calendar of music throughout the year.”

Molly adds: I can recall the first time that I saw them. I was blown away by their performance, with the drumming and the vocal soundscapes. And I said, “I'm going to see them wherever I can.”

It's very multi-sensory. They have a vast array of instrumentation that they use, and then there's a beautiful visual backdrop. It's a film that they created to really support and amplify the storytelling aspect of it.

The first time that I saw them, it became pretty clear that the intention really is to engage the listener on many levels, and with a purpose of [creating] human connection.

— Molly Dean

Magical realism without words

Actor Natalie Rae Wass of Minneapolis recently saw “Apartment 2B” at Red Eye Theater. There are no words in this masked show, which brings the characters in an apartment building together with a dash of magical realism.

There are three more chances to catch the show: Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Natalie says: It is a beautiful show that is created without spoken word. So it uses, of course, body language and scenery and lighting, music, sound effects to tell the story; but that makes it really universal and allows all of us to really see ourselves in every character.

We laugh at our shared annoyances and insecurities but also celebrate our shared triumphs, and you know the possibility of humanity coming together.

— Natalie Rae Wass

Letterpress with global reach

Doris Rubenstein of Richfield recommends exploring the art of letterpress printmaking at the “Just Letters” exhibit at the Olson Gallery at Bethel University in St. Paul.

There’s a reception and letterpress demonstration with David Wolske Thursday from 6–8 p.m. in the gallery. The show runs through Dec. 19.

The exhibit includes nine artists based in Minnesota and around the world. Rubenstein is a particular fan of Detroit-based Lynne Avadenka.

Doris says: Her resume is about as long as my left arm. I've seen her work, and I only wish I had room on my walls for some of it.

— 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.

Brecht meets the gangster underworld in Frank Theatre’s Halloween opening

Peter Rachleff is a retired labor historian from Macalester College, and he recommends Frank Theatre’s staging of Bertolt Brecht’s “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui,” a satirical play about authoritarianism and corruption.

The play’s title character, Arturo Ui, is an imagined cross between Adolf Hitler — whose rise Brecht fled Germany to escape — and Al Capone, and it’s set in the 1930s gangster underworld of Chicago.

Frank Theatre is known for mounting plays that challenge the status quo and spark conversation.

The play opens on Halloween and runs through Nov. 23 at the Ivy Building for the Arts in Minneapolis.

Rachleff, who has seen Frank’s previous productions of the show in past years, calls the play "very relevant to the moment in which we are living."

Peter says: We are living in a moment where not only is authoritarianism a concern, but so is corruption; and so whether it's pardoning this cryptocurrency guy or demanding that the Department of Justice reimburse the president $230 million, we seem to be experiencing the kind of synthesis that Bertolt Brecht imagined when he wrote “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.”

I think that Brecht's aesthetics of tearing down the fourth wall between the audience and the performers on stage is an aesthetic that Frank Theatre has engaged and deployed consistently and in challenging ways over the last 36 years. I've lived here about 45 years, and I'm very fortunate not only that we have a fabulous theater community, but that Wendy Knox and Frank Theatre are in the middle of it.

— Peter Rachleff

‘Phantom’ returns to the screen — with a 60-piece live orchestra

Tristan Crawford is a writer, director and animator in Minneapolis, and his plans for Halloween evening involve a new musical take on a famous phantom. Before Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote music for the haunted Paris Opera House, Gaston Leroux’s gothic horror novel was imagined as a silent film.

On Halloween night, the 1925 film “The Phantom of the Opera” will screen at Ted Mann Concert Hall on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis, accompanied by an original score by Twin Cities composer Philip Shorey. He will conduct the 60-piece Curse of the Vampire Orchestra as the film plays.

Tristan says: It's like the combination of going to the movies, but then also going to your favorite concert. They have flashing lights, they have fog, they have the screen playing the film. But then you also get to see the orchestra just play right in front of you.

Philip always dresses to the 10s, too. And you're just sucked into this amazing experience. I don't know what else you would want to be doing this Halloween.

— Tristan Crawford

A musical ‘Terminator’ brings joy and absurdity to Morris

Syd Bauer of Morris loves the joy and fun going into the production of “Terminator: The Musical” on the University of Minnesota-Morris campus, starting tonight.

Shows run Thursday and Nov. 1 (skipping Halloween), and Nov. 6–8 at 7:30 p.m., with a 2 p.m. matinee on Nov. 8 at the George C. Fosgate Black Box Theatre.

Syd says: I'm excited about “Terminator: The Musical” for lots of reasons, but for the main reason being that the folks putting it on are thrilled to be experiencing joy and silliness through their art.

I've gotten to talk to a lot of the folks doing tech for the show, and they're pumped about the comedy within it. They're pumped about the silliness in the props.

One of them is a bike helmet with a little toy helicopter attached to the top for the chase scenes. They're excited about what it means to be thinking about AI and technology as we're coming up on 2029, the year that the Terminator is from, to go back to the 80s.

— Syd Bauer

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.

Puppetry meets science

Musician Greg Herriges of Minneapolis recommends a date night or family trip to see Z Puppets Rosenschnoz’s performance of “Cellula.”

The show combines blacklight puppetry and live a capella music by improv vocalists Mankwe Ndosi and Libby Turner, zooming in on a story that takes place at the cellular level.

Performances take place at Sabathani Community Center in Minneapolis. Showtimes are Thursday at 5:30 p.m., Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. The show is recommended for ages 5 and up.

Microscope activity stations will be available 30 minutes before each show.

Greg says: It takes the world that you might see in a microscope and brings it to glow-in-the-dark life. It is educational, mesmerizing, funny.

The live music by Mankwe and Libby is somewhat improv-based, I believe, but it also includes intertwined melodies and sound effects to create just beautiful soundscape to this great fusion of art and science.

— Greg Herriges

A haunted Winona theater show

Writer and playwright Kathleen Kenney Peterson of Winona plans to get into the Halloween spirit by attending “Mallory’s Ghost,” an original ghost story and murder mystery set in a haunted theater.

The play involves three heiresses and a ghost with something to say.

It’s written and produced by Margaret Shaw Johnson of Winona, who has written several plays and a book inspired by local hauntings. The show runs Friday, Oct. 24, through Sunday, Nov. 2. Tickets are available through the Great River Shakespeare Festival.

Kenney Peterson is also excited about the venue.

Kathleen says: The Historic Masonic Theatre here in Winona has been closed for two years for renovations, and this play will be the first opportunity the public has to be in the building for over two years!

— Kathleen Kenney Peterson

Polka, anyone?

Folk musician Sarah Larsson of Minneapolis plans to see the Upper Midwest Folk Fiddlers perform at Tapestry Folkdance Center in Minneapolis, Thursday at 7 p.m.

Expect to hear — and dance to, if you choose — polkas, schottisches, waltzes and other traditional tunes.

Sarah says: I think maybe a lot of people know about folk music from Appalachia or from the American South. But turns out, of course, here in the Upper Midwest — Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas — there's folk music, too, that comes from the early 20th century and the middle of the 19th century.

What this group considers folk music from this region is all the music of different immigrants from Europe during that era, as well as Indigenous communities.

— Sarah Larsson

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.

Mental health and community expression in Morris

Missy Polster, a former healthcare worker connected to the 210 Gallery in Sandstone, is passionate about art that intersects with social justice.

She highlights “Waiting for Beds,” a powerful exhibition featuring artists Moira Villiard and Carla Hamilton, alongside submissions from community members. It’s on view at the Morrison Gallery at the University of Minnesota Morris through Nov. 25.

Missy says: It's beautiful, it's moving and it does make you think, which is how I hope everybody wants art to be.

— Missy Polster

A literary road trip through Minnesota’s complexity

Chris Vondracek, a journalist for the Star Tribune currently based in Washington, D.C., recommends “Greater Minnesota: Exploring the Land of Sky-Blue Waters” by author Patrick Hicks.

Hicks, who teaches at Augustana University, takes readers across the state in a travelogue rich with regional nuance.

Hicks will speak and read from his book at St. John’s University in Collegeville Thursday at 7 p.m.

Chris says: I came away from it feeling just this absolute sense of how large and how boisterous and how impossibly contradictory sometimes Minnesota can be.

— Chris Vondracek

Grieving through color and text in St. Cloud

Olivia Norquist is the marketing and programming coordinator at the Grand Center for Arts and Culture in New Ulm. She recommends “Letters to the Void,” a solo exhibition by Eric Twait at the Paramount Center for the Arts in St. Cloud, running through November.

Twait will be present at an artist reception on Friday, Oct. 17, from 4 to 6 p.m. in Gallery C.

The show is a deeply personal exploration of grief following the loss of Twait’s' wife, Maria.

Olivia says: At our gallery, we actually had someone who left in tears after seeing the paintings.

— Olivia Norquist

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 storytelling road trip from Grand Marais to Winona

Rose Arrowsmith is a storyteller and children’s book writer from Grand Marais, and for the second year in a row, she’s making the six-hour drive to Winona to attend the Sandbar Storytelling Festival.

The festival, held on Friday and Saturday, features seven storytellers from around the country, including local talent, offering a series of storytelling events at the Page Theatre.

There are also free events Friday through Sunday at the Historic Mason Theater, the Winona Public Library and two Winona churches. Find the schedule here.

Rose describes the transportive nature of storytelling: This is oral storytelling, so oftentimes it's going to be one person up on stage, and they might be telling a story from their own life. They might be telling a folktale or a myth or some combination thereof.

Some people are really theatrical storytellers and do voices and a lot of physicality. And some people, it feels like you're in a really intimate conversation until you realize you're lost in a story.

Rose is particularly excited to see Elizabeth Ellis, whom the NEA named an American Masterpiece Touring Artist.

Rose says: If you're in the storytelling world, you've known her name for forever. She doesn't really travel anymore, but she tells these traditional stories from her experience in Appalachia.

— Rose Arrowsmith

A play about care, connection and humanity

Twin Cities theater-maker Shanan Custer is looking forward to seeing Martyna Majok’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Cost of Living” staged by Full Circle Theater.

The show runs Oct. 10–18, including accessibility matinees Saturdays at 1 p.m., at 825 Arts in St. Paul. The play lasts an hour and 45 minutes with a 10-minute intermission. Tickets are pay-as-you-are-able.

Shanan says: It's an incredible acting show. You really get to know the characters. And the show has two characters [out of four] who have disabilities. And in this particular production, we have two characters who are using wheelchairs. They both require caregiving, but the show isn't about disability.

All of the characters are fully realized, and the show is asking us to think about all the ways that we intersect, whether it be how much money we make in a year, or how we're able to move about in the world, or how others perceive us.

— Shanan Custer

Glamour, vintage, and Prince-inspired fashion on the runway

Leslie Firkins is a wardrobe stylist living in St. Paul, and she’s looking forward to Glam Jam, a vintage fashion show and corresponding clothing market, both held at The Hennepin in Minneapolis. It’s a Prince-inspired event as well as a fundraiser for Hennepin Arts.

The high-glam 80’s style fashion show kicks off at 7 p.m. Friday night.

Leslie says: The stylist is Richard Anderson. He's a really well-known icon and stylist here in the Twin Cities, and I just can't wait to see what he pulls together.

And then on Saturday, there is a vintage market where you can shop a lot of the vendors that provided a lot of the clothes and pieces that we saw in the show the night before.

I think it'll be a really good time to be inspired to maybe pick up some vintage to mix and match with your modern clothes.

— Leslie Firkins

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.

Meander through artists’ studios along the upper Minnesota River Valley

Musician Clark Machtemes of Waconia recommends the Meander Art Crawl, a three-day, self-guided tour of artists’ studios across western Minnesota.

This year’s event features 42 artists in towns including Ortonville, Appleton, Madison, Milan, Dawson, Montevideo, Granite Falls and Canby.

The Meander runs:

Friday: 12 – 6 p.m.

Saturday: 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Sunday: 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Machtemes notes that several towns will also host evening musical performances. (Find a map here.)

The quiet beauty of the everyday

Minneapolis painter Ken Johnson recommends Justin Terlecki’s solo show, “Hidden Place,” on view at Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis through Oct. 11.

Ken says: It's a series of nine paintings in oil. They're scenes reproduced from photographs and from his remembered events of places and friends: sleeping, exploring the outdoors, eating — all relatable.

He's creating a living history through these subtle artworks. His oils are in muted blues and greens. It's best seen in person because he uses these small brushes, and you can actually see these little brush strokes.

— Ken Johnson

Kick-start spooky season with Theatre 55’s production of ‘Sweeney Todd’

St. Paul’s Heather Foxx says she first discovered Theatre 55 — a Twin Cities theater company featuring actors aged 55 and older — through Art Hounds.

After appearing in some of their past productions, she plans to be in the audience for their fall show, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”

Heather says: This fall, they’re kicking off the spooky Halloween season with “Sweeney Todd,” filled with beautiful, eerie, haunting melodies, with actors and actresses of 55 and older.

— Heather Foxx

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 Saint John’s Bible Experience

Calligrapher Maura Lynch of Minneapolis encourages a visit to The St. John’s Bible, a monumental work of sacred calligraphy and art housed on the peaceful campus of St. John’s University.

The Bible, which involved significant contributions from Minnesotans, can be viewed year-round both in person and digitally.

Maura says: Calligraphy is seen first and read second. When you experience the words in the Bible that have been rendered in a visually and aesthetically beautiful way, it elevates the entire experience.

— Maura Lynch

Edge of the Big Woods Art Wander

Hutchinson-based potter Betsy Price recommends the Edge of the Big Woods Art Wander in Carver County. The self-guided studio tour runs through a wooded landscape that gives the region its name, and features over 40 artists, including potters, jewelers, painters, woodworkers and more. Visitors can explore studios, watch live demos, and connect with artists.

The event runs Friday through Sunday, with stops including the Mocha Monkey where there will be a pottery demo by “Jon the Potter.”

Betsy says: It feels like a true wander through art and nature.

— Betsy Price

Kinship and Clay at Form + Content Gallery

Minneapolis arts advocate Becky Smith shares her admiration for “Kinship,” a show at Form + Content Gallery that pairs Chris Cinque’s life-size charcoal portraits of friends from her lesbian and nonbinary community with expressive ceramic vessels by Sharon Jaffe, a radical Jewish feminist artist.

The exhibition runs through Oct. 4 in the North Loop of Minneapolis.

Becky says: They're celebratory, and they also serve as a real documentation towards resistance and survival of people who are experiencing an oppressed sexual identity.

— Becky Smith