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.

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 Richard

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 Mansoni

Jennifer 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.

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 Montag

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 McCullum

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.

Linda 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  

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 Hashizume

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.

Roma 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 Duncan

Theater 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 Hegge

Jazz 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.

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 Voegeli

In 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. 

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 Giordano

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.

Twin Cities actor Peyton McCandless is looking forward to seeing a new stage adaptation of her favorite childhood book, “Dealing with Dragons.”

The series, written by Patricia C. Wrede beginning in 1991, features Princess Cimorene, who refuses to fit the expected mold of a princess and instead runs off to live with a dragon and have adventures. The novel received the 1991 Minnesota Book Award for Fantasy and Science Fiction. Staged by Phantom Chorus Theatre in collaboration with Arts Nest, the show runs from Friday, Jan. 17 through Feb. 2 at the Phoenix Theater in Minneapolis. 

This is an all-ages show, but at a running length of 2 hours and 15 minutes, it may not be appropriate for very young children. 

Peyton McCandless raves about Phantom Chorus Theatre’s puppetry, including the dragon Kazool, who is over 10 feet tall.

Peyton says: I saw [Phantom Chorus Theatre’s] most recent show that was called “The Alchemist’s Bargain” at the Twin Cities Horror Fest this last fall, and it was one of the most visually stunning, amazing things I’ve seen in a really long time.

As far as I can tell from what I’ve seen, they’re total geniuses about puppets. They’re really inventive and creative in the puppets that they create, because they make all their own puppets, and also in how they actually use those puppets to tell the story.

And it really feels like they’re not just using puppets for convenience or because it’s cool, but because they actually understand deeply what that art form is. I really can’t think of a better way to put dragons across on stage.

— Peyton McCandless

Lyn Reed is a former art teacher and a ceramic artist living in Orr, but she made the trip to the Northwoods Friends of the Arts in Cook, Minn., to take in the joyful colors and compositions of fabric artist Cecilia Rolando of Ely.

Entitled “Piecing it Together,” the exhibit runs through Jan. 31. Several small quilts designed and sewn by NWFA’s Round Robin Quilt Group are also on display. 

Lyn Reed offers this look around the gallery, where the colors and textures provide a welcome burst of inspiration in January.

Lyn says: She calls it fabric collage, and that’s exactly what it is. She must have just an incredible resource of fabrics because I notice fabric from Southeast Asia … Japan … she’s used doilies, antique lace, gingham …There’s a piece I really like that’s red and white spiral.

She cuts different pieces of different sizes, and she’s collaged those together. You can see that she’s layered them. She’s using all different types of stitching, and the lines actually look as if they’re in a drawing. The compositions are really beautiful. 

It’s like a cornucopia of all different types of fabrics from around the world. If you love fabrics, you will enjoy Cecilia’s work.

— Lyn Reed 

Photographer Sarah Weiss of St. Paul is intrigued by a photography exhibit opening this Saturday entitled “With Liberty and Care for All.” Organized by Sarah Sampedro, the photography exhibit includes the work of more than 20 artists in the FotoMatter Artist Collective.

There is an opening artist reception this Saturday, Jan. 18, from 6-9 p.m., and the exhibit runs through March 22. The exhibit is on view in the first-floor gallery of the Northside Artspace Lofts; dial “1” on the call box for building access. 

Sarah Weiss says the photo exhibit grew out of discussions, led by Sampedro, about the concepts of freedom.

Sarah says: What if we put more care into the idea of freedom? What if we had the definition of freedom be more about “us” rather than ‘“I?”  

The work itself is really thought-provoking and introspective, and very much, I think, poignant … just a conversation that we’re due to have as a society.

— Sarah Weiss

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.

Life-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 Pfohl

Jewelry 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 Prill

Dana 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.

Art fan Deborah Bartels of St Paul took a delightful trip The Kerlan, which is one of the premier collections of children’s literature, housed in the Elmer L. Anderson Library on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota.

Called “Journey to Joy: Rise, Relevance, Representation in Children’s Picture Books,” the exhibit is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., with docent-led tours available by appointment each day at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Please note: the Kerlan is closed on weekends and from Dec. 21-Jan 1 for the University’s holiday break. 

Deborah describes. the exhibit: The entrance to the exhibit welcomes viewers with life-sized, colorful cut-outs of joyful children doing cartwheels and reaching for the stars. A wall behind is covered floor-to-ceiling with enlargements of the covers of books that have won the Ezra Jack Keats Award. 

Displays invite visitors to see the process behind the published award winner: the submitted manuscript, the sketches that evolve into beautiful artwork and the notes of the authors and illustrators.

One of the surprising things I learned was that it is the editor who selects the illustrator for a submitted manuscript and that often the writer and artist never meet! 

“Journey to Joy” is displayed over four floors of the Anderson Library. A short elevator ride to the third floor brings you to the beginning of the exhibit which succinctly illuminates the history of children’s picture books, a history which is not always one to celebrate.

The exhibit doesn’t dwell long on this exclusionary past; it reveals a lesser-known history of positive efforts to represent the diversity of people and cultures and of the awards which encourage and publish more diverse children’s literature. 

I have long been aware of Newbery and Caldecott Medals which are well-known prizes in children’s literature. I knew little about the Ezra Jack Keats Award, which celebrates books that embrace all ethnic and social groups. The ground floor devotes an entire room to feature three indigenous Minnesota artist illustrators:  Jonathan Thunder, Annette S. Lee and Marlena Myles.

 — Deborah Bartels

Martin DeWitt, former director and curator of the Tweed Art Museum in Duluth, recommends making time to see the Twin Ports exhibit “Loaded” by Duluth artists Rob Quisling and Jonathan Thunder.

It’s showing across the High Bridge at the Kruk Gallery Holden Fine Arts Center, University of Wisconsin-Superior through Dec. 20 and by appointment until Jan. 15, 2025. 

Martin says: The exhibition is truly a collaboration by Quisling and Thunder, featuring a thoughtful and poignant selection by curator Annie Dugan of each artist’s diverse artistry that deals directly with their struggles and recovery from alcohol addiction. The exhibition is a powerful testament, not only to the artists’ long-term friendship, but also to their unique and powerful creative expression in a variety of media.

A dramatic, monumental acrylic painting on canvas by Thunder, smaller oil paintings and intimate prints and drawings by both artists, and a provocative mixed-media art installation by Quisling, fill the Kruk Gallery with inspiration, forthright honesty and beauty.

The notion of “Loaded” takes on new meaning, not only as a celebration of the artists’ sobriety but also how passion, friendship and creative expression can offer the potential for healing and resolve in this increasingly challenging world. This is an exhibition not to be missed.

— Martin DeWitt

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.

Andrew Rosendorf of Minneapolis says he wouldn’t be the playwright he is today without the support he received early in his career from the Tofte Lake Center.

He wants artists at all levels of their career to know that applications for next summer’s artist retreats are open now through the end of December. 

Andrew says: I just want you to imagine going to a pristine lake near Ely, Minnesota, that’s adjacent to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. You paddleboard, you canoe, you wade feet into the lake.

You sit around a fire pit at night looking up at the crystal-clear night sky, like you’re at a planetarium. And you also get a work on your art surrounded by a community of artists. That’s Tofte Lake Center. I find it’s a soul-centering place that leaves lives and breathes the value that nature is nurture. 

It gives access to artists at all levels of disciplines, and identities: those who are emerging, parents, BIPOC artists, arts educators who need time to center their own work and small collaborative teams. 

I first got introduced to Toffee Lake Center because about 15 years ago, when I was in my late 20s, I went there to work on a play, and Liz Engelman, who is the founder and who runs Tofte Lake Center, said, “Come work on your play. We believe in you and your voice.” And for any artist starting out, there’s a huge sense of imposter syndrome, and here was a place early in my career telling me I belong, and that’s kind of everything for an artist.

— Andrew Rosendorf

Kerry Johnson is the high school choir director in Worthington. This Sunday, she’s headed to the Worthington Chamber Singers’ Christmas concert. The theme of the concert is “Love Came Down,” and for this 30th anniversary performance they will sing a work they commissioned from Venezuelan composer Reinaldo Moya, entitled “Ya Germinaba.”

The concert is Sunday, Dec. 8 at 2 p.m. at First United Methodist Church in Worthington. The concert is free, with a free-will offering. 

Kerry adds: Eric Parrish, the director, just really kind of has a knack for choosing themes and music that just really become more timely as the process of preparing that music goes on.

This year, the focus is on hope and on gratitude and on celebrating love, and the fact that we are more similar than we’re not. And I think this fall, especially, that’s an important message to to put out into the world, just that we have a lot of common ground that we need to tap into.

 — Kerry Johnson

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.

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 Pearson

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 Siyomvo

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