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 audio heard in the player above. 

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Divine narratives in theater

Suzy Messerole, co-artistic director of Exposed Brick Theatre, is raving about the play “A Walless Church: The Black Woman’s Guide to Making God.”

The original play was written by AriDy Nox and developed at the Playwright Center, and it includes music by Queen Drea. The play runs through Oct. 13 at the Pillsbury House +Theatre. 

Suzy says: It is a beautiful combination of ritual and movement and storytelling. It is about three godlings that come back to Earth, and they are exploring how Black women experience divinity, so they are here searching for the divine. There is an incredible ritual that happens, really gorgeous movement, and there’s also three concrete storylines that you can really latch onto.

There’s all kinds of ways that this society tells Black women, explicitly and not explicitly, that they don’t deserve divinity, and this is a reclamation of the kind of faith and joy and beauty that Black women need and deserve and should have. 

The three actors drop in and out of multiple different characters, from a mom to a grandma to an auntie to a teenager and back to a godling. And the great thing about seeing a show at Pillsbury House + Theatre is that it’s an intimate setting, so you’re getting up close and personal with these powerhouse actors.

— Suzy Messerole 

Landscapes alive with light

Art 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 Superior

Artist and educator Marjorie Fedyszyn of Minneapolis recommends Annie Hejny’s multidisciplinary solo show about humanity's impact on Lake Superior. “Imminent Change/Rising Potential” runs through Oct. 26 at Kohlman & Reeb Gallery in the Northrup King Building in Minneapolis. 

Supported by the Kolhman & Reeb Project Space Grant, Hejny spent 24 days circumnavigating Lake Superior in 2023, during which time she took water samples that she incorporated into paints and gathered images and video. 

Marjorie describes the show: In the gallery, you will see large-scale acrylic paintings based on Superior’s vast shoreline, rusted steel wall sculptures in response to the years of taconite tailings running off into the lake, intimate watercolor works in a mesmerizing, layered video projection of water, highlighting the entanglement of personal, political and social aspects of our magnificent Lake Superior.

Humans have altered this highly revered and significant waterscape, and inevitably, more changes lay ahead as shoreline development, invasive species mining threats and water temperatures continue to increase. Annie’s care and interest in the stewardship of the environment inspired her solo journey and informed these new artworks, aligning her firsthand experience with imaginative experimentation, she reckons with the past and finds hope in the possibilities ahead.

This body of work is so surprisingly different from her former work that it feels like it’s a launching point for whatever’s coming next in her career.

— Marjorie Fedyszyn

Correction (Sept. 27, 2024): An earlier version of this story misstated the title of AriDy Nox's play. It has been corrected.

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above. 

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Remembering the Great Hinckley Fire and those who saved 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 Wade

Dancers unveil solo artistry

Cláudia Tatinge Nascimento is chair and professor of Theater and Dance at Macalester College in St. Paul. She’s planning to take students this weekend to see “SOLO,” the performances of the McKnight Dancer Fellowships.

In this 20th anniversary event, six dancers — three fellowship recipients from 2022 and three from 2023 — will perform original solo dance pieces, choreographed by artists of their choosing. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the O'Shaughnessy, with an artist talk-back following Saturday’s performance. 

Cláudia says: One of the things that really is exciting to me is because you have six different dancers who have pieces commissioned for them by these very specific choreographers, then it’s an opportunity for the audience to see a really wide range of styles, and to also see dance as research because each one of these dancers have a particular way of connecting with dance.

If they choose a specific choreographer it’s because that other artist is going to help them with their research. 

This year, the six dancers will present solo pieces by international guest choreographers from Beirut, London, Amsterdam or affiliated with major U.S. organizations such as the José Limón Foundation. This is really a unique opportunity to view works executed by some of the strongest dancers in our community.

— Cláudia Tatinge Nascimento

Artists in their natural habitats: Visit artist workshops in St. Peter this 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. 

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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 Welch

Learning 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. 

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Space cowboys and stolen moon

Maria Ghassemlou of Minneapolis is a longtime Minnesota Fringe house manager, and that’s where she saw the play “Moonwatchers” in 2022.

The two-person show won the Best in Venue and Underdog awards that year. Now, she’s delighted to share that the show is back at Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis. The show is created and performed by Corey Farrell and Nigel Berkeley, who attended the University of Minnesota / Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training program together. The show opens tonight and runs through Sept 22.  

Maria says: “Moonwatchers” is a show where there's two office workers, and their job just happens to be watching the moon and making sure that things happen on time — just a normal office job — but something goes awry when somebody steals the moon. Now they have to go on an adventure to go find it.

This is a two-person show where they play multiple characters. There’s Space Cowboys, there’s aliens, cows, space Jane Austin and space grass. It’s just a lot of silly and fun.

— Maria Ghassemlou

Cloudland celebrates DIY spirit

Phil Schwarz of Minneapolis volunteers at Extreme Noise Records, and he wants people to know about Cloudland Theater, a 150-seat music venue on East Lake Street that celebrates its first anniversary this fall.

He describes Cloudland as filling a need for a small venue for DIY musicians (read: artist book gigs themselves) outside of a traditional bar setting. 

Phil says: There’s not a lot of smaller venues in town. And when venues came back [after pandemic closures], there was an explosion of new bands and stuff, and a lot of these venues were a lot harder to book shows in, so Cloudland came along at a perfect time. The shows are very intimate: you can converse with the musicians and stuff like that, and it’s very kind of communal.  

I’m super excited for Feast of Lanterns, which features Alan Sparhawk of the band Low and also Pete Biasi, who used to be in a great post-punk band from here called Signal to Trust. It’s kind of different than what Alan’s done with Low: I would say noise punk and more abrasive. They will be playing Saturday, September 21 at Cloudland.

— Phil Schwarz

Portraits of fame on display

Gabi 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. 

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Memory and magic

Nanci 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 dusk

Singer 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 exhibit

Elizabeth 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. 

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Cabaret of ancestors

Musician and cultural organizer Sarah Larsson wants people to know about singer-songwriter Carlisle Evans Peck’s show “Iconoclasm,” which is touring in western Minnesota.

She describes the show as part cabaret, part ritual, where the audience travels back in time to re-imagine stories from Carlisle’s family through a queer and often trans lens.

The show, originally developed as a Cedar Commission, will be at the YES! House in Granite Falls on Thursday at the Little Theater Auditorium in New London on Friday, and at the Madison Mercantile in Madison (the one in Minnesota) on Saturday.  

Sarah says: So many of these stories are dramatic and amazing to begin with. Like, there’s a story of a great-grandfather who actually was hit by a train. But coming out of these kind of fantastic true stories, Carlisle is exploring, you know, in those times and places, maybe people’s queerness wouldn’t have been able to come out or be public in the same kind of way.

So what if there were some of these queer identities among these people, and they were just waiting to be told. Or maybe not! Maybe for these individuals, that’s not the way they would describe themselves. But there’s power in telling those stories and in seeing ourselves in these people from the past. 

It’s an all-musical production with an amazing five-piece band and two backup singers, and then Carlisle embodies each of these characters, kind of like a series of sung monologues. Carlisle is this amazing, amazing, totally stunning performer carrying on the music throughout the entire piece.

— Sarah Larsson

Folk fusion night

Folk musician Emily Wright recently traveled to Montevideo for an evening of poetry and music, and she’s thrilled that these western Minnesota artists are bringing their work to the MetroNOME Brewery in St. Paul, Saturday at 7 p.m.

Brendan Stermer will read from his new book of poetry “Forgotten Frequencies” with musical accompaniment by his brother Andy Stermer and their friend Malena Handeen. (Sidenote: Andy and Brendan also produce the “Interesting People Reading Poetry” podcast.) 

Emily says: Andy’s poems and their music are wide open and make me think about the prairie. They remind me of Montevideo, where they are all from.

Brendan’s book of poetry has this amazing section in it where he took the writings from the Journal of an explorer whose last name was Nicolet and turned them into poetry.

I think my favorite poem is this one called “Forgotten Frequencies,” which is the title of his of his book, and it’s talking about how the muse of poetry and the muse of art is there, you just have to turn your dial just a little bit to hear her voice.

— Emily Wright

A feast of puppetry

Minneapolis 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. 

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Winds of change

Kate Saumur of White Bear Township is a freelance bassoonist, and she recommends seeing the Neoteric Chamber Winds Saturday, Aug. 10 at 7 p.m. at Roseville Lutheran Church in Roseville.

Kate says it’s a wonderful opportunity to see very contemporary, push-the-envelope compositions for winds. 

Kate offers this background: They started as an offshoot of a really wonderful group called Grand Symphonic Winds, which is an adult concert band. I would say it’s the best in the Twin Cities area.

They don’t have a summer season, so the folks who are involved in that group decided that they wanted to do something in the summer. And that’s how Neoteric Chamber Winds got started. It’s self-directed, self-run.

They specialize in contemporary music. I would say for sure everything from the 20th century on. And in fact, they really do focus intentionally on 21st-century music.

— Kate Saumur

Artistic emotions

Tina Burnside is the co-founder and curator of the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery in Minneapolis. She recommends seeing the art exhibition “Blak Grit,” opening at the Northrup King Building’s 3rd Floor Gallery in Minneapolis on Friday.

Tina says: They’ll be showing about 35 pieces in the exhibit, and the art ranges from abstract realism, Afro-futurism, sculptures and projection design.

And it’s a really powerful show because it shows a range of emotions reflected in these pieces, from love, violence, pain, heartache, beauty, joy and determination.

What I really like about this exhibit is that all of the artists are Black men, and I think that that’s really important, because in society and in the United States, men, in general and particularly Black men, are not allowed to show emotion.

So, this exhibit is a collective of Black men coming together to take space and to have the courage to express themselves and to show their emotions, show a range of emotions, and show their humanity.

— Tina Burnside

Jake’s Waits odyssey

Art 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. 

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Troll trail trek

Ann Treacy of St. Paul has a radio show with Macalester College called “Mostly Minnesota Music.” Recently, took a drive with a friend to Detroit Lakes to see the new troll installation.

Created by Danish artist Thomas Dambo, these five enormous, playful trolls created from recycled materials are hidden in and around Detroit Lakes. Local Project 412 offers several map options to start you on the scavenger hunt, which begins with Alexa’s Elixir in accessible Detroit Lakes City Park.  

Ann says seeing the trolls was worth the day trip: The trolls are amazing. When I say they’re giant, they run between 15 and 20 feet tall. Although there is one, Long Lief, who is 36 feet tall!

I had childlike expectations of the trolls, and they were far exceeded. There’s a scavenger hunt that helps you find them, and each troll will have little tasks that you can do.

If I still had small children, we would have done each task, but as an adult, I felt less need to. There’s a clue that each troll has that will help you find the golden rabbit.

What we ended up doing was driving about 20 minutes to each location. And then it’s about a 30-minute walk there and back. Not all the trolls are accessible to all: some are stroller-friendly, some are not. It was a good four-and-a-half-hour day for us.

— Ann Traecy

Navigating identities

Christian Novak of Minneapolis recently visited the Public Functionary Upstairs Gallery in the Northrup King Building in Minneapolis, where he saw BearBOI’s photography exhibit. Titled "Blackness in Transit (BGBM)," the portrait series focuses on two Black trans individuals.

The show runs through Aug. 17, with an event Aug. 8 at 7 p.m. that features BearBOI and Word M. Musinguzi in conversation. The gallery is open Wednesdays through Saturdays 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

Christian says: What I love about [this exhibit] is that it really challenges expectations, to think about what it means to be a man or a woman, and how these individuals have to navigate a society that really focuses on this binary idea of gender. And then on top of it, what it means to be Black.

Walking out of this exhibit, it reminded me that I need to understand my own expectations and I need to understand my own assumptions.

— Christian Novak

Bluegrass bonanza

Derek 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.  

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Winona wonders

Stephanie 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 ecosystems

Visual artist Pete Driessen of Minneapolis recently traveled north to Park Rapids to see the new exhibits at the Nemeth Art Center, which he recommends.

The two solo shows each take a look at the natural world. Wayne Gudmundson’s exhibit “What Stillness Has to Offer” encompasses large-scale photographic prints that zoom in close on forest scenes. Gudmundson is a retired art professor from Moorhead State University. Madeleine Bialke’s exhibit “The Long View” consists of landscape paintings. Both exhibits run through Sept. 28. 

Pete says of Madeleine Bialke’s work: The vibrant acrylic works, recently created during her residency at the Nemeth, are highly energetic and expressive works, with brilliant use of color.

Her works have a unique idiosyncratic style, visually embracing the natural beauty within the gentle shapeshifting that occurs in our local ecosystems and environments.

Of particular interest to me as a viewer is how Madeleine captures the transitional glowing light qualities of sunrises, sunsets, moonscapes and how that light filters through flower petals, long grasses, tree leaves, or branches in a dense forest.

Whether it’s a becoming pinecone, wiggly birch or pine branch, the tipped Big Dipper, or night lights in cottage windows on side of lake, the body of work electrifies our innate and subtle connections with rural bucolic countryside.

— Pete Driessen

Shakespeare squashed

Theater 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 glam

Food writer Amy Thielen of Park Rapids recommends a gallery space in Detroit Lakes with a show that opens Thursday for the peak summer season.

The gallery, run by ceramicist Ellen Moses, is called Art Project 605. Visitors can see the abstract landscape paintings and drawings of Jennie Ward of Lake Park. Entitled “Love Song in the Chaos,” the show will be up through Aug. 2.  

Thielen offers this background: Ellen moved back from New York City during the COVID time. I feel like we gained in the North Country — we gained a lot of very cool people who moved back up north, where they are now working remotely. She and her wife Lori O’Dea bought a storefront.

In the back, it’s Ellen’s studio: She makes plates, cups and 3D sculptures. In the front space of the storefront there’s a gallery, and [Thursday night] a show opens by Jennie Ward, an artist who lives a little bit further west in Lake Park.

Jennie’s paintings are really interesting. They’re very beautiful. They’re abstract expressionist landscapes. The colors are big, swaths of thick paint; she’s a great colorist. I’m very excited for this work. I think everybody in town will love it.  

It’s a beautifully renovated storefront: a beautiful, clean, minimalist working space. It reminds me of a corner in a bigger city, like New York or Chicago.

— Amy Thielen

Global grooves gala

Padma Wudali is an amateur musician who plays the veena, a South Indian classical carnatic instrument. She loves the band Maithree, whose work combines Indian and Western classical music styles and instruments.

Maithree will be performing this Saturday, July 13 at 6:30 p.m. at the Hindu Society of Minnesota’s campus in Maple Grove. The concert is a fundraiser for a new Cultural, Arts and Heritage Center.

Padma says: Maithree is a band of Minnesotans who collaborate with classical music, both Western and Indian. So it to me it’s not about them diluting any of their art forms, but rather stepping into each other spaces to create amazing music. The music that we will get to hear is Indian, classical Irish, Turkish melodies all seamlessly blended together and various compositions.

Shruthi Rajesekar is the youngest member, and I’m super excited to see her work be represented by this group. She is a Western classical music composer who very much grew up in Plymouth and how her work is just being admired by so many people in the United States and abroad.

— Padma Wudali

Band blitz bash

Amanda 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