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. 

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here. 

Art Hounds podcast series
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/art-hounds/id525807829

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. 

Click here.


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. 

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here. 

Click here.


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. 

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here. 

Click here.


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. 

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here. 

Click here.


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.  

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here. 

Click here.


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

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

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here. 

Click here.


Shakespeare in the sculpture park 

Rachel Coyne of Lindstrom is looking forward to heading to nearby Franconia Sculpture Park on July 27 to see Shakespeare in the park.

Classical Actors Ensemble will perform Shakespeare’s mistaken-identity comedy “Twelfth Night, or What You Will,” The show is free. Picnics are encouraged, as are patrons of all ages. 

This week’s performances include Friday at Newell Park in St. Paul, Saturday at Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis and Sunday at Vermillion Falls Park in Hastings. All shows start at 7 p.m. and run for two hours. “Twelfth Night” runs at various Twin Cities parks through July 14.  

The Franconia Sculpture Park is a particularly special location, Rachel says, because the actors move around the sculpture park and incorporate some of the art into their performance.

She still remembers the group’s performance of “The Tempest” last year, which staged the show’s happy ending with Franconia’s giant ring sculpture in the background, forming a literal full circle for the story.

She looks forward to seeing which sculptures the performers play around — and on — this year. 

Pro tip from Rachel: Bring a picnic, and don’t forget your bug spray. 

— Rachel Coyne

Romeo and Juliet with Latin flair 

Claudia V. Garcia, who describes herself as a “paralegal by day, actor/singer/artist by soul,” loved Teatro del Pueblo’s adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet,” entitled “Love in a Time of Hate.”

Developed in association with the Bach Society of Minnesota, the show’s run continues tonight through June 30 at Luminary Arts Center in Minneapolis.  

Claudia says: I laughed, cheered, got butterflies cried and was very proud, mucho orgullo, to see our raza represented in such a beautiful production. 

The cast is excellent, represented by a plethora of talented local Latinx artists and people of color in the Twin Cities.

You hear hip hop, spoken word, little bit of bilingual Spanglish. A lot of connections to modernity. And that really resonated with younger crowds, bringing “Romeo and Juliet” into the now.

— Claudia V. Garcia 

A North Shore soundscape 

Minneapolis musician Crystal Brinkman wants people to know about “The Seeker,” a self-led audio story with original music designed for Sugarloaf Cove in Schroeder on the North Shore.

Created and voiced by Diver Van Avery, “The Seeker” is a 45-minute story that unfolds along an easy, one-mile hiking trail. The story is available through October. 

Avery has been very connected to that specific location in their own life and got the opportunity to research and be at that site over many months, creating an immersive story experience to connect with the land. 

There are two upcoming events this summer. On July 27, there will be a free, family-friendly community concert featuring the musicians Crystal Myslajek and Peter Morrow, who contributed to “The Seeker” soundtrack. The concert is 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. 

On Aug. 18, Diver will conduct a free creative writing workshop at the Sugarloaf Cove Nature Center. Registration required.  

“The Seeker” is available through October. 

Crystal says: This story really brings you through Diver’s very gorgeous and poetic words through the headphones that you are wearing — which can either be your own or Sugarloaf Cove Visitor Center does have headphones to borrow. Their voice is leading you through spaces and places that very much have to do with where you are but then also is grounded in themes of love and connection. And it's all supported by this gorgeous original music.

— Crystal Brinkman

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

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here. 

Swipe right for this modern romance 

Minneapolis playwright Liqing Xu is looking forward to seeing the play “Only Ugly Guys” at Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis. Written by local playwright Kurt Engh, the play coincides nicely with Twin Cities Pride this weekend. The show runs June 21 – 30 and is recommended for ages 17 and up. 

“I think so often a lot of queer media these days have to do with coming-out stories. But I think in Kurt's play ‘Only Ugly Guys,’ what’s really nice is that these characters are queer, but they’re just trying to look for love like everyone else in the world.  

“The play is about four queer men who are sort of entangled in these relationships with the with each other and are trying to find like love or romance or affection, but they’re doing it in all the wrong ways. And the play is sort of looking also at the way that technology nowadays allows us to find anything that we want, but we’re not really able to hold on to  important or genuine connections because there’s just so many options. 

“I think it’s an excellent choice for people who are celebrating Pride because it’s a really interesting, thought-provoking, raw, sexy play that will definitely get people talking and having conversations about intimacy and privilege.” 

• Liqing Xu 

Say ‘Yes, and’ to improvised art films 

Comedian and improviser Jex Arzayus of St. Paul is a big fan of the improv group Babe Train, and they recommend checking out Babe Train Presents: B24 Improvised Films. The final shows are Friday June 21 and 28 at 7:30 at the HUGE Improv Theater’s’ relatively new location at 2728 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis  

“It’s a parody of the very artsy surreal films of A24 Production House. The audience gets to choose what they want, and what adventure they want. They’re gonna take a name of a movie and a word of inspiration, and then Babe Train — which is made up of Hannah, Laura, KQ, Nora and Shelby — they are going to play all of the characters, all of the scenes, and give you a narrative long-form improvised version. You can get horror; you could get a coming-of-age story; you can get a story about time travel! Every show is different.

“And then after the movie, they’re gonna have an actual art talkback where people can ask questions, just like if you were going to be in a film festival. There’s a different improv guest-interviewer each time.” 

• Jex Arzayus 

Dance that honors our connection with water, performed along the Mississippi

Eileen Moeller, director of the Frozen River Film Festival in Winona, is looking forward to attending an outdoor dance collaboration by two dancers as part of the McKnight International Choreographer Residency. The performances were co-created by local artist Sharon Mansur and visiting choreographer Meryl Zaytoun Murman. The free performances take place Tuesday, June 25 and Wednesday, June 26 at sunset at the Prairie Island Campground, located along the banks of the Mississippi River near Winona.  

“I think there’s something really spectacular about seeing a performance that has to do with a specific piece of nature and being in the nature at the time. These performances are going to be especially related to the river: the way it is right now, and the way that the artists relate with water. Meryl is typically based in Greece, and so a lot of her relationship with water had to do with the Mediterranean. Whereas Sharon is here, and so a lot of that has to do with the Mississippi River.

Sharon is a very active community members. She’s a very talented dancer and interdisciplinary artist and we have worked together on film related projects. Sharon’s pieces always feel really relatable. A lot of Sharon’s work is really grounded in community and accessibility. These performances are free.” 

• Eileen Moeller 

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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Puffy mushrooms

Laurie Byrne of Chatfield is looking forward to the opening artist talk and hike on Lost Creek Hiking Trail this Saturday. Fiber artist Lydia Hansen will discuss and lead people on a hike to see her life-sized crocheted models of native mushrooms tucked along the trail.

Lost Creek Hiking Trail is located 25 minutes south of Rochester. 

Laurie says: As a teen, Lydia started crocheting, and she has grown her crocheting into these very unique pieces of art. Last year, she made a sculpture garden — all out of fiber, crocheting and making those little pom poms. It was a lot of fun!

And this year, she’s doing mushrooms and she’s adding it to a hiking trail in Chatfield. They are very lifelike. She’s done her research. These are all mushrooms that are from Minnesota. She has signage up identifying these mushrooms. Just a very cool idea. 

The trail is just over six miles. And it goes through public and private lands. It’s a beautiful hiking trail, mostly through the woods.

— Laurie Byrne

Music from the north country

Duluth musician Zack Baltich recommends Duluth-stämman, a gathering that includes Nordic folk music, dance and workshops. The event runs this weekend, June 8 and 9.

Friday’s events will be held at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and Saturday’s events are outside at Chester Bowl, with UMD as a rain contingency location. Saturday admission is free to youth 17 and under who bring an instrument, and non-performing youth get in for $5. 

Zack says: So much music is about an audience witnessing musicians play. What is interesting to me about this event is that it kind of removes that wall. A lot of these events are workshops where people can play. People are invited to dance — it’s a very community-oriented thing.  

It’s kind of mind-boggling if you go on their website. Like, 150 musicians are coming from all over North America to play. It’s a very accessible event. Tickets go from $5 to $35, depending on how much of it you want to see.

— Zack Baltich

ASI Spelmanslag performing












The drama of codependency

Twin Cities theater maker Kurt Engh recommends the play “Devoured: Notes on Love and Enmeshment,” which explores codependency through three queer, intimate relationships.

Written by local playwright Liqing Xu, the show includes depictions of mental health issues and sexual situations. The 60-minute show runs this Friday, June 7, through Sunday, June 9, at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis.  

Kurt says: “Devoured” breaks down these three relationships whereby two people co-create this unhealthy dynamic. One starts to relate to these characters only to feel uncomfortable. When you realize how much you relate to this by the end of the play. It’s kind of scary.

The playwright’s writing unpacks these therapy buzzwords — codependency, trauma, triggering — and places them out to this granular level as people try to communicate with one another. How do you prove to someone you love them? How quickly does care turn to harm? And who’s right and who’s wrong in a relationship? 

I keep telling people that if you are in a relationship or you’re looking to be in a relationship, you should see the show. 

No spoilers (but) it’s not a super happy ending, but at least I think the characters start to realize their own patterns, especially by speaking about it and by recognizing their behavior. Then they can start moving forward with hopefully something that’s healthier and in the next iteration.  

I’m obsessed with the show “Couples Therapy” on Showtime, in which this psychologist — her name is Orna [Guralnik]. She’s iconic — she breaks down the psychology of how people have gotten to these really weird relationship dynamics where you’re going, “Why aren’t these people just breaking up?” And I think there’s this direct line between this play and “Couples Therapy,” where we’re seeing how people get enmeshed in these relationships.

— Kurt Engh