Kyle Bernier is a Minneapolis-based art therapist and author of “Lazy Creativity: The Art of Owning Your Creativity.” He wanted to introduce Art Hounds audiences to the work of Susanna Gaunt, whose work can be seen through Sept. 5 at the Merrill Lynch Fine Arts Gallery of the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth.

“Susanna is a Duluth-based artist who's been working at the GLA for a year now on the Great Lakes Almanac,” Bernier said. “Susanna has been gathering stories from the community about their engagement with natural history, whether at the aquarium or just out in nature in general. Susanna has taken the survey and created artwork from those stories that she's now put up on display.”

Gaunt’s work can also be seen online.

Heather Beal of Minneapolis is a journalist who writes about the arts and all aspects of the built and natural environments. She recently heard about an art event that she says “sounds very cool.”

The event is Midsummer: a Summer Solstice Festival, taking place Saturday from 5 p.m. to midnight at Franconia Sculpture Park in Shafer, Minn. 

“I've always enjoyed touring Franconia’s grounds because of the wonderful way that more than 100 sculptures by contemporary artists are woven into the landscape,” Beal said. “There is always something new to see and experience. This is why I'm especially looking forward to the Franconia Summer Solstice Festival. It offers opportunities to interact with the work of 10 local artists, including several whose work is in progress or has recently been installed at the park.”  

Activities include contributing to a prayer flag installation, making Solstice suncatchers and creating crowns from native flowers, as well as taking part in a maple dance, pine tree derby and a lantern-lit procession. There will also be a sunset observation and a bonfire. At 10 p.m., the Minnesota Astronomical Society will provide telescopes that visitors can use to view the night sky.

Laurel Podulke-Smith of Rochester, Minn., is a performing arts enthusiast. She recommends a new production of “A Raisin in the Sun” at the Rochester Repertory Theater. 

“The Rochester Repertory Theater is unique among community theaters because it's entirely volunteer-staffed,” she says. “I'm excited about this production. Because, first of all, it's a fantastic play, a fantastically dramatic play. It has an almost all-Black cast and it's co-directed by two Black directors, E.G. Bailey and Shá Cage.”

The play runs through June 25.