Anastasia Hopkins Folpe of Rochester, Minn., first encountered the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona several years ago.

“I would describe it as a hidden gem,” Folpe said. “It's on the river in Winona, kind of behind the downtown. You have to hunt for it a little bit.” 

She credited the museum’s director Scott Pollock for investing in spaces devoted to younger visitors.  

“It's just a very welcoming and mellow place. I just like to go there and hang out. I think people just don't know about it. So I hope everyone learns and goes there.”

Peg Guilfoyle is a writer living in downtown St. Paul and a longtime arts enthusiast. She’s also a fan of sea shanties.

“There is something about coming off the street into a room filled with singing,” she explained. “I'm here to testify to the flat fun of the sea shanty sing-along held monthly at the Dubliner Pub on University Avenue in St. Paul, and also in Minneapolis at Merlin's Rest on Lake Street.”

“No band, no sheet music or lyrics and all volunteer singers,” Guilfoyle enthused. “Who knew there were so many people who love sea shanties?”

The next sea shanty sing-along will be July 10 at the Dubliner.

Katrina Knutson of Minneapolis is a teaching artist and muralist. 

“You should definitely go check out the Chroma Zone Mural and Art Festival,” she said. The event will feature new murals painted by six artists.

“I'm really excited to see work by Sydney James, who is an artist who's visiting from Detroit,” Knutson added, “and Leslie Barlow, one of my very favorite Minnesota painters, will also be painting a mural.”

She pointed out additional pleasures of the festival, its location in St. Paul’s Creative Enterprise Zone, between the two downtowns: “It's a great neighborhood to go around because there are dozens of murals within a few blocks of each other,” Knutson said, who takes friends and out of town visitors on a tour of the murals.

Events related to the festival are scheduled through Sept. 16, including a talk by artist Sydney G. James at Urban Growler in St. Paul on July 14.