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.

Authoring and illustrating childhood

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

Healing arts

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

A note before we go

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.

An arts retreat

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

Gratitude and celebrating love

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

Escape into the world of dreams 

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.

The M’s new wing triples its exhibit space in downtown St. Paul 

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

Artist created, student-curated Black joy 

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

Where design meets play 

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

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.

Hankering for a crankering

Norah Rendell is the executive artistic director of the Center for Irish Music in St. Paul. She saw — and loved — the original storytelling musical “The Well Tree” by the Heartwood Trio last spring. 

The trio consists of Sarina Partridge of Minneapolis, Heidi Wilson of Vermont and Willie Clemetson of Maine. They’re back for performances of “The Well Tree” tonight at 7 p.m. at the Twin Cities Friends Meeting House in St. Paul and Friday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. at New City Center/Walker Church in Minneapolis.

Norah says she imagines the acoustics of the church venues will be well-suited for a show with beautiful harmonies. 

Norah says: It’s an original singing story performance that includes songs and instruments and acting and illuminated paper cut art called a “crankie” [so named because a person turns a crank to scroll to new images].

It tells a story of a young woman who finds herself running away from home, and along her journey, she meets songbirds and snails and ancient trees as she finds her way home. And the three artists who perform are super talented. They’re beautiful harmony singers. There’s a fiddle player, a banjo player and they’re all actors and they invite the audience to sing along.  

It seems like it would be geared towards children, but it really suits anybody of any age who loves the experience of singing together with other people. You leave the show feeling great; it’s very inspiring, very positive. The show itself is really inspiring.

— Norah Rendell

The male gaze

Erin Maurelli is an artist and educator in the Twin Cities. She wants people to know about the MCBA / Jerome Book Arts Residency show which is up now at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, inside Open Book in Minneapolis.

Free and open to the public, this show displays the work of the three winners of the Jerome Book Arts Residency: photographer Christopher Selleck; papermaker Jelani Ellis; and artist and printmaker Louise Fisher.  

Erin says: Christopher Selleck is a photographer who takes on the body, the figure and what we think of as idealism, and through the lens of the camera, he’s able to capture kind of the ideal masculine body — which, in my experience, we don’t see a lot of that in art and art history. Christopher brings issues of identity and sexuality into his work as a gay man, I think the male gaze becomes part of his narrative. 

Christopher was selected to be part of the Jerome book arts fellowship, and the show is through January 4 of next year. He’s one of three artists that are part of that show, there are some hand-crafted books featuring his photographs as well as sculptural elements. He’s exploring bringing the photographic process into bookmaking.  

— Erin Morelli

Baroque in Gaylord

Charles Luedtke is a retired professor of music at Martin Luther College in New Ulm, and he is heading to Gaylord tonight to see La Grande Bande.

The group specializes in performing music written from 1600-1800, using instruments of the period. Their November concert celebrates the 340th birthday of Handel with two of his works set near water, his famed “Water Music Suites” as well as his cantata “O come chiare e belle.”  

Handel’s "Water Musicks" is tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Gaylord. Michael Thomas Asmus, the founder and artistic director, will give a talk before the performance at 6:45 about the music. 

Charles says: It’s rather spectacular because he lives in Gaylord, just outside of Gaylord and his music performances have been kind of centered around that area, sometimes in St. Peter, sometimes in New Ulm.

So, it’s kind of local, but [it’s] tremendous quality. They’re not amateurs, never amateurs. They are all really professional performers and on period instruments — baroque instruments.

— Charles Luedtke

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.

Dance a mile in another’s shoes

Erinn Liebhard is the artistic and executive director of Rhythmically Speaking, a jazz and American social dance-based company.

She’s looking forward to the Threads Dance Project’s fall show, “Impressions,” this Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at the Luminary Arts Center in Minneapolis. 

Erinn elaborates: Their artistic director, Karen L. Charles, is a really fascinating artist. She was a mathematician and statistician who ended up shifting into dance education and eventually was able to open her own company. So she’s got a really sort of methodical yet artistic way of creating choreography.

Something that I love about Threads’ work is that I feel like it’s really artistic and accessible at the same time. So it’s saying something, but you don’t have to have special training in dance in order to understand.

(As part of the show), Threads is going to be re-exploring a piece about shoes. The piece is called “Abolition in Evolution, Part 2 – Shoes,” and it’s based upon the shoes we wear and what they say about us.

I think it’s really interesting that they’re taking this metaphor of walking in someone else’s shoes into a visual and artistic representation that causes you to ask questions about identity, race, class and how we see each other.

— Erinn Liebhard

Alice in Northfield

Margit Johnson of Northfield appreciates the work of ArtMakers, and she’s looking forward to their new, original musical, “Alice’s Wonder.”

Shows are this Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. (with audio description) at Northfield Arts Guild Theater. Admission is free for this family-friendly show. 

Margit says: What I like about ArtMakers’ storytelling through music and theater is the genius of the artists with and without disabilities.

For 10 years now, ArtMakers start with individuals from the Northfield area, from Colorado and even from Norway; they craft a production around and adapt to the talents and special needs of each participating artist. This way, they create authentic, artist-centered projects in the community.

I know that “Alice's Wonder” is going to surprise and delight me. Alice is blind, and so is her friend, the White Rabbit. Their Wonderland is going to come alive with sound and what they call the brave idea of living your life as you choose. The ensemble includes local performers with disabilities alongside professional musicians from Northfield and the Twin Cities.

— Margit Johnson

Take me to the river

Author Marcie Rendon of Minneapolis recommends that people see “The Adventures of a Traveling Meskwaki,” written by and starring Oogie Push.

Originally a one-woman show, the multimedia performance has been expanded to a cast of five. Full Circle Theater is producing the show, which will be staged at Park Square Theatre in downtown St. Paul.

There’s a preview performance tonight ahead of the opening Friday. The show runs through Nov. 24, and tickets are pay-as-you-are-able. 

Marcie says: It follows her adventures as she’s exploring and working with other Native people around issues of protecting the water.

It’s broader than just the water: it incorporates many of the things that she’s learned on all of these different travels that she’s done, from Alaska to Vancouver to Washington to California to out East. As a young person, she was a pow wow dancer. So she’s also got stories from that part of her life that she incorporates into her work. 

The thing to know about Oogie is that she has a wonderful sense of humor. She can also go really deep into the emotional aspects of a piece, like into a character that she's taking on.

— Marcie Rendon

This week’s Art Hounds look at an art exhibit about a walk along the Mississippi, Gilbert and Sullivan relocated to Scotland and a blend of concert band and technology.

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.

Portraits of immigration

Rachel Coyne, a writer and painter in Lindstrom, loves outdoor arts events. She’s looking forward to seeing Cadex Herrera’s outdoor exhibition on the campus of the White Bear Center for the Arts in the north metro.

“First Person Plural” features 10 larger-than-life black-and-white murals, each featuring the faces of immigrants living in White Bear Lake, where Herrera also used to live.

The installation is intended to honor the diversity of immigrants in the area and their contributions. Herrera also directed a documentary about the project, which will be on view. The exhibit opens to the public Thursday with an artist event and celebration from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.  

Rachel says: I just like the idea that, you know, this could be somebody you’re passing on the street. But also they’re a work of art.

 — Rachel Coyne

Worthington marks Dia de los Muertos 

Eric Parrish is the instructor of music and theater at Minnesota West Community and Technical College and the conductor of the Worthington Chamber Singers. He’s looking forward to a series of free events in Worthington to mark Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead.

Events start this weekend and run through next week, culminating in a performance by 512: The Selena Experience, a Selena cover band, on Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. Most events are held at the Memorial Auditorium in town. 

Among Saturday’s events: Puppeteer Gustavo Boada will unveil two commissioned 8-foot Catrina sculptures at noon. His performance group Little Coyote Puppet Theatre will perform “Skeletons in the Closet: A Day of the Dead Story” at 1 p.m., followed at 2:30 by a puppet-making workshop. 

The event coincides with the annual meeting of the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council, which comprises 18 counties and two sovereign nations. Art studios and public art will be open for self-guided tours.  

About 512: the Selena Experience, Eric says: This is the premier Salena cover band in the country. So it’s a really big swing for our small community.

People don’t know Worthington is one of the most diverse communities outside of the Twin Cities in the state of Minnesota. And it’s very exciting for us as a community to embrace this holiday and in this way with all the artists and activities.

 — Eric Parrish

Reflecting on water as a relative 

Diane Wilson is a Dakota author living in Schaefer, and she got a sneak peek at the art exhibit Mní Futurism at Metro State University’s Gordon Parks Gallery in St. Paul. Mní is the Dakota word for water. In this exhibit, two Minnesota-based Native American artists reflect on our relationship with and use of water.  

The exhibit is a joint show of photographer Jaida Grey Eagle, who is Ogalala Lakota, and multimedia artist Abby Sunde, of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe. The exhibit opens with an artist reception Thursday at 5 p.m. and runs through Dec. 5. 

Diane says: Their work is very thought-provoking. It’s visually stimulating, and it ranges from impacts on water from pipelines, from pollution but also looking at the impacts on issues like food sovereignty and treaty rights and access to healthy water. 

Jaida Grey Eagle’s photographs, for example, evoke the beauty of some of the traditional food practices. There are photographs of wild ricing. And there’s one that is so poignant of a young boy in a canoe, and it just evokes that generational relationship to wild rice and how dependent that traditional food is on clean water.

And then Abby Sunde looks at from a little more of a critical thinking lens. She looks at, for example, some of the impacts that pipelines have had on water in her community. So there is one series of drawings that are created from rust on glass, and it’s called “Stolen Water.”

It’s about aquifer breaches that occur when a pipeline piling is driven too deep, and it breaches into the aquifer, and all this water is released that isn’t supposed to be released. It’s stolen water.  

It’s a small and intimate gallery on the first floor of the library. The work of these two women complements each other beautifully in terms of the way that they think about and portray water as a relative.

— Diane Wilson

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.

Let’s meet at the Halloween Tree 

Kira Pontiff of St. Paul is a self-described occasional actress and full-time lover of all things autumnal and Halloween. She was thrilled to catch a rehearsal of the play “The Halloween Tree,” which she described as a magical Halloween adventure.

It’s playing at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis, Oct. 20 – 27. The world-premiere play is adapted from Ray Bradbury’s 1972 novel of the same name. The 90-minute show is recommended for ages 8 and up. 

Kira describes the show: A group of trick-or-treaters meet up on Halloween night, and they get taken on a magical Halloween adventure by a very mysterious character who takes them through time and to different locations to teach them about the origins of Halloween, how different cultures celebrate where the holiday come came from.

It is a very fun adventure story. Light tricks, some shadow puppetry. It’s really a good, magical time, so definitely appropriate for kids. But if you're anything like me and grew up on the story of “The Halloween Tree” by Ray Bradbury, or watched the movie when you were a kid, it definitely hits those nostalgia notes.  

I think the cast is just a ton of fun. A lot of very funny moments, a lot of really poignant, heartfelt moments. There will be trick-or-treating at some of the productions in the lobby, and there will be a place to light a candle to remember lost loved ones. So really, I think they’re really creating an environment in this space to celebrate the season.

— Kira Pontiff

What will people say? 

Ellen Fenster-Gharib is a freelance director in the Twin Cities, and she had an opportunity to read in advance an original play that takes on mental health stigma and community pressures.

The world premiere of “Log Kya Kahenge (What will people say?)”, written by Aamera Siddiqui, is a co-production of Exposed Brick Theatre, Lyric Arts and South Asian Arts & Theatre House. (“Log Kya Kahenge” is a well-known Hindi and Urdu saying that translates to “What will people say?”)

The show runs at Lyric Arts in Anoka Oct. 18 – Nov. 3. The play is recommended for ages 16 and up and takes on themes of mental health and grief. 

Ellen says: I love Aamera’s playwriting voice and how she investigates her own history with such wit and sensitivity. The play is about a family, and specifically about some daughters who are trying to navigate their way in the U.S. with pressures put on them by their family and by their community.  

I loved what Aamera had to say about it. She said that in her particular South Asian culture, there is this sort of collective interest and investment in everyone’s personal business. And she said in her playwright’s notes [paraphrase]: Now this might be making some of you feel very uncomfortable, like, Get out of my business. Shouldn’t you live for yourself? This is what happens in collectivist cultures, cultures in which each individual is seen as being responsible for the reputation of the whole community, and it’s sort of for better and for worse.

Everybody has your best interest in mind and also has a lot of opinions about how you’re living your life and the decisions that you’re making. So everyone’s in this pressure cooker of achieving and then also you can’t display any weakness. So the play addresses the stigma around mental health issues.

 — Ellen Fenster-Gharib

A tale of monsters and men 

Loren Niemi of Minneapolis is the founder of the American School of Storytelling. He’s heard Chris Vinsonhaler perform excerpts of her new translation of the old English epic “Beowulf: Monsters and Men,” and he’s looking forward to her bardic performance next Wednesday, Oct. 23 at 6 p.m. at the Episcopal Church of Saint John the Evangelist in St. Paul. 

Loren says: What is interesting to me about this performance is that A) it’s been a long time since there’s been a new translation that updates the language, and B) she is translating it with a slightly feminist view, so that her concerns, at least as I understand it, is that it's not “boys with swords” so much as the larger issues of politics and heredity and obligation.

So when I say heredity, I mean the who begat who, and who succeeded who, and how they arrived at power. One of the things I think I like about her performance is that she is very she is faithful to the rhythms of the material. The Beowulf text has a very rhythmic form to it.

— Loren Niemi

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.

Not your kids’ Halloween play 

Actor Julie Ann Nevill of St Paul is looking forward to getting into the Halloween spirit when the play “Broomstick” opens Thursday at the Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis. The one-woman play features Cheryl Willis as a witch telling the story of her long life. The show is recommended for ages 14 and up. It runs through Halloween night, with a mask-required performance Sunday. 

Julie Ann says: “It is billed as both a spooky and hilarious comedy. I am very intrigued by that. So many things around Halloween become kid-centric, and there are many of us adults, myself included, for whom this is our favorite holiday. And so we want something like this that speaks to us and not just to, you know, the small children or the family situation.” 

“The Open Eye space is so very intimate. And for a one-person show, I think that really gives you a chance to connect with the artist that you’re watching. Joel Sass is a wonderful director. Cheryl Willis is an amazing actor who is so intriguing and sucks you in and really connects with audience members.” 

— Julie Ann Nevill

Commonweal stages ‘Doubt’

Delia Bell, a potter in Lanesboro, recommends seeing the play “Doubt: A Parable” at the Commonweal Theatre. The play won a 2005 Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for Best Play. Performed by a local cast, the show explores both fact and faith, and Delia says it leaves the audience questioning. The play runs through Nov. 10. 

Delia explains: “I felt like I was thinking about it for days after. ‘Doubt’ is a story about two sisters, two nuns at a school, and a priest. They suspect that he’s done something inappropriate with one of the students. And so that’s how it stems: it’s this story of which side do you believe? And this nun is adamant about this, and the priest is adamant that he is innocent. It just creates doubt within the viewer. That’s the whole point; the story is never truly resolved.” 

As for the production, “It’s a simple set. There’s a huge window that’s very striking. And with the music, you really felt like you were in a church at times. It was just what the story needed.” 

— Delia Bell

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. 

Grief without words 

Theatermaker Kurt Engh saw The Moving Company’s performance of “SPEECHLESS” in 2017, and he’s thrilled the show is back again. The show opens Friday and runs through Nov. 10 at the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis.

As the name implies, the play is entirely without words, but the emotions run deep. 

Kurt explains: Someone passes away in the play, and that person is ironically or symbolically named Hope. I think it’s intentionally left to be ambiguous.

The play is about five people going through grief in this very melodramatic but real way, and they find that the only way forward is to support themselves, but also support each other. The play shows how people are able to support each other when they don’t even know what to say, when they’re so upset and they’re so at a loss, truly, that they move forward through physical kindness to each other. 

The collaborators of this production have been working together for many years. They are my favorite theater company in the Twin Cities, and this was voted as a best play of the year in 2017 by the Star Tribune. There are performances on Wednesdays that are pay-as-you-are starting at $15.

— Kurt Engh

A smorgasbord of short films — or hot dish, if you will 

Rachel Coyne of Lindstrom is looking forward to seeing the Franconia 5 Minute Film Fest, a short film festival featuring works from Minnesota and Wisconsin artists. The top 15 judge-selected films will be screened at Franconia Sculpture Park this Saturday, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. and at the Trylon Cinema in Minneapolis Thursday, Oct 10.

The Franconia screening is free with a suggested $10 donation. Seating on benches is limited, so Rachel recommends bringing a blanket or lawn chairs. 

Rachel adds: There’s a claymation artist, some live film, some animation. In the years in the past, when I’ve gone, you know, it’s kind of like eating like a really pungent spice. You’re just like, wow, that’s an idea, and it hits you over the head, and then before you know it, you’re onto the next film.

Given that the filmmakers are all from Minnesota and Wisconsin, Rachel adjusts her metaphor: It’s more hot dish. So there’s peas, there’s carrots, there’s tater tots and there’s probably even some mushroom soup in there.

 — Rachel Coyne

Did you hear that classic Irish epic about the cow? 

Anna Maher is a classically trained singer and actor living in the Twin Cities, and she’s glad that one of her favorite theater companies, Clevername Theatre, is remounting a fan-favorite from the 2022 Minnesota Fringe Festival.

“Connor’s gonna tell: The Tain Bo Cuailnge” is a one-person recounting of the “Táin Bó Cúailnge,” an old Irish epic tale about a cattle raid. See it at Bryant Lake Bowl & Theater in Minneapolis, Fridays, Oct. 4 and Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 13 at 3 p.m. 

Anna says: It’s kind of like the Irish Odyssey. It’s an epic, and it chronicles a war that was waged between two factions, and then there’s a hero. And the whole thing, the whole fight, revolves around a cow.

And so, Connor will tell the story. He uses different voices. There are some different outfits that happen. There’s a mask, there's a little bit of puppetry involved. And then he has a mandolin player who accompanies him for the entire show.” 

(Note: Anna Maher works for American Public Media Group, the parent company of MPR News.)

— Anna Maher

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.