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.Hankering for a crankeringNorah 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 illu

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 shoesErinn 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

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 immigrationRachel 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 s

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 differ

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

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 hereGrief 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 sa

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. Divine narratives in theaterSuzy 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 o

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.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 t

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. 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 audien

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 serieshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/art-hounds/id525807829Space cowboys and stolen moonMaria 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 m

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 magicNanci 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

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 ancestorsMusician 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 w

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 changeKate 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 contempora

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 trekAnn 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 the

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 wondersStephanie 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,

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 glamFood 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

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 scu

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

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. Puffy mushroomsLaurie 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