Potpourri VII

Greetings from the North Shore, where spring happiness is temperatures above freezing, and this week, it looks like we’re going to make the cut.

There’s other good news, too. WTIP Community Radio announced this week that the Boundary Waters Podcast, produced by Joe Frederichs, WTIP news director, and co-host Matthew Baxley, won a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for best podcast in the small market radio category.

The award is for overall series content based on the submission of Episode 18: A Father’s Dream, the story of Erik Dickes from Omaha, Neb., who recorded an audio diary on a trip to the BWCAW in May 2019, to commemorate his late father, and tell the story of a canoe trip they had planned to take together in 2018.

 “We started this podcast three years ago to create a platform for sharing stories from this amazing region.” Frederichs said. “To have the series recognized with an Edward R. Murrow Award is among the highest honors I can imagine. This is a tremendous achievement for WTIP listeners and supporters of our Boundary Waters podcast and the paddling community.”

Regional winners automatically move on to the national round of the competition with national winners announced in June. Meanwhile, listen to the podcasts here.

And virtual events continue. This week, Gordon Thorne and and host Chuck Corliss will hold a Virtual Date Night at the North Shore Winery at 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday.

To hear the music, click here. Thorne and Corliss will also be on WTIP’s The Roadhouse on Friday evening around 6:15 p.m. to talk about their music and play a few songs. The Roadhouse airs from 5-7 p.m.

Also on Thursday night, travel to Norway on a virtual tour of folk arts with Harley and Norma Refsal in a special webinar co-hosted by North House Folk School and the Versterheim Norwegian American Museum in Iowa. The Refsals will share some favorite pieces from their personal collection as well as highlight pieces from the Versterheim collection.

Escape to the land of the midnight sun with the Refsals. Register for the webinar here. Free.

Both Jim McGowan and Adam Moe are doing virtual concerts on Facebook Live. You can see Moe on Thursdays at 2 p.m. through May 28, (Click here)  and McGowan on Fridays at 8 p.m. (Click here.)

A little further afield, and back in time, Prince and the Revolution’s live 1985 concert will stream on YouTube for coronoavirus relief Thursday through Saturday, May 14-16 at 7 p.m.

The concert, which was filmed in New York in 1985 during Prince’s iconic Purple Rain Tour, will stream for three days only on Prince’s official YouTube channel starting Thursday. The concert footage includes some of Prince’s greatest hits, including “Purple Rain,” “1999,” “When Doves Cry” and “Let’s Go Crazy.” Click on the link above to see.

And next Wednesday, join author Kate DiCamillo for a statewide virtual discussion on writing and her books. She is the author of “Because of Winn-Dixie,” a delightful story of the dog who changed people’s lives. The book was chosen for One Book/One Minnesota this year, inviting readers of every age around the state to read it. .

The free Zoom event will be held at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, May 20. The virtual event is free, but registration is required. To register, click here.

Upcoming:

Watch world-renouned film festivals, like the Cannes Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival online this year. In response to the pandemic, 20 major film festivals from around the world are coming together for 10 days of curated films streamed on YouTube for free.

The “We Are One: A Global Film Festival,” will showcase feature films, shorts, documentaries, music, comedy, and panel discussions from May 29 to June 7. All viewers will be able to make donations to the World Health Organization’s Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund. Stay tuned for details.

And North House Folk Schools Wooden Boat Show is going online this year. The event will be held virtually from June 15-21.

There will be a full week of online mini courses, craft presentations, speaker series, and more, culminating on Saturday with our featured presentation by arctic explorer, photographer, and climate educator, David Thoreson. All events will be offered both live (with Q&A!) and recorded, so you can enjoy them however and whenever you like.

The event kicks off at noon on Monday, June 15 on Facebook Live, and will continue all week with the full slate of speakers, demonstrators and more available. If you miss any of the live events, all content will be available on demand on Saturday, June 20. To see details, click here . And stay tuned for updates.

Cancellations:

The Magic Smelt Parade has been cancelled for this year. It’s always held on the Duluth Lakewalk featuring the Brass Messengers, the Smelt Queen and lots of people dressed in silver. Here’s a video of the parade on Duluth’s Lakewalk last year.

And the 91st annual Fisherman’s Picnic in Grand Marais has been cancelled.

Fisherman’s Picnic is always held the first weekend in August, but organizers said that organizing the event takes months, and it was unclear if it would be safe to hold the Picnic at all. Look forward to next year!

  Local Artists at Work:

Local artists have been busy this month. Here are some of the things they have been doing.

Maryl Skinner participated in the Earth Day art project for the Cook County Soil and Water District. The challenge was to go outside and create a collage with objects you found, take a photo of your work and submit to Soil and Water. Here is Skinner’s piece. She called it “Northwoods Forest Fashion for Social Distancing.”

 Art students in Mila Horak’s classes at Cook County High School have been working on photography. Here are a few examples.

 

Lutsen potter Maggie Anderson has been making bread baking dishes in her studio as a fundraiser for the Grand Marais Art Colony and the Cook County Food Shelf.

Anderson is featured on the Art Colony’s Instagram account, showing the process of making the ceramic bread pans. You can see them here. The handmade bread pans come with sourdough starter and a recipe. You can still order one. To place an order, email info@grandmaraisartcolony.org.

The glass artists at the Grand Marais Art Colony planned on exhibiting their work at the Johnson Heritage Post this month, but the exhibit was cancelled because of Covid-19. We’ve been featuring examples of their work, which will be on exhibit next year at the Heritage Post. Here’s a fused glass piece by Jeri Persons.

Amy Freeman has been painting this winter.

Betsy Bowen is continuing her Comfort series.

 

Not art, but for art at Sivertson Gallery.

Knitting:

Printmaking:

 A little further afield … on Long Island… a drive-by art show.

“The other stuff” was on display on the lawns, porches, driveways and garage doors at properties from Hampton Bays to Montauk, some from prominent artists and others by those lesser known. On a windy, blue-skied weekend, most people drove but others came on foot or by bicycle for the show, “Drive-By-Art (Public Art in This Moment of Social Distancing).”

Opportunities:

 Artists still have time to submit work for the Grand Marais Art Colony‘s exhibit, Our Changing Habitats. The Art Colony is asking people to submit 4×6-inch pieces via snail mail to: PO Box 626, Grand Marais, MN 55604, by May 31. Artists are invited to reflect on their changing habitats. The pieces will be displayed in the Art Colony’s new building windows in June. You can see more about that here.  Students at the schools have been invited to participate as well.

Music videos: 

There’s lots out there. Here’s a selection for this week:

Dessa sings “Skeleton Key” with the Minnesota Orchestra in this virtual recording.

 Arctic Funk: recommended by Kate Fitzgerald, artistic director of the North Shore Music Association. The Lake Wobegon Brass Band plays Norwegian composer Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen … cow bells and lots of brass.

We thought a few selections from Playing for Change, featuring musicians from around the world, might be appropriate now.

A take on the Grateful Dead’s “Ripple.”

“The Weight” featuring Robbie Robertson and Ringo Starr.

 And finally, this crazy, wonderful Happy Birthday video from French composer/jazz musician Alexandre Cellier to Pascal Auberson.

 Photographs:

We had lots to choose from this week. Here’s a selection.

First, wildlife:

 

 

 

 

Off-topic:

We found some beautiful landscapes, too. First, this great walnut tree:

 

A few full moon photographs:

 

 

And a few landscapes:

 

  And finally, photographer Dustin Lavigne calls this image, the Almost-Full Moon, but we want to title it “Peek-a-Boo Moon.”

Peace to all.

P.S. If you have art work that you’ve been doing this month, email an image to me at joan.farnam@gmail.com.

And, if you’d like to help support NorthShore ArtScene, you can donate below. Thank you!