Grand Marais Sunset by Paul Sundberg,
Greetings from the North Shore, where all the talk is about losing our beloved Lutsen Resort to a fire on Monday.
Lutsen Resort burned down on Feb. 6. Photo by Kate Batten.
The main building is engulfed in flames.
The exact cause of the fire has not been determined, as of last reports, but people all over are reminiscing about how the resort fit into their lives, whether they worked there, were married there, or just loved to visit.
The former Lutsen Resort, file photo.
It is a loss to the North Shore, a loss to the state and beyond. The current owners say they will rebuild.
Bryan Hansel, who worked there when he first came up to the North Shore, wrote a beautiful tribute to the resort. Here’s a sampling:
Bryan Hansel took this photo of a couple getting married at Lutsen Resort in a snowstorm, years ago.
“Last night, the historic Lutsen Resort main lodge burnt down. It was the oldest resort on the North Shore. This lodge, the third built in this spot, was nearly 75 years old and was designed by Edwin Hugh Lundie, a famous architect who was born in Iowa but made Minnesota his home. This is the second Lundie lodge on the location, and it opened for business in 1952. The first Lundie lodge lasted from 1949 to 1951 before succumbing to a laundry room fire. A kitchen fire destroyed the original lodge in 1948. It stood for 55 years. This is a big loss to the North Shore and to tens of thousands and maybe more of visitors who fell in love with the lodge and the North Shore because they came to Lutsen Resort.
“The resort was more than a business for many of us; it was a gateway to the Northwoods and a nexus of connection to all the tourists who had come to the area stretching back to those who arrived by boat or a dirt trail or highway. It was a connection to stories of prohibition when the guests would visit a nearby speakeasy and whiskey smuggling operation.
“It was a place where many couples connected in marriage and a place where families connected in reunion; it was a place where foreign workers formed friendships with American workers and sometimes fell in love, married, and stayed here, bringing their joy to us. Families were made there, and it was a place where we could connect with and marvel at the fairy tale of it all. We could believe the story that in 1885 old man Nelson bought all the land for the resort and the ski hill for the change he had in his pocket.”
To read more of this extraordinary tribute, click here.
It’s pretty hard to say today that life and art go on, but it does.
Valentine’s Day is next week, and Art Night at Joy and Company on Thursday will focus on making the perfect cards for loved ones.
Make Valentine’s cards at Joy and Company for Art Night on Thursday.
On Friday, the Grand Marais Art Colony will host an Open Studio in the Founders Hall exhibiting works by artists participating in a collaboration between the Northrup King Building’s Public Functionary program in Minneapolis and the Art Colony. The goal of the Public Functionary (PF) and Art Colony residency is to provide studio space and time for emerging artists of color over a 10-day juried residency period.
The PF Studios program is a practice-based platform for artists to develop their craft, skills and careers in relationship with other artists.
Artists Genie Hien Tran and Leeya Rose Jackson carve blocks during a printmaking workshop during their residency at the Art Colony. An Open Studio will be held in the Founders Hall for them on Friday.
The Open Studio will be held from 5-6 pm. The public is invited.
Many Tiny Lights scheduled for Drury Lane Books has been canceled. Stay tuned.
Many Tiny Lights, a fundraiser for the PTA, has been canceled due to above-freezing temperatures.
Friday is also movie night at the Grand Marais Public Library. This week, Friday Night Reels will feature the film Antonia’s Line (R; 1995). The film screening starts at 6 pm, and doors open at 5:30 pm. Free.
See the trailer here:
Refreshments will be available.
On Saturday, the 3rd Annual Galentine’s Market will be held on Saturday, Feb. 10 from 12:30 – 5 pm at the North Shore Winery. It’s a time to sip and shop.
The 3rd annual Galentine’s Market will be held at the North Shore Winery Feb. 10.
Artists and shops that will be participating include Kari Carter Pottery, Northern Shift Vintage, The Big Lake, The North Country, and The Crooked Spoon along with Girl Scout Freja who will be selling Girl Scout cookies. The public is invited.
The Hub will hold a Chili Feed Fundraiser on Saturday as well.
The Hub will hold a Chili Feed Fundraiser on Feb. 10 from 11 am to 2 pm on Saturday.
The event will feature a great variety of different chilis. Open to all. Tickets are $5 for kids, $10 for adults.
Also on Saturday, the Snowarama for Easter Seals will be held at the Grand Portage Lodge and Casino despite the lack of snow.
The Rock-A-Billy Revue will be on Saturday, Feb. 10 at the Grand Portage Lodge & Casino from 7-11 pm.
The Rock-A-Billy Revue will be performing from 7-11 pm. Click here for more info.
Also on Saturday, the North Shore Music Association will present Lehto & Wright at 7 pm at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts.
Lehto & Wright will be at the ACA Feb. 10.
Lehto and Wright are a Celtic/American/English folk and progressive rock band from Minneapolis. By taking cues from the British Isles and American folk traditions and interpreting them with contemporary guitar-based arrangements, Lehto & Wright have taken a unique approach to the world of folk, folk rock, and progressive rock. Tickets ($18 general admission) are available at the door or can be purchased online here.
In Duluth on Saturday, AICHO will present Tashia Hart and Staci Drouillard in its second in-person Indigenous Writers Series. The event is from 2-4 pm at 212 W. 2nd St.
Staci Drouillard and Tashia Hart will read at AICHO at 2 pm on Saturday.
Both Indigenous writers will share about their writing careers, read from their books, and answer questions from the audience. Books will be for sale at the event and both writers will sign. Free and open to the public.
On Monday, Fiber Week starts at North House Folk School featuring a wide variety of classes, demonstrations , speakers, and a Community Day on Friday.
Fiber Week at North House Folk School begins Feb. 12. Look for “yarn bombing” installed by the Northwoods Fiber Guild all around campus. Click here to learn more.
This year’s Featured Speaker is Mette Østman, an extraordinarily talented felter and educator from Odense, Denmark.
On Friday, the campus is open to the public for Fiber Friday, a day of learning, community, creativity, and exploration! The day will start with a demonstration from visiting guest Mette Østman at 10 am, followed by the Fiber Fun Fair. Enrolled Fiber Week students can sign up for afternoon mini-courses, and the day will be capped off with Mette returning as the Featured Speaker at 7 pm. Her presentation is entitled The Benefits of Craft—and Felting in Particular. The presentation is open to the public.
Valentine’s Day will be marked by the Love Through Music concert by four musicians from the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra at the Grand Marais Public Library.
A quartet from the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra will be at the library Feb. 14 to perform a special program about love and music. It starts at 6 pm. Free.
The DSSO is sending four fantastic musicians to play a variety of classical music composed as early as the Baroque to as late as the Modern era, with composers ranging from Handel to Piazzolla. Since these musicians will be performing on Valentine’s Day, they will prepare one set of music specific to the holiday of love.
The performers are flutist Melanie Sever, violinist Jean Leibfried, trumpeter Charlie Leibfried, and hornist Deborah Rausch. They will explain how their instruments work and what their roles are in both classical and modern music. The musicians, additionally, will familiarize the audience with the composers and introduce some tidbits of music history. They also plan to explain how their instruments function as well as bring and play examples of instruments similar to their own.
This event is free and for all ages, but is best suited for ages 10 and up. Seating will begin at 5:30 pm. Free.
And not to forget, weaving through all of these events is the Hygge Festival, featuring events and opportunities throughout the county through Feb. 14. Click here to learn more.
It’s Hygge Month in Cook County. Photo by Al Lyndsey.
The county-wide Winter Fireplace Tour continues through the end of the month. Click here for locations.
Exhibits:
Hygge: Winter Warmth, an exhibit by members of the North Shore Artists League opened at the Johnson Heritage Post last Friday. The exhibit features work in a wide variety of media.
Catnip Mouse, multimedia by Max Linehan, is one of the artworks in the exhibit.
Let’s Go by Terri Lewis, left, and Succulent planter by Kathy Reeves are two of the pieces in the Heritage Post show.
Sky Dance by James Ellis.
Tettegouche State Park is exhibiting paintings by Melinda Wolff.
Untitled, acrylic, by Melinda Wolff, is one of the paintings at Tettegouche State Park’s Great Hall.
Wolff’s exhibit continues through the end of the month.
The next time you visit the Tweed Museum of Art, make sure to ride the museum’s elevator to experience MANA Bear Bolton‘s mural “Primordial Rapture.”
Artist MANA Bear Bolton painted a mural inside an elevator at the Tweed Museum of Art. It is titled Primordial Rapture.
Lizzards Gallery in Duluth is exhibiting work by Patricia Canelake.
Corn Hill, oil, by Patricia Canelake is at Lizzard’s Gallery in Duluth.
Also, check out Charvis Harrell’s exhibition on the life and times of George Bonga at the Prøve Collective in Duluth.
Charvis Harrell’s exhibition on the life and times of George Bonga is currently on view at the Prøve Collective Gallery in Duluth. Photo by Mike Scholtz.
George Bonga was born on Park Point in 1802. He was a voyageur. He searched for the Mississippi headwaters. He tracked Minnesota’s first accused murderer for six days and captured him.
The gallery is located at 21 N Lake Ave.
The Duluth Art Institute has several new exhibits, including Today I Am, a series of photographs by Annelisa Roseen.
Today I Am, an exhibition of photographs by Annelisa Roseen is on view at the Duluth Art Institute.
In the exhibit, Roseen transforms her appearance many times to commemorate the birthday of Gloria Steinem. Referencing photos, videos, and biographies, Roseen unknowingly launched a 365-day journey of self-discovery. “I needed a distraction from the mounting dread that was COVID-19. I transformed and photographed myself into artists, actors, authors, activists, and anarchists—the famous and the infamous—spanning hundreds of years, backgrounds, genders, identities and abilities, pop-culture phenoms and unsung heroes.”
Opportunities:
The Winter Market is now taking sign-ups for the March 2 market at the Hub.
The second Winter Market of the season will be held at the Hub on March 2.
To sign up, email maraismade@gmail.com (preferred) or call 952-820-5969. The deadline to sign up is Feb. 16.
Kudos:
Tim Cochrane is a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award for “Making the Carry: The Lives of Jim and Tchi-Ki-Wis Linklater. The book is available at Drury Lane Books.
Artists At Work:
French River Falls, Quetico, oil, by Tom McCann.
Sugar maple burl bowl by Lou Pignolet.
If you’re feeling a bit down, peel some carrots in the sunshine by MaryBeams.
Service Dog Sign at an Austin restaurant. Photo courtesy Annie Possis.
Spirit Tree, Torso XXXIII by Hazel Belvo is one of the installations from her show, For Love, which is on view at the Minnesota Museum of American Art. Photo courtesy of Marcia Cushmore.
The Cozy Season, mixed media, acrylics, by Teresa Cox Kolar.
Grasslands, oil on canvas, by Heidi Sobanja.
Online Findings:
Musher Erin Altemus prepares for the Iditarod:
Online Music:
Jon Baptiste received a Grammy for this song, Worship.
Wait for it. A countertenor!
Live Music:
Thursday, Feb 8:
- Timmy Haus, Moguls Grille & Taproom, 4-6 pm
- Gordon Thorne, North Shore Winery, 6-8 pm
Friday, Feb 9:
- Jim Miller, Moguls Grille & Taproom, 4-6 pm
- Many Tiny Lights Community Sing-along, Drury Lane Books, 5:30-8 pm
- Gene LaFond & Amy Grillo, Cascade Lodge Restaurant & Pub, 6-8 pm
- Timmy Haus, Up Yonder, 7-10 pm
Saturday, Feb 10:
- Lehto & Wright, Arrowhead Center for the Arts, 7 pm
- Medicine Review, Up Yonder, 7-11 pm
- Rock-A-Billy Revue, Grand Portage Lodge & Casino, 7-11 pm
Sunday, Feb 11:
- Briand Morrison, Moguls Grille & Taproom, 10 – noon
Tuesday, Feb 13:
- Timmy Haus, Moguls Grille & Taproom, 4-6 pm
- Eric Frost, North Shore Winery, 4:30-6:30 pm
- Open Stage, Up Yonder, 6-9 pm
Wednesday, Feb 14:
- Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, Grand Marais Public Library, 6-7:30 pm
Thursday, Feb 15:
- Timmy Haus, Moguls Grille & Taproom, 4-6 pm
- Gordon Thorne, North Shore Winery, 6-8 pm
- North Shore Swing Band, Up Yonder, 7-9 pm
- Open Old Time Appalachian Music Jam, Log Cabin, 7-9:30 pm
Friday, Feb 16:
- Bump Blomberg, Moguls Grille & Taproom, 4-6 pm
- Cherry Dirt, Cascade Lodge Restaurant & Pub, 6-8 pm
Saturday, Feb 17:
- Mysterious Ways, Up Yonder, 7-10 pm
Sunday, Feb 18:
- Fred Anderson, Moguls Grille & Taproom, 10 – noon
- Joe Pauluk, Up Yonder, 7-10 pm
Photographs:
Here is a selection of photographs we found this week:
Wildlife:
Redpoll by Jamie Rabold.
Mother and her newborn on the Masai Mara in Kenya by Layne Kennedy.
The Stare by David Johnson.
Breeding Season. Photo courtesy of National Geographic.
Great Gray Owl by Michael Furtman.
Cape Buffalo in Kenya by Layne Kennedy
Grouse, Sax Zim Bog by Jeffrey Doty.
Flying into Friday by Thomas Spence.
Are you my lunch? Pine Marten by Michael Furtman.
A super-sprucey morning in the Superior National Forest by Thomas Spence.
Our resident Flying Squirrel has a snack by Chuck Olsen.
Potpourri:
Mèrida Puertas by Andy Keith.
The Bong Bridge in 1982, News-Tribune file photo.
Landscapes, Skyscapes, Frostscapes & Waterscapes:
Some good things — Temperance River State Park by Chuck Olsen.
The Land Between the Waters by Mike Wiggins, Jr.
Ice Fall Climbing in Alaska by Lonnie Dupre.
This Sunset! by Maryl Skinner.
Photographers at Work by Jamie Rabold.
An Eye-Popper Sunset by David Johnson.
Grace by Roxanne Distad.
Grateful for pink sunsets by Michele Miller.
What a great morning to shoot some frost by Jaime Rabold.
The Winter Sea by Chuck Olsen.
Lake Superior Sunrise by Ron Benson.
Enjoy your weekend, everyone!
If you’d like to donate to Northshore ArtScene, now’s the time! We so appreciate and need your support. Thank you!
We are so grateful to those who help make this blog possible: Jeremy Lopez, Live Music Schedule, proofreading and technical advice; Yvonne Mills, proofreading and Kari Carter, photo captions and research. Thank you!
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