Moose Madness, New Art Shows & Music

Frost on my car this morning by Yvonne Mills.

Greetings from the North Shore, where Fall is making its mark on us. First frosts, city trees showing off their colors, and sunny days and blue skies make everyone smile. It is a perfect trifecta for Moose Madness Weekend, which marks the end of the summer season in Grand Marais with a fun-packed weekend for everyone.

The Moose Madness Family Festival is this weekend.

The whole town organizes around this event, with contests and games, exhibits, and music, just to mention a few. And the ever-popular Murray the Moose cavorts around the streets all weekend.

Here’s a link to all the events.

The celebrations actually start on Thursday, Oct. 17.

First, the 6th annual Grand Marais Apple Festival, which features apple tasting, apple picking, cider-pressing demonstrations, and an opportunity to purchase a Crosby Bakery apple pie.

There are lots of activities planned for the Grand Marais Apple Festival.

The Grand Marais Art Colony will hold David Hahn Art Days at Studio 21 on Thursday and Friday. The event is held in honor of the late David Hahn, a well-loved art teacher and painter who worked for years in the schools and the Art Colony, teaching children to love art and how to make their mark.

David Hahn in his element – drawing portraits of people. In this case, he set up at the Grand Marais Art Festival and offered his services. Photo by Dennis Chick.

The event will be held from 10 am to 2 pm on Thursday and Friday at Studio 21. All youth are invited. Free.

Also on Thursday, Joy and Company will hold White Box Art Night from 3:30-5 pm. Participants can pick up a box filled with art supplies and create what they want. We should probably assume there will be lots of moose drawings. Free and open to all, with a suggested $5 donation.

Brett Monahan, the Ceramics Studio manager at the Grand Marais Art Colony, will give a presentation entitled: Glazing 101 at the studio from 5-8 pm Thursday.

In this demonstration, Brett will focus on fundamental glazing techniques that will help potters get more consistent glaze results. He will go over basic glaze chemistry, demonstrate various ways to apply glaze to bisque ware, how to use wax resist, how to test glazes (and keep good records), and how to measure the thickness of a glaze.

Brett Monahan will present Glazing 101 at the Ceramics Studio at the Art Colony on Thursday. Free.

The event is free. To sign up, click here.

On Thursday night, the North Shore Swing Band will play at up Yonder from 7-9 pm.

The North Shore Swing Band plays for Jazz Night at Up Yonder on Thursday at 7 pm. Photograph by Carah Thomas.

This is a great dance band that plays a wonderful selection of jazz standards. Free.

On Friday, the David Hahn Art Days continue at Studio 21 and the Big Lake will hold a Face Painting Fundraiser for Great Expectations School.

Drury Lane Books will also hold an Author Talk with author and illustrator Cori Doerrfeld, from 11 am to 1 pm. She will talk about her latest book, Beneath, which won a Minnesota Book award.

Cori Doerrfeld will give an Author Talk at Drury Lane Books on Friday.

Doerrfeld is the NYT Bestselling author/illustrator behind The Rabbit Listened as well as the creator behind such titles as Ready to Soar and Goodbye, Friend!, Hello, Friend! Her book, Beneath, is not only the winner of the 2024 Minnesota Book Award but was inspired by one of her favorite spots in nature, the Minnesota North Shore. Today, Cori can still be found exploring Minnesota with her husband, two children, and rescue dog, Jinx. The event is free and open to the public.

There is a Pop-up Exhibit at Studio 21 this weekend featuring work by Cătălin-Viorel Lăscău who has been working in Grand Marais this summer season. You can stop by from 10 am to 5 pm on Friday and Saturday to see the art he has been creating while here on the North Shore.

A pop-up exhibit by Cătălin-Viorel Lăscău will be held at Studio 21 on Friday and Saturday.

An illustrator and designer from Hunedoara, Romania, Lăscău earned a BA in Fashion Design from the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca. He’s currently studying traditional graphics for his MA at the same university in Romania. Meanwhile, he is a part-time tattoo artist and volunteers for ESC in the cultural and demographic area, where he was coordinating ceramic workshops working for reproductions of ancient pieces from Guatemala. 

Currently, he is working at the Yellow Bird Art Gallery in Grand Marais.

The exhibit is free and open to the public.

Glass artist Jeri Person will be presenting a class on making glass spinners at Joy and Company from 1-4 pm on Friday.

Jeri Person will teach a class in glass spinner art at Joy and Company on Friday.

On Friday night, North House Folk School will hold Family Fun Night from 5-7 pm on campus. The event is part of its Family Fun Weekend which includes demonstrations, hands-on opportunities, and course work. To find out more, click here.

Family Fun Night features apple cider pressing demonstrations, a bonfire with s’mores, games, and live music.

North House will hold apple pressing demonstrations on Friday from 5-7 pm.

Everyone is invited. Free. *Event is weather permitting.

Saturday is really busy.

First up is the Cook County Market, which is held in the parking lot of The Hub starting at 10 am.

Potter Natalie Sobanja is one of the vendors at the Cook County Market.

The market features a wide selection of arts and crafts from local makers. Look for pottery, paintings, jewelry, glass, knitwear, leatherwork, Lake Superior rocks, stone lamps, books, and more. This is the last market for the 2024 season. It closes at 2 pm.  Open to all. Note: There’s often a defacto dog parade around noon.

Also on Saturday, The Hub will hold a Chili Feed from 11 am to 2 pm.  There will also be hot dogs for the kids. Tickets are $10, adults, $4, children. Cardmaking and a paint-a-pot event will also be held. The public is invited.

At 1 pm. Murray the Moose will be at Harbor Park for photographs and Joe Paulik will play.

Drury Lane Books will host an Author Talk from 3-5 pm at the shop featuring Sandra Hisakuni, the author of, The Northland Beckons, a Haiku collection aimed towards young readers or anyone who loves the Northwoods.

Poet Sandra Hisakuni will read from The Northland Beckons, her haikus about the Boundary Waters at the Library on Saturday.

The public is invited to learn the basics of Haiku and get a free journal to write your own. Open to all.

North House Folk School will hold a Family Contra Dance on Saturday night in the Blue Building from 6-9 pm.

Also at North House, David Bedford will give a talk about developing the Honeycrisp apple, at 7 pm. Apple tasting is included. Open to all. Free. Here’s a video of him tasting all those apples to find the perfect one.

Lots more events are happening over the Moose Madness Weekend. Check them out here.

Sunday is the last day of the season for the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center. It will re-open over Memorial Day Weekend, 2025.

Sad News for the Gunflint Trail

Bruce Kerfoot in his favorite place. Photo courtesy of his family. Bruce, 85,  and one of the founders of the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center, died last week.. To read his obituary, click here.

Exhibits:

This week, the Johnson Heritage Post features paintings by plein-air landscape artist Tom Dimock, whose work reflects his love of the North Shore.  The title of the show is “Splendor of the North: By Land and By Sea.” 

Path to the Woods, oil, by Tom Dimock.

Dimock is a Minneapolis-based award-winning artist with international acclaim having worked in Ireland, Italy, and France as well as from coast to coast in the US. In the latest show, his painting won first-place honors. To see more of his work, click here. The exhibit continues through Nov. 3.

The Heritage Post is open from 10 am to 4 pm Wednesday through Saturday and from 1-4 pm Sunday. Free and open to the public.

Dreaming Our Futures: Ojibwe and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ Artists and Knowledge Keepers continues at the Tweed Museum of Art.

Ricing, 2022, acrylic, by Rabbett Before Horses Strickland, Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, is one of the works in Dreaming Our Futures at the Tweed.

This 500-year dugout canoe is the heart of a new exhibit at the Madeline Island Museum entitled “Passages.”

Upcoming:

The Annual Visit Cook County & Cook County Chamber of Commerce Fall Gala on Thursday Oct. 24 at the Grand Portage Lodge & Casino.

The annual Fall Gala is next Thursday, Oct. 24.

 For tickets and more information, click here. 

Also on Thursday, the Grand Marais Art Colony will hold an Open Studio to make bowls for the Empty Bowls Fundraiser, which will be held on Nov. 14 at Up Yonder.

An Open Studio to make bowls for the Empty Bowls fundraiser will be held at the Art Colony on Thursday from 5-8 pm.

Anyone who can make bowls (on the wheel or hand-building) without assistance is welcome. No instruction will be provided. The bowl-makers are also invited to help trim and glaze them.

For more info and to sign up, click here.

The Nordic Center in Duluth will exhibit the Nordic art collection of Mike and Dawn Conlan with an opening reception at 6 pm Friday, Oct. 25. The couple has been collecting a wide range of Nordic folk art for many years. Their impressive collection ranges from cabinets, butter churns, mangels, rosemaled plates to carved wooden folk figures. It is rare to see work of this quality outside of a museum collection.

Nordic Folk Art exhibit to open at the Nordic Center in Duluth on Oct. 25.

The exhibit continues through Nov. 16.

Grand Marais Film Society will screen the first film of the winter season on Oct. 25 at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts.

The first film of the season will be screened on Oct. 25.

Click here to find out more.

Artists at Work:

Cardinal Time by Ilena Hansel.

A day of gifts and treasures by Mary Beams.

Stranger Doodle #1 at Joy and Company. Artist unknown.

Stranger Doodle #2 at Joy and Company. Artist unknown.

Stranger Doodle #3 at Joy and Company.Artist unknown.

I Felt Small, triptych, acrylic, by Elizabeth Sivertson, is on view at Studio 21.

Yvonne Mills, whose beautiful smile lights up every place she goes, acrylic, by Jan Attridge.

Sun Agates by Paula Sundet Wolf.

Online Findings:

What you can do with a $1 Cheerleader megaphone from the Dollar Store

Baby Raven Babble. Click to listen.

Online Music:

Photographs:

Here is a selection of photographs we found this week:

Wildlife:

Geese at sunset. Photo by Micah.

I had a little guest at lunch today by Nancy Seaton.

Baby Snapping Turtles in our yard by Roxanne Distad.

Look Closely… Salmon! by Jay DeCoux.

Maybe not so wild …

Lots of customers lined up at the door this morning. Photo courtesy of 47 Degrees Gallery.

NorthernLightsscapes: 

Aurora over Lake Superior by Paul Sundberg.

Just incredible colors, the Lady out-did herself by David Johnson.

Great show by Grand Marais by David Johnson.

Lake Erie at Marblehead Lighthouse by Evan Lee.

Shooting south. Craziness. By Jamey Penney-Ritter.

Near Superior, Wis. by Robert-Jan Quené.

The lights over my sweet little home by M Baxley.

Spacewatch compilation for Oct. 10.

Landscapes, Skyscapes, Waterscapes & Cloudscapes:

This morning it felt like winter was coming by Bryan Hansel.

Beauty by Adrea Beres.

Wind, Waves & Evaporation Clouds, AI?,  by Schauer Photo Images.

Sunrise by Angel Kelly.

Beautiful moon cast … by Lin Salisbury.

First snow at the family cabin by Tor Torkildson.

October 11 by Bryan Hansel.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

BTW: If you enjoyed NorthShore ArtScene this week, please consider supporting the arts and entertainment news you rely on every week! Your contribution makes it possible. Donate today and Thank You!

A special thank you goes out to Jeremy Lopez (Live Music schedule, tech advice, music suggestions), Yvonne Mills (proofreading), and Kari Carter (caption corrections.) Also, thanks to Visit Cook County for their great Events Calendar.