Fall Follies

Greetings from the North Shore, where the fall maple show is almost gone, but not moose. This is moose rut season and there are always great opportunities to see these beautiful residents of the Northwoods, whether you try your hand at moose calling, take a hike in the woods, or travel slowly up the Gunflint Trail.

Isle Royale is always an option, too.

Meanwhile, art-making continues.

This fall Thursday mornings open with Story Time at the Grand Marais Public Library.

The event, which starts at 10:30 am is open to all and will feature stories, songs, and making a simple craft. Free.

Also on Thursdays, Joy and Company holds Art Night from 3:30 to 5 pm in the shop.

This week it will be White Box Art Night, where a white box of art supplies will be available to each participant to create something beautiful. The event is free, but a $5 donation is appreciated. Open to all. The annual Visit Cook County & Cook County Chamber of Commerce Fall Gala will be held at the Grand Portage Lodge & Casino starting at 5 pm on Thursday as well.

This is always a great community gathering honoring business owners and businesses for their work this year. Social hour starts at 5 pm followed by a buffet-style dinner. The program begins at 7 p.m. and features the Heart of Hospitality Awards and the Chamber Business Awards.

Open to all. For tickets, click here.

Also on Thursday, there will be an Open Studio to make bowls for the Empty Bowls fundraiser, which will be held at Up Yonder on Nov. 14.

Potters are invited to come to the studio from 5-8 pm to make stoneware bowls for the event. They will also be invited to trim and glaze them at a later date. The event is free. To sign up, click here.

Modern Dance classes will be held this fall in the Log Building at the Community Center from 5:30-7 pm on Thursdays through Dec. 19.

These are drop-in classes and the public is invited to dip their toes into different ways of moving. The classes will explore dance from the inside out. It is less about what it looks like and more about what it feels like. Class styles will vary, including approaches to modern and creative movement, and body awareness.

No pre-registration is required. Questions? Email humanpracticessomatics@gmail.com.

On Friday, the Grand Marais Film Society will launch the fall film program at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts at 7 pm.

This classic Halloween comedy features a green-haired ghost who is trying to scare a pair of yuppies out of a house. The film is sponsored by the Cook County Co-op, a great place for tallying your bananas. The film is 92 minutes long and is rated PG-13. More details, including the name of the film, are available at https://www.facebook.com/groups/gmfilmsociety. Tickets can be purchased online or at the door. Season passes are also available.

On Saturday, singer-songwriter John Lowell will be in concert at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts at 7 pm.

Lowell has performed in the Mountain West for the past 43 years. He’s toured the world with his bands Kane’s River, Growling Old Men, Wheel Hoss, the John Lowell Band, and Coppo, Kaerner & Lowell. He performs his western-themed music worldwide, was featured on A Prairie Home Companion, and is the recipient of the 2024 Governor’s Arts Award in Montana.

Lowell’s 2024 album, Snow on the Wineglass, was produced with both acoustic/bluegrass/folk and western music audiences in mind. Americana musician Mike Blakely writes, “If you like well-crafted story songs about cowboys, outlaws, homesteaders, prospectors, hard times and mustangs, you’ll love Snow On The Wineglass. Combining frontier themes, vibrant lyrics, acoustic bluegrass-style picking, and stellar vocals, these tunes unfold like scenes from a classic western movie.”

For his Grand Marais performance, Lowell will be accompanied by his spouse and musical partner, Joanne Gardner Lowell. Listen to a song from his latest album below.

Tickets are $20 and available online or at the door.

Every October during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the Violence Prevention Center in Grand Marais hosts a Community Candlelight Vigil to honor victims of intimate partner homicide and to show community support for survivors of domestic abuse. This year, the VPC will hold its Domestic Violence Awareness Month vigil at Studio 21 on Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 5:30 pm.

Refreshments including tea and Crosby Bakery goods will be served. The vigil will include poetry readings, words from VPC staff, and the names and stories of the 40 Minnesotans killed in 2023 due to Intimate Partner Homicide.
Since 1989, Minnesota’s state coalition against domestic violence, Violence Free Minnesota, has tracked intimate partner homicides in Minnesota and compiled an annual homicide report with the information as part of their We Remember project. In 2023, Violence Free Minnesota counted 40 confirmed intimate partner homicides in Minnesota, which is the highest number they have ever recorded. This number consists of primary victims of domestic violence as well as bystanders and interveners who were killed.

Every year, Violence Prevention Center staff, board members, and volunteers read the names and stories of every victim of intimate partner homicide in Minnesota from the previous year at the Domestic Violence Awareness Month Vigil. This is an important act of putting names to the statistics honoring the memory of Minnesotans whose lives were cut short because of domestic violence and providing a space for community grieving and healing.

The public is invited to come to raise awareness of domestic violence, honor victims of intimate partner homicide, show support for survivors, and push back against the societal conditions that allow domestic abuse to exist in our communities.

Tuesdays are Craft Nights at North House Folk School through Nov. 12.

Crafters are invited to bring a project to North House from 5:30-7:30 pm and work together with other artisans. Some weeks there will be a theme based on an area of craft that the host is excited to share, but all crafts are welcome. Kids accompanied by an adult are welcome to join. Free.

And on Wednesdays, there will be weekly dancing at the Colvill Town Hall.

Line, waltz, Texas 2-step, swing, polka, and more with a volunteer instructor will be featured.  All are invited to bring a favorite CD to share and their favorite dance moves.  More information is available from Arvis at 218-387-2487 or thompsontom335@gmail.com.

Ongoing:

The Seeker, an interactive outdoors exhibit at Sugarloaf Cove Nature Center closes Oct. 31.

Sugarloaf Cove partnered with Minneapolis-based public artist, Diver Van Avery (they/them) to host a unique, site-specific art project that will be available for visitors to experience through Oct. 31.

Van Avery spent four months in residence at Sugarloaf where they wrote and created “The Seeker”, an audio story featuring original songs about how the restoring woods of Sugarloaf Cove and the expansive water of Gichi Gami help a griever release their pain, discover love, and remember their origins.

Visitors can listen to this site-specific story as they walk the one-mile trail from the visitor center through the forest, along Sugarloaf Creek, to the shore of the Big Lake.

Visitors can borrow headphones and listening devices from the Nature Center during open hours.
They can also download the audio from Sugarloaf Cove Nature Center’s website and listen to it on their device and headphones on their own.

Exhibits:

The plein air exhibit by Tom Dimock,  “Splendor of the  North: By Land and By Sea,” continues at the Johnson Heritage Post through Nov. 3.

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.

Every October, Kinngait Studios in Nunavut, Canada, releases a collection of highly-anticipated prints by far-northern artists who channel their creativity into work that represents their Inuit way of life. They draw inspiration from a land that is dotted with caribou on nearby hills and from an ocean filled with seals, walruses, beluga whales, and sea birds.

Sivertson Gallery is the 2024 U.S. host gallery for this unique collection. The newest prints are on exhibit now and feature a wide variety of beautiful works.

All the prints in this collection can be viewed at the gallery and online here.

The Duluth Art Institute just opened two new exhibits including Scatter/Gather, works by Brian Boldon.

Boldon’s approach to art revolves around capturing and materializing moments, concepts, and experiences. His exhibit, Scatter/Gather, reexamines how landscapes can be represented and perceived, inviting the audience to engage with Boldon’s unique view of presence. Boldon reflects, “Your practice becomes a way to map and interpret the intricate dance between reality and perception, making each piece a unique reflection of your interaction with the world around you.”

Formerly based in Northeast Minneapolis, from 2008 to 2023, Boldon now works in his Northwest Wisconsin studio at the headwaters of the St. Croix River. Boldon exhibits his sculpture nationally and internationally as a solo artist. As part of a collaborative team with artist Amy Baur, Boldon has installed over 60 public art installations nationally. Boldon uses digital technology for visualization, photographic printing for kiln-fused glass and ceramic imagery, and 3D printing with porcelain for creating sculptures and installations in fine art and public spaces. In 2012, Boldon received the McKnight Fellowship for Ceramic Art. The exhibit continues through Jan. 6.

The Minneapolis Institute of Art is currently exhibiting a collection of Tibetan works in the Buddhist Shrine Room: The Alice S. Kandell Collection.

 The exhibit includes more than 200 gilt-bronze sculptures, paintings, silk hangings, and carpets that were created in Tibet between the 1300s and early 1900s. Buddhist ritual objects are displayed in the context of an elaborate private household shrine, a space used for offerings, devotional prayer, rituals, and contemplation. With its flickering candlelight, sonorous chanting, and subtle smell of incense, the glittering room provides an oasis for peaceful contemplation within the galleries at MIA.

Explore the exhibit here.

Upcoming:

The iconic ballet, Swan Lake, will be performed at Symphony Hall at the DECC in Duluth on Nov. 2.

The World Ballet Company will present the ballet.

To get tickets and find out more, click here.

Artists At Work:

First, Stranger Doodles, Vol. 18, from Joy and Company:

Other findings:

Online Findings:

 Fly High Duluth SNL

 

Online Music:

Sunday, November 3:

• Medicine River, Gunflint Tavern, 3-6 pm

Photographs:

Here’s a selection of photos we found this week:

Wildlife:

A Not-So-Wild:

 Potpourri:

Landscapes, Skyscapes, Waterscapes & Boatscapes:

 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

If you enjoyed NorthShore ArtScene this week, please consider contributing today. It really makes a difference and shows support for the blog as well as to those who help out every week: Jeremy Lopez (Live Music schedule, tech advice, music suggestions), Yvonne Mills (proofreading), and Kari Carter (caption corrections.).

Just click on the icon below to donate. We would love to hear from you. And thank you!

And here’s a big Thank You to Visit Cook County for its outstanding events calendar.