Making Art, Music and Talking About It

Greetings from the North Shore, where April snow showers are greeting us this week.

At some level, winter snow storms offer a great opportunity to work in the studio, always a perk.

Here’s an inspiring new monoprint from Lee Ross.

The earth as an artist:

And art-making continues.

First up is Art Night at Joy and Company. Playing with Pencils and Markers is the topic of the mini workshop this week.

Art Night is held at the shop from 3:30-5 pm. It is free, with a suggested $5 donation. However, for a $1 fee, participants will earn a $5 coupon for the store.

Click here to let the shop know you are coming, or call 218-387-1004.

This Friday is the last of the Winter Music Series at the North Shore Winery. Singer/songwriter  Emma Tweten, a talented guitarist and vocalist, will close out the series. Emma plays a mix of familiar folk, folk-rock, and originals. The event is held in the Barrel Room from 3:30-5:30 pm. Open to all. Free. Here’s a video of Emma performing at WTIP.

Also, on Friday, the “Mountain Meltdown Festival: Live Music and Spring Skiing” will be at Lutsen Mountains. The festival continues all weekend.

The music festival features local and regional musicians. To see the schedule, click here.

On Friday evening, the Johnson Heritage Post will host an opening reception for the exhibit, Gentle Hikes of Minnesota’s North Shore through the Lens of Arts and Health, with photographs by Ladona Tornabene.

The artist will talk about her project at the opening as well as give a presentation about gentle hikes on the North Shore at 2 pm on Saturday.

Tornabene is an associate professor of Health Education at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Her focus lies in confronting the number one public health problem in America today- lack of physical activity. This fact, combined with what she knows about nature’s ability to reduce stress, fuels a passion. That passion is to promote better health through opening the outdoors to people of all abilities. She believes the scenery that the Lake Superior Region boasts is the prime incentive for accomplishing such a mission.

The public is invited to the opening reception and the talk on Saturday. The exhibit continues through April 20.

The Heritage Post is open from 10 am-4 pm, Thursday through Saturday, and from 1-4 pm on Sunday. Free.

Also, on Friday, Arctic explorer Lonnie Dupre will give a presentation at North House Folk School entitled “Greenland: Where Ice is Born.”  The presentation is at 6:30 pm.

Dupre will talk about his past and future Greenland expeditions and the rapid effects of climate change on Greenland’s ice. Q&A to follow. Free and open to all.

Dupre has long had a dream to go north in his own ship: to start from his hometown and supply his own journey, like explorers did a century ago. This spring, that dream will become a reality as he sets sail from the Grand Marais harbor on Nord Hus, bound for Greenland. On this trip, Dupre will continue bearing witness to the effects of climate change on Greenland’s landscapes and on the lives of the Polar Inuit people who call Greenland home.

This event is part of North House’s First Friday series. The public is invited to come at 5:30 pm for Dinner on a Stick. Bring something to roast over the fire. North House will provide free popcorn and S’Mores fixings. Open to all.

An opening reception for photographer Hayes Scriven’s exhibit at Tettegouche State Park will be from 7-8:30 pm on Friday.

The exhibit will feature a selection of his work on the North Shore. It will be on exhibit in the Great Hall through the month of April.

On Saturday, North House Folk School will host a day of Family Drop-in Crafts.

This week, families will have an opportunity to make a Waldorf Star, perfect for hanging in a favorite window. Drop-in crafts will take place in the Blue Building from 10 am-4 pm. Free and open to all.

Also, on Saturday, the Winter Market will be held at The  Hub from 10 am to 4 pm.

This is always an interesting event featuring a great selection of work from local artists. Look for paintings and prints, pottery, glasswork, leatherwork, jewelry, and more. Open to all. Free.

The Violence Prevention Center will host its annual film fundraising event. Beyond the Reel, on Saturday at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts.

Doors open at 5:30 pm for a social hour, which will feature live music, an impressive spread of hors d’oeuvres from local food vendors, and a raffle with prizes donated by local businesses. The 2025 Joan Drury Award will be presented at 6:30 pm, followed by a screening of this year’s film,  “Loud Enough – Surviving Justice,” a 60-minute documentary detailing the experience of one sexual assault survivor in her pursuit of justice.

In conjunction with the film screening,  former Cook County Attorney Molly Hicken will be the guest speaker. Hicken will share her insight into victims’ experiences in the criminal justice system and help us understand the theme of this year’s film within a local context.

Tickets are $25. The public is invited.

For more information about the event, the film, or how you can support VPC programming and services, email hope4u@boreal.org

On Tuesday, a reception and book launch for “Go Away, Rock Snot! “ will be held at the Johnson Heritage Post with the child authors and illustrators present. It starts at 3:30 pm.

The book launch will feature opening remarks by Margaret Hedstrom, president of the Cook County Historical Society, as well as a special microscope tour of “rock snot”- the gloppy menace to freshwater featured in the book- by Dr. Mark Edlund of the Science Museum of Minnesota. Edlund is a world authority on diatoms- the biological group that “rock snot” belongs to and the scientific publishing partner for this book.

Attendees will receive a free copy of  “Go Away, Rock Snot!” Selected children’s art from the book will also be on display throughout April at the Heritage Post Gallery.

Note: Minnesota Children’s Press is committed to mentoring the youngest learners, ages 5-15, in applied literacy. When kids create books for everyone to read and discuss, children’s agency is affirmed by the wider community,  and they view themselves as capable thinkers, creators, and communicators. 

On Wednesday, the last of the 3-part series, Spirituality and the Arts, will be held at the First Congregational Church starting at 5:30 pm with a soup and sandwich supper followed by a panel discussion of Spirituality and the Visual Arts.

Visual artists on the panel include  Betsy Bowen, Greg Mueller, Tom McCann, Joan Farnam, and Donovan Dahmen.

The event is free and open to the public.

Exhibits

North Shore Health is exhibiting a great selection of works by local artists as well as a selection of works from its private collection. All the works are hung in the public spaces in the hospital as well as the cafeteria for the Care Center. Here’s a small preview of what visitors can see.

The exhibit continues through May.

The Thunder Bay Art Gallery is currently exhibiting the 2025 Lakehead University Honours Exhibition. This exhibition is a milestone for students in the Visual Arts program, who present works of contemporary beadwork, sculpture, painting, and drawing on view to the public for the first time.  Celebrate the work of four students who have worked all year with faculty advisors to create a final body of work to complete their studies.

The exhibit continues through April 6.

Upcoming:

The Cook County Market opens in the parking lot of The Hub on Saturday, May 24.

This year’s market will feature new vendors as well as old favorites. Stay tuned.

Run Smelt, Run, the popular parade in Duluth created by Magic Smelt, will be held in Duluth on May 25 starting at 3:30 pm on the Lakewalk near the Lift Bridge.

This lively, site-specific spectacle features masks, large puppets, and a Twin Cities brass band, the Brass Messengers. And not to forget, the Smelt Queen. Open to all.  Stay tuned. 

FYI

In a press release this week, the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council said its Small Grant program would be temporarily discontinued.

“Due to budgetary constraints in the upcoming fiscal year, the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council (ARAC) has decided not to launch the second round of Small Grants for Individuals that was set to open on April 1, 2025. ARAC made this decision due to a budgetary distribution correction made apparent to all the regional arts councils by the Minnesota Department of Revenue in early March. This decision was made as a precautionary measure to preserve our funds for our FY2026 grant programs. Read more about this correction in this Legacy finance meeting and the meeting’s supporting documents. ”

 Artists at Work:

Smash It!, a recurring creativity event at Joy and Company, had its first iteration at the shop on April 1.  At it, participants smashed seconds pottery donated by potter Kari Carter and then retired to the shop to make mosaics out of the results.

Jill Terrill, owner of Joy and Company, said the event, which helps people express their feelings during this difficult time and then create from the result, is healing. Other Smash It! events will be held later this year.

Here are some photos from the event:

The mosaics will be on view at Joy and Company soon.

Here’s another series of art-making photographs:

The process of making a guitar called Lena, by David Seaton.

Two other finds:

 Online Findings:

The Art Institute of Chicago has opened a new exhibit entitled  “Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds.” 

The Art Institute writes:

“Unveiling Frida Kahlo’s work for the first time in the Art Institute galleries, this exhibition focuses on the celebrated Mexican artist’s first and only trip to Europe and her brief yet pivotal encounter with Mary Reynolds, an American avant-garde bookbinder who stood at the center of a rich Parisian artistic community.

Drawing upon the extensive Mary Reynolds Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago and extraordinary Kahlo loans from public and private collections in the US, Mexico, and Europe, the presentation sheds light on this little-known chapter of 20th-century art history, recounting the legacies of Kahlo and Reynolds—both artists themselves and partners of artists—as they navigated Surrealism, identity, and cross-cultural exchange on the eve of World War II.”

 To read more and see more photographs, click here.

Here’s another Sparky Stensaas gem:

Online Music: 

Kari Carter’s suggestions:

David  Seaton’s suggestions:

Photographs:

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

Wildlife:

Potpourri:

Landscapes, Waterscapes, Skyscapes, Moonscapes: 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Note: If you enjoy reading  NorthShore ArtScene and look forward to reading it every week, please consider contributing today. We put a lot of effort into producing ArtScene for you every week and are always so thankful for your support. Just click on the icon below to contribute. And Thank You again!

 

Here’s a thank you to Jeremy Lopez (Live Music schedule, tech advice, music suggestions), Yvonne Mills (proofreading and music suggestions), and Kari Carter (caption corrections). And a big thank you to Visit Cook County for its outstanding Events Calendar.