Easing Into Spring

Greetings from the North Shore, where reports are mounting that daffodils are breaking ground, while spring snow showers continue — April on the North Shore.

And art-making continues.

First up this week is the Art Counter Project at Joy and Company, a free event which invites the community to the shop from 3-4:30 pm to make art.

This week, participants will learn how to make an origami Victorian Puzzle Purse with colorful paper. Instruction provided. Free, but a freewill donation is welcome. Open to all.

On Thursday night, WTIP Community Radio will host Trivia Night at Up Yonder from 6-8 pm.

This is a bar-type trivia and open to all. Free. Prizes will be awarded.

Also on Thursday, the Lutsen Pride Ski Weekend, Frost & Flame, hosted by Caribou Highlands, begins. It will be held April 9–12.

The event features lots of skiing, events, and music. To find out more and register, click here.

Tracks, a play by Peter Tarsi, opens at the William Kelly Auditorium in Silver Bay on April 9. Performances are at 7 pm April 9-11 and April 17-18, and at 2 pm April 12 and 19.

The play, directed by Paul Deaner, tells the story of a group of strangers who meet in a dirty subway station, all claiming to be in different cities. They soon learn the unfortunate truth: They are all dead. Since subway stations have opposite platforms, they reason that one train must be bound for Heaven; the other bound for Hell.

This should be an interesting play. Deaner is a master director, and the scenery was developed by Ann Gumpper of Duluth.

Tickets are $15  for adults, $10 for students and are available in the lobby.

On Friday, Lutsen Mountains will host the annual Mountain Meltdown Festival to celebrate the end of another great season of skiing.

Mountain Meltdown brings soft snow, sunny laps, and an outdoor live music bash that turns the resort into one big spring celebration. Both local and regional bands will be there this weekend, and the snow is great. To see who is playing, see the Live Music schedule below. The festival runs from April 10-12.

On Saturday, plein air painter Tim Vahle will hold a Spring Celebration reception at his gallery in downtown Grand Marais.

He will feature his latest plein air paintings and portraits, as well as prints. Refreshments will be served. The open house will be held from 11 am to 5 pm. The public is invited.

On Saturday night, the North Shore Music Association will present the Valencia Baryton Project at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church. The concert starts at 7 pm.

This internationally touring trio is devoted to reviving the baryton—a rare, 16-string instrument once championed by Joseph Haydn. Their program brings together elegant classical works and contemporary compositions, offering audiences a chance to hear a nearly forgotten sound brought vividly back to life.

The concert features sliding scale ticket pricing and is free for K–12 students. For more info and tickets, click here. Tickets will also be available at the door. The public is invited.

Also on Saturday, the Slobber Dobber Cook Off, a fundraiser for an AED (an automatic external defibrillator), will be held at Up Yonder.

The cook-off will be held from 5-7 pm and includes raffles and prizes. An AED demonstration will be held from 7-8 pm. Tickets are $10 for individuals, $35 for a family. Cost is $25 to enter the competition. Email ArrowheadAED@gmail.com to enter. Open to all.

Nancy Seaton will exhibit her work at Stonebridge Lofts in Minneapolis with an opening reception from 4-6 pm on Sunday, April 12.

The exhibit will continue through the end of July.

Exhibits:

An exhibit of paintings by Steven Dahlstrom is currently on view at the Johnson Heritage Post. The title of the exhibit is “Line, Shape & Color.”

This is an eclectic exhibit, featuring works on a variety of topics and themes. It continues through April 19.

Works by Amber Burns are also at the Heritage Post. She is the April Artist of the Month.

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

In Two Harbors, the Voyageur Artists group has a show at the Cedar Coffee Company.

The show features work that used a coffee-themed subject for inspiration. It is a colorful and diverse show, utilizing all sorts of media, including coffee wash. The show will be up through May 31. On Friday, April 17, there will be an Artist Reception from 5 – 7 pm. Fun food and drink will be available.

The 2026 Annual Student Exhibition opened at the Tweed Museum of Art this week.

The Annual Student Exhibition (ASE) celebrates the creative endeavors and artistic practices of UMD students. Students from any college, school, or department who have completed an art or design course are eligible to submit their work for consideration. This year’s exhibition was juried by two distinguished visiting artists, Mika Negishi Laidlaw and Jen White-Johnson.

Visitors to the exhibition will encounter animation, ceramics, digital art, drawing, graphic design, motion graphics, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and video.

The exhibit continues through May 9.

A new exhibit of contemporary Nordic folk art has opened at the Walker Art Center.

View the traveling exhibition of contemporary Nordic folk art and cultural traditions from the American region, curated by the American-Scandinavian Foundation. This exhibition features stunning works by 24 artists from the Upper Midwest, including Tia Keobounpheng, Christine Novotny, John Frandy, Talon Cavender-Wilson, Mike Loeffler, and more. This exhibition is also supported in part by the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation. Several works will be on view at Norway House’s Mondale Gallery.

The exhibit at the Walker continues through June 7.

House Holding, a new exhibit by Sophia Bartholomew, is on view at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery.

In the foyer, a series of large quilts creates a patchwork of photographs, each measuring 8 x 4 feet, the size of a plywood sheet. Based in Guelph, Ont., Sophia grew up spending summers at their Mormor’s (Norwegian for grandmother) house in Dryden, Ont. Between 2016 and 2019, the artist returned to Northern Ontario to care for their Mormor, which reoriented the artist’s practice to the materiality of daily life and daily encounters with the intangible and the unknown.

“Now that she’s gone,” Sophia says, “I’m left trying to recreate the feeling of a place that doesn’t exist anymore.”

Woven into these hand-stitched works is a pragmatic rural-domestic logic of saving and salvaging, repairing and remaking, and working with the materials at hand – including the artist’s drive towards proof of life.

The exhibit continues through June 15.  To find out more, click here.

Kudos:

 Artists at Work:

Online Findings:

Giving Myself Permission: Following the Spirit (8 parts,). Click here if having problems seeing all.

 

 Online Music:

This one was suggested by Dennis Chick:

Live Music:

Photographs:

Here’s what we found this week:

Wildlife:

Potpourri:

Landscapes, Waterscapes & Skyscapes:

Have a great weekend, everyone!!!

Note: Please consider contributing to NorthShore ArtScene today. It really makes a difference and allows us to send ArtScene to you every week. Thank you!

 

We are so grateful for the help and support from Jeremy Lopez for his Live Music schedule and tech support, and Yvonne Mills for her great proofreading. Thank you, both! And to Visit Cook County for its outstanding Events Calendar.