The Quickening

Greetings from the North Shore, where we heard our first thunder of the year and rainbows have been gracing the skies. The maple syrup season is wrapping up, and our eyes are on our gardens. Who will appear next? Enjoy, everyone!

And art-making continues.

Thursday is busy.

First up is the art-making opportunity at Joy and Company. The weekly Art Counter Project features a hands-on art experience to the public every Thursday from 3-4:30 pm.

This week, the art project is making an Origami Victorian Puzzle Purse. All supplies will be provided as well as instructions. Free and open to all.

At 5 pm on Thursday, the Cook County Chamber of Commerce will hold a wood-fired pizza baking Community Connect event at North House Folk School.

The Cook County Chamber hosts Chamber Connect events to give community members and local business owners a chance to gather, socialize, and build connections. Chamber Connects are free, community-focused, and open to everyone. The pizza bake will be from 5-6:30 pm.

Also on Thursday, the City of Grand Marais will launch the Grand Marais Archaeology Project with an Open House at City Hall from 6-8 pm.

The City is partnering with the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) to explore Grand Marais’ unique history.

In 2023, the SHPO office proposed to the city the following two projects:

• A Statewide Survey Project of the City of Grand Marais
• National Register Nomination for  the Grand Marais Harbor

The city council approved the project, and now 2 years later, it is ready to begin.

Note: The Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund funds the Statewide Survey program and is administered by an Oversight Board consisting of representatives from the Minnesota Historical Society, the Office of the State Archaeologist, the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, and the State Historic Preservation Office.

The National Historic Register is the country’s official list of places considered worthy of preservation. This project will look to designate the shoreline and Harbor as an historical district defined by a Maritime Cultural Landscape, which is a first for Minnesota. This listing provides a recognition of significance, and for public agencies and funding, it connects to aspects of federal and state law.

The public is invited to come to the event, to learn more about it, and bring old photos, newspaper clippings, artifacts, and stories about Grand Marais to share. Open to all. To read more about the project, click here.

Thursday is also Jazz Night at Up Yonder, featuring the music of the North Shore Swing Band.

The band plays a variety of great tunes, good for listening and dancing. Free.

On Friday, join Shelley Getten at the Grand Marais Public Library for poetry and printmaking art as she shares the challenges and joys of growing up on a Central Minnesota farm.

As Getten reads from her book, “Of Cows and Crows,” she will discuss the creative writing process. Getten will also demonstrate block art printmaking so attendees can learn about making original relief art, as showcased in her book. Bookmarks will be shared with audience members to take home. Books will be available for purchase, and the library will be raffling off a copy to attendees. The public is invited.

Also on Friday, the North Shore Music Association will host the New Mexican band, Lone Piñon, for a concert and dancing at Up Yonder starting at 7 pm.

Their music celebrates the rich confluence of cultures that have shaped the American Southwest and, more broadly, the cultural landscape of the United States. Featuring fiddles, accordion, upright bass, guitars, vihuela, and bilingual vocals, Lone Piñon draws from Spanish, Mexican, Indigenous, Anglo-American, and Afro-American musical traditions. Their repertoire includes traditional polkas, valses, rancheras, sones, and other regional styles learned from elder musicians and preserved through deep community relationships and historical field recordings.

In addition to their evening performance, Lone Piñon will spend time during the day working with middle and high school music students at Cook County Schools.

Tickets are on a sliding scale, and the concert is free for K–12 students. Tickets can be purchased at the door or online here.

Lutsen Mountains is introducing a new winter sport this weekend, the North Shore Rail Jam.

The event will be held in collaboration with UMD Techno Club, UMD Ski & Snowboard Club, and Breakaway. It is a fresh way to close out the spring ski season and bring the North Shore community together.

The event starts on Friday night with a welcome party followed by a day on the rails. For more info, click here.

Tracks, a play by Peter Tarsi, will be performed at the William M. Kelley Auditorium in Silver Bay this weekend. Performances are at 7  pm April 17-18, and at 2 pm on April 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.

In Duluth, Lizzard’s Gallery hosts the opening reception for the multi-artist exhibit “The Color of Sound.”

The opening reception is from 4-7 pm.

On Saturday, the Cook County Historical Society will host a get-ready-for-summer event at the Bill Bally Blacksmith & Welding Shop,

Volunteers are invited to drop by the shop from 10 am to noon to help match historic objects to their descriptions and give the shop a thorough seasonal sprucing. Open to all.

On Saturday night, the Grand Marais Film Society will screen its monthly film at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts at 7 pm.

The acclaimed historical fiction film won an Oscar for Best Actress this year. Tickets are $5. To find out more, click here.

On Tuesday, the Duluth Art Institute‘s Member Show opens and features a jazz concert, reception, and more.

 For more information and tickets, click here

And on Wednesday, award-winning author Margi Preus will give a workshop on storytelling at the Grand Marais Public Library starting at 3:30 pm.

Designed for children in Pre-K through 8th grade—and writers of all ages—this 50-minute session invites participants to explore the craft of storytelling. Attendees will learn how stories are developed, participate in a collaborative storytelling activity, and leave with practical writing strategies they can immediately apply.

Preus, who is based in Duluth, is known for works including Heart of a Samurai and West of the Moon. Her recent titles include the picture book Snowshoe Kate and The Hospital Built for Pennies and The Shrew Detective, the first in a nature-based mystery series. The book will be available for purchase at the event through Drury Lane Books.

The workshop is free, and no pre-registration is necessary.

Exhibits:

This is the final week of the exhibit, Line, Shape & Color, with works by Steven Dahlstrom at the Johnson Heritage Post.

The exhibit presents a variety of works and styles by the artist.

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

James Herold is exhibiting his colored pencil landscapes at Tettegouche State Park.

The exhibit is free and open to all. It continues through the end of April.

All My Relations Arts Gallery in south Minneapolis presents a new solo exhibition by a Lakota artist.

Denver-based artist Danielle SeeWalker says her exhibition, Uŋči Said So, was inspired by the uŋči, or grandmothers, and elders in her life, and their way of storytelling.

 To read more about this exhibit and listen to an interview, click here. 

At the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, a new exhibit, Built, Not Inherited, has opened. The exhibit is the debut solo exhibition in Thunder Bay by artist Natalie King, a queer interdisciplinary Anishinaabe (Algonquin) artist, facilitator, and member of Timiskaming First Nation.

Across painting and installation, King’s works function as places of passage rather than fixed objects. Her figures are states of becoming; eyes bright, hands open, and limbs embracing. Bold and vibrant, her canvases, sometimes bursting beyond the frame, examine how the body is held, protected, refused, and repaired in relationship over time. For King, love, care, and responsibility materialize not simply as a feeling or expression, but as a form of decision-making, action, and labour. To read more, click here.

The exhibit continues through June 21.

Opportunities:

The Grand Marais Art Colony has put out a call for an artist to facilitate printmaking and/or book arts activities during the Grand Marais Arts Festival, July 11-12.

Activities will take place under a tent with sides, and the artist-in-residence is responsible for providing all necessary equipment and supplies. Projects need to be make-and-take; the resident would serve approximately 150 – 200 individuals throughout the weekend.

Lodging is provided for the nights of Friday, July 10 – Monday, July 13, 2026, in the Art Colony guest suite. Along with free lodging, the selected artist will receive a $3,500 stipend that is meant to cover travel, teaching prep, and supplies.

For more information, click here.

Upcoming:

The North Shore Artists League will open the 7th Annual Member Show, “Stories Beneath the Snow: What Winter Hides, Spring Reveals,” hosted at the Johnson Heritage Post Art Gallery on April 24.

The First Congregational Church will present Peter Mayer and Sara Thomsen in a concert next Saturday.

The Celebrate the Earth Concert begins at 7 pm. Tickets are $33.85.For tickets, click here.

The Grand Marais Art Colony announced that rotating exhibitions by local and regional artists will be featured at Studio 21 over the summer.

 The exhibit schedule:

• June: Lucy Carlson | Jim Sannerud | Aleka Tomlinson
• July: Kimberly Baerg | Ellen Cashman
• August: James Ellis | Mary Stafford
• September: Sue Rauschenfels | Emily Wick

Kudos:

WTIP North Shore Community Radio received 15 awards in the small-market media category at the 2026 Midwest Broadcast Journalists Association Eric Sevareid Awards on April 11 in Minneapolis.

Executive Director Matthew Brown attended the award ceremony and accepted the honors on behalf of the WTIP team of producers. It was “a great showing for WTIP,” Brown said.

First-place awards were received in seven different categories: An additional eight stories received MBJA awards of merit.

Here is Chuck Olsen’s award-winning video:

To read more and listen to the stories, click here.

Artists at Work:

Online Findings:

 Blue Ice by Barb LaVigne

Hazel Belvo on why the George Morrison stamps are a perfect story

Cambodia has created a statue of Apopo, the landmine-sniffing rat, to honor the hard work he did sniffing out landmines in the country.

Giving Myself Permission,  Part 2, The Butterfly

Online Music:

Music videos suggested by Bill Hansen

Live Music:

Photographers:

Here is a sample of what we found this week:

Wildlife:

Landscapes, Skyscapes, Waterscapes & Cloudscapes

Have a great weekend, everyone!

PS: Contributing to NorthShore ArtScene today will go a long way toward assuring it arrives in your inbox every week. Just click on the link below to show your support. And Thank You!

 

A big Thank You! to 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.