A Summer Explosion of People, Art & Music

Greetings from the North Shore, where everything is all things summer right now. The tomatoes are ripening, gigantic zucchinis are turning up in the front seats of cars, and berries are being enjoyed everywhere. It’s the season of art and lots of live music, too, and there’s lots of that to enjoy.

To make a piece of your own, turn up at Joy and Company on Thursday at 3 pm for the Art Counter Project.

“Thursday Art Night is offered all summer at Joy, 3-4:30 pm. This year we are offering: make your own masterpiece in watercolor at the art counter inside and outside; we have games and a paint your ROCK station in the backyard (please bring your own rock or go to the harbor and grab one before you come); seating is limited at both stations, and it is first come, first served, and self-directed art adventures.  As always, the whole floor is a chalkboard and is open 10-5 daily.” – Jill Terrill

At 4:30 pm on Thursday, the Grand Marais Farmer’s Market opens in the parking lot of the Cook County Community Center.

Look for lots of fresh produce, cut flowers, artisan breads, baked goods, jams, jellies, and more. The public is invited to this market, which is a great community event with live music and lots of goodies to take home to eat.

The Marshall W. Alworth Planetarium is gearing up to hit the road again for the 9th annual Dark Sky Caravan, Aug 10 – 15 in venues across the county.

The star parties will run from 8 pm to 10 or 11 pm each night. Starting at 8 pm, you can enjoy fun activities and presentations. Once it gets dark, you can gaze through telescopes and get a live sky tour of the stars and constellations visible. If it’s cloudy, don’t worry! We will still have fun activities and digital sky tours so you can learn what to look for when it clears up. Minnesota is home to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which is the second largest International Dark Sky Sanctuary in the world. To celebrate our dark skies, Planetarium staff will be traveling along the North Shore, stopping at different locations each night for a star party. You can enjoy fun activities and presentations or planetarium shows. Once it gets dark, you can gaze through telescopes and get a live sky tour of the stars and constellations visible. We will also be on the lookout for meteors from the Perseid meteor shower, which peaks Aug. 12- 13. If it’s cloudy, don’t worry! We will still have fun activities and digital sky tours so you can learn what to look for when it clears up.

This year’s Dark Sky Caravan can be found in three venues in Cook County.

• Aug. 13: North House Folk School | Grand Marais
• Aug. 14: Schaap Community Center | Gunflint Trail
• Aug. 15: Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center | Gunflint Trail

All events are free and open to the public.

On Friday, the Community Picnic and Parade with Makwa the Bear,  sponsored by the Grand Marais Public Library, will be held from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm.

Celebrate the grand finale of the Grand Marais Public Library‘s Summer Reading Program with a free day of creativity, food, and fun for all ages.

Whether you participated in Summer Reading or simply love books, everyone is welcome.
The celebration begins with a hands-on puppet-making activity led by Christopher Lutter-Gardella of Big Animal Productions. Participants will create a pollinator puppet to carry in the afternoon parade while learning about black bears and our natural world.

At noon, enjoy a free community picnic lunch and lawn games before gathering at 12:45 p.m. for a festive parade to Harbor Park led by Makwa, a giant wooden black bear puppet. Families are invited to take photos with Makwa overlooking Lake Superior—a lasting reminder of this summer and the stories that brought us together.

Attend the whole celebration or stop by for your favorite part. The event is free, open to all ages, and no Summer Reading Program participation is required.

Schedule:

• 10:30 am.–12:00 p.m, Puppet-making activity
• 12:00–12:45 pm, Free community picnic lunch & lawn games
• 12:45 pm, Parade to Harbor Park and family photos with Makwa

The public is invited. Free.

There will be a Community Wood-Firing behind the Grand Marais Art Colony’s clay studio on Friday and Saturday.

Visiting artist and kiln builder Henry Crissman will be on site during the firing. Anyone interested is invited to come observe the kiln at work. This is a two-day, all-day event, so please stop by when you can and see the magic of wood firing live and in process.

For those who have pre-made work and would like to reserve space in the firing, reach out to Ceramics Studio Manager Brett Monahan at ceramics@grandmaraisartcolony.org. The fee for firing work is signing up for a slot to support the firing with your enthusiastic physical labor preparing the wood and feeding the kiln.

At 1 pm on Friday, Jeri Person will teach a fused-glass workshop at Joy and Company.

Participants will design and create their own colorful glass suncatcher or hanging glass spinner.  The class runs from 1-4 pm; family-friendly. The cost is $20. For more info, email jperson2@boreal.org.

On Friday night, the opening reception for Marcia Roepke’s exhibition: “Painting Pictures with Words, Telling Stories with Paint” opens at the Johnson Heritage Post at 5 pm. 

 Marcia combines her oil paintings from the last year with stories from “Trail Time” (her radio show on local WTIP North Shore Community Radio), as a grateful response to the beauty of the North Shore and the wilderness beyond the Gunflint Trail.

A scavenger hunt activity (geared towards kids) will be available throughout the exhibit.

Mixed Precipitation Pickup Truck Opera is in Cook County this weekend with performances at the Hovland Town Hall on Friday and Sweetheart’s Bluff in the Rec Park in Grand Marais on Saturday.

These are always fun performances with great music, wonderful voices, and a quirkiness that is amusing and charming. Tickets vary in price. Open to all. Family-friendly.

The Cook County Market opens in the parking lot of The Hub at 10 am on Saturday.

The market features a great selection of work by local artists and artisans. Look for rock lamps, paintings, baskets, Lake Superior rocks, pottery, fiber art, books, and more. The market is open from 10 am to 2 pm. Open to all.

Drury Lane Books will feature a Meet and Greet with Deborah Marcero, author and illustrator of  “The Great Escape,” on Saturday from 11 am to 1 pm.

A richly illustrated picture book from the author of In a Jar, The Great Escape follows an older sister and her pack of wild, noisy, can’t-sit-still younger siblings on a grand and wondrous adventure. The public is invited to meet this award-winning author and see her latest work.

Also on Saturday at 11 am, Kevin Kager, the Muffin Man, will host Children’s Story Hour from 11 am until noon outside the bookstore.

The event is free and open to all ages.

 Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center will host the second in the series,  The Wonders of Watersheds, presented by the Cook County Soil and Water Conservation District on Saturday from 11 am to noon. The title of the presentation is: The Power of Native Plants — Outdoor demonstration and shoreline tour highlighting native plants and restoration practices.

 

The presentation is free and suitable for all ages.

The Hovland Volunteer Fire Department will celebrate its 50th anniversary with an open House from 1 pm to 8 pm on Saturday at the fire hall.

The fire hall will be open, and refreshments will be served. The public is invited.

Author, illustrator and artist Keith Morris will give an Author Talk at Drury Lane Books on Saturday at 6 pm.

Morris will read and tell stories from his new book Growing Up on the Gunflint Trail: Essays & Photos from One Family’s 100+ Years: 1915 – 2026. Free. The public is invited.

On Sunday, Kyle Johnson will give a presentation on Moths in Minnesota at Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center at 2 pm.

On Monday, the naturalist talks at Chik-Wauk continue.

This week’s topic is loons. The talks start at 1 pm and are free.

The final concert for the Dockside Sessions, an outdoor concert series held in collaboration with WTIP, North Shore Music Association, North House Folk School, and WTIP, will be held on the North House campus on Wednesday, Aug. 19, featuring the band Bad, Bad Hats.

The series will unfold on a timber frame stage built by North House Folk School students during a July course, adding another layer of community craftsmanship to the project. Like Dockside Sessions itself, the stage is the result of many hands working together to create something that will be shared by everyone.

Community members and visitors are invited to bring a lawn chair or blanket and settle in for an evening of outstanding live music in one of Minnesota’s most scenic settings. In the event of inclement weather, concerts will move indoors to Up Yonder. Free.

Exhibits:

“Play,” the summer exhibition at Studio 21, features a selection of works by regional artists and continues through the end of the summer season.

 Also on view, the Arrowhead Artists for August, featuring paintings by James Ellis and photographs by Mary Stafford.

Studio 21 is open from 10 am to 5 pm Thursday through Saturday. Free.

Deborah Birkeland is exhibiting her work at Tettegouche State Park this month.

She is exhibiting in the Great Hall at the park. The exhibit is free and open to all.

The short video, Ish Meets a Mermaid, is currently on view at the Duluth Art Institute.

Ish Meets a Mermaid is a short film based on a reimagined Ojibwe story, directed by Jonathan Thunder, produced by Vera Bianchini, co-written by Tashia Hart, with cinematography by Jeff Saunders.

This exhibition reveals the artistry of the cast and crew who brought Ish Meets a Mermaid to life.

As viewers enter the exhibition, they are guided through the journey of the film’s creation with behind-the-scenes moments from production, original props, storyboards, costumes, and stories shared by the cast and crew, finishing with an in-gallery viewing of the film itself. By expanding our view outward from the finished product, the exhibition reveals the many layers of artistry, collaboration, vision, and labor required to produce a project like Ish Meets a Mermaid. This exhibition encourages the viewer to follow their curiosity about the process of filmmaking and recognize the invisible creative work that goes into an art form as accessible as film.

The exhibit runs through October. 2.

Upcoming:

Jill Terrill will teach a workshop on Wrapped Rocks at Joy and Company on Aug. 21.

This class covers:

• Material basics — choosing the right rocks, wrap, and tools (please bring a rock if you have one you especially love, otherwise, rocks will be provided)
• Core wrapping techniques 
• Design planning — how to choose a wrap style that fits each stone
• Finishing methods — polishing, securing ends, or display stands

Students leave with one or 2 finished wrapped rocks and the skills to continue at home.

For more information and to register, call  218-387-1004.

Lizzard’s Gallery in Duluth will host a new exhibit next month.

The show will feature a great selection of local and regional artists. Stay tuned.

Artists At Work: 

 Online Findings:

 Here’s an interesting video: Tortoises restore dry  land in the Sahel

Online Music: \

 “Back in March, 15 musicians from Cook County and beyond came together in Hovland to record a benefit album after Operation Metro Surge. Today, you can listen to that album.

Love Letter to Minneapolis features 20 tracks capturing the fraught feelings of Minnesotans during the start of the year, and messages of hope and pride in the brave people of the Twin Cities who stood up for their neighbors and protected each other from the federal occupation.

All proceeds from this album will go directly to the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund through the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota.” – Will Moore

Check it out here.

 

Photographs:

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

Wildlife:

Potpourri:

Landscapes, Skyscapes & Waterscapes:

Have a great weekend, everyone!

I hope you enjoyed NorthShore ArtScene this week. To contribute, just click on the icon below. And thank you!

 

And a big thank you to Jeremy Lopez for his outstanding live music schedule and to Yvonne Mills for all the time she puts in proofreading this less-than-perfect writer. Thanks to you both. And thank you to Visit Cook County for its very useful Events Calendar.