Eye to eye with a diving Peregrine Falcon by Simon Zhu.
Monument in the trees by Henry Hintermeister.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet Catching An Insect by John Gregor. See below for more photographs.
Greetings from the North Shore, where we are seeing birds everywhere, and online photos crowd social media, so we are including a lot of them this week as we celebrate wildness and our natural world.
And art-making continues.
This week, Joy and Company’s Art Counter Project will explore the colorful, fluid world of acrylic paint pouring.
Experiment with acrylic paint pouring at Joy and Company on Thursday.
Participants will experiment with System 3 Fluid Acrylics and Pouring Medium to create unique, abstract designs full of movement, color, and unexpected patterns. Come enjoy an afternoon of creative exploration and discover the magic of fluid art. The workshop is from 3:30-5 pm and is free, with a suggested $5 donation. Open to all.
Also on Thursday, the Grand Marais Farmer’s Market will open in the Community Room at the Cook County Community Center at 4:30 pm featuring a wide variety of locally-grown produce, artisan breads, cut flowers, baked goods and more.
Apples are just a few of the things you will find at the Farmer’s Market. Photo by Kristin Elizabeth.
The market closes for the season next week, Oct. 29, so now is the time to stock up. Open to all.
This is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and the Violence Prevention Center will hold a gathering to honor and remember those who have lost their lives to domestic violence in 2025. It is a time for the community to come together to say their names, read their stories, and show support to victims experiencing domestic violence.
The Violence Prevention Center will hold a gathering on Thursday at Studio 21.
The event will be held at Studio 21 from 5:30-6:30 pm on Thursday. Open to all. Refreshments will be served.
On Thursday night, the play, The Root Beer Lady, will be performed at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts at 7 pm.
The play, The Root Beer Lady, will be at the ACA on Thursday.
Friends of the Boundary Waters will present the touring production of The Root Beer Lady at 7 pm Thursday.
Written and presented by Kim Schultz, The Root Beer Lady tells the story of the indomitable Dorothy Molter, the last legal non-indigenous resident of the Boundary Waters. The story reflects the beauty and hardships of Molter’s solitary yet satisfying life beginning in 1934.
The play, funny and passionate, explores her independence, fortitude, and love of nature. Molter pushes back against the premise that her time in the North Woods made her the “Loneliest Woman in America,” as the Saturday Evening Post claimed in 1952.
Schultz is a nationally and internationally acclaimed writer, actor, and solo show artist working across mediums. This marks Kim’s third solo show. The tour is produced by Bourgoin Productions.
Tickets are $15 and are available at the door.
This month, Family Friendly Hayrides are being held Friday through Sunday at the William’s Farm, 85 Fall River Road, County Rd 13.
Hayrides in the woods are featured at the Williams Farm this weekend and next.
The rides are available from 11 am to 5 pm Friday through Sunday. The event includes marshmallow roasting, a garage sale, and more. Reservations are encouraged. Call: 218-370-8188 or 218-387-1162. The rides are weather-dependent.
It’s Bingo Night at Up Yonder on Friday.
Bingo Night is at Up Yonder on Friday.
The event runs from 6- 8 pm and is hosted by the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 413. Open to all.
A free writing workshop with poet and memoirist Juliet Patterson will be held at the Grand Marais Public Library on Saturday from 1-3 pm. The worksop is entitled: Writing Memory & Family Stories: Finding the Stories We Carry.
Juliet Patterson will lead a writing workshop at the library on Saturday.
Every family has stories—stories that are told again and again, stories that have been forgotten, and stories that may never have been told at all. In this hands-on workshop, participants will explore how to turn memories, family stories, photographs, places, objects, and fragments of the past into compelling personal writing.
Participants will leave with several pages of new writing and a collection of ideas and prompts they can use to continue writing.
Note: Patterson is the author of Sinkhole: A Legacy of Suicide (Milkweed Editions, September 2022), a finalist for the 2023 Minnesota Book Awards and named one of the best memoirs of 2022 by Library Journal. She has also published two full-length poetry collections, Threnody (Nightboat Books, 2016). She teaches creative writing at St. Olaf College and Augsburg University’s low-residency MFA program.
The event is free.
There’s another writing event on Saturday, too. The Johnson Heritage Post will host Time Travel Through Art and Letters: Letters to Our Future, from 2-5:30 pm.
The project was launched by the Cook County Historical Society earlier this year to document community reactions and experiences surrounding major events, preserving local history in real time for future generations. Shortly after launching, the project expanded across the region, inspiring organizations statewide to adopt a similar model.
A presentation about the Letters to Our Future project will be held at the Heritage Post on Saturday.
Now, thanks to a grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council and a partnership with the Carlton County Historical Society and Oldenburg Arts and Cultural Community, the project continues to expand with an open Call to Artists for individuals or a group to design and build a physical time capsule to hold these letters.
This kickoff event celebrates this project expansion, the Call to Artists, and our ongoing call for community letter submissions.
The event will include:
- A presentation by CCHS staff, who will share insights into how historical letters in our archives help us research and tell the stories of Cook County.
- A hands-on activity to draft your own letter reflecting on life in 2026 to be included in our public exhibit, historical archives (viewable by request only), or locked in a 20-year time capsule.
- A Call to Artists Q&A for those interested in submitting a proposal for the physical time capsule. ( This portion of the event will be recorded. Questions may be submitted in advance to victoria@cookcountyhistory.org.)
This event is free and open to the public. To learn more about the Letters to Our Future project, click here.
On Sunday, the Cook County Curling Club will hold an Open House from 1-5 pm at the Community Center.
Cook County Curling Club Open House is on Sunday.
This is a great time to try your hand at curling, sign up for leagues, meet the Cook County curling community, and more. The public is invited.
Also on Sunday, a Full Moon Sound Bath will be held at the Log Building at the Community Center at 7 pm.
There will be a Full Moon Sound Bath at the Log Building on Sunday.
Participants should bring what they need to be comfortable while lying on the floor, including a yoga mat, blanket, pillow, bolster, and eye cover. Sitting is okay too if that’s easier.
Sound baths are donation-based. All welcome.
On Monday, there will be a Full Moon Poetry Reading by the fire at Drury Lane Books from 6 – 8 pm.
Full Moon Poetry Reading will be held at Drury Lane Books on Monday.
Everyone is invited to participate in this open mic-style reading. While we focus on poetry, the broader goal is human connection – don’t feel pressured to participate or strictly read poetry. The event is open to all.
Also on Monday, an Ecstatic Dance session entitled Harvest Dance will be held at the Log Cabin Building starting at 7 pm.
An Ecstatic Dance will be held on Monday in the Log Building.
Ecstatic dance is an intentional, judgement-free space for free-form movement without words. It is also an invitation to embodiment, fun, healing, flow, and play.
This is a free event. Costumes are encouraged. Open to all.
On Tuesday, Oct 27, the Cook County Historical Society will hold its Annual Meeting at the Johnson Heritage Post. Keith Morris will be the guest speaker.
Keith Morris will speak at the Historical Society’s Annual Meeting.
Morris will talk about his new book, “Growing Up on the Gunflint Trail,” which chronicles over a century of his family’s life along the iconic Minnesota road, detailing his upbringing at Poplar Lake and the neighboring Nor’wester Lodge.
During the business portion of the event, CCHS staff and board members will share updates from the past year and ask members to vote on potential new board of directors. (While the event is free and open to the public, only CCHS members are eligible to vote.)
Not yet a member? Become one here: www.cookcountyhistory.org/support
Exhibits:
The 2026 Grand Marais Plein Air Competition exhibit continues at the Johnson Heritage Post.
Morning on W. 2nd St., oil, by David Nemo.
The Bay, oil on canvas, by Suhaila Ihsanullah.
Morning Light at Artist’s Point, oil on panel, by LuAnn Widergren.
The exhibit features works by local and regional artists who painted Cook County for a week before submitting their work to the gallery. The exhibit continues through Nov. 1.
Duluth photographer Aramis Wells is currently showing his work in the Great Hall at Tettegouche State Park.
Unknown title. Photo by Aramis Wells. He is currently exhibiting at Tettegouche State Park.
The exhibit continues through the end of the month.
The Duluth Art Institute is exhibiting work by fiber artist Lauren Faherty entitled: Rooted.
Rooted, an exhibit of quilts by Lauren Faherty, continues at the Duluth Art Institute.
Faherty brings to the table the lineage of women’s craft traditions. The works highlight how craft practices such as quilting and needlework record histories often excluded from official narratives. Craft preserves lived experience—familial and communal. Faherty shares, “I am a direct continuation of this learning—my grandmother, a talented craftswoman, taught my mother, who in turn taught me. This connection to textiles, passed down through these women, grounds my artistic approach and understanding of craft as a living legacy.” Through material choices and processes, Faherty reveals how craft becomes an archive of truth.
Here’s a QR code to take a tour of the exhibit and hear her comments:
Take a tour of the show.
The exhibit continues through Dec. 21.
The Tweed Museum of Art is featuring several exhibits this month, including To Leave a Mark, a group exhibition organized by Los Angeles-based artist Curt LeMieux with Tweed Museum of Art director Julie Delliquanti.
Two works from the exhibition: Blossom, enamel and paper towel on paper, by Curt LeMieux, and Monkey with Snake, acrylic on cardboard, by Marley Van Peebles.
The exhibition features artwork by Amy Green, Asher Hartman, Curt LeMieux, Charles LeMieux, Lloyd LeMieux, Cecilia Ramón, and Marley Van Peebles. To find out more, click here.
The exhibit, Roger Wardin: Painting a Parallel World, is currently on view at the Rochester Art Center.
Mount Pink, 2019, acrylic and oil on canvas, by Roger Wardin.
Wardin’s atmospheric paintings emote a range of feelings and are a reaction to contemporary disquiet in society. The Entrance series, a nod to the popular television series Twin Peaks, depicts a shadowy figure in a wooded setting. Peter Funken states in his catalogue essay on Wardin’s work that his paintings address “the notion of mysteriousness and confront the beholder with questions, the answers to which are to be sought among the dark and speculative.”
The exhibit continues through March 14.
Artists at Work:
Pushing the limit, quilt, by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry.
Common Myna, Ink on Watercolor paper by Ralph Keating.
I had a lovely time painting this on a warm fall day by Tim Vahle.
Title unknown, from his Spirit of the North series, oil, by Lawren S. Harris.
Notre-Dame des Monts, oil, by Raynald Leclerc.
Painted vessel by Logan Mattsen. It is part of the Tweed’s ceramic collection.
Untitled, acrylic by Ron Benson.
Bowl, stoneware, by Richard Bresnahan. Posted by Robert Briscoe.
The Edge of Stillness, linocut by Joanne Spencer.
Port Mulgrave, Yorkshire coast, five-color multi-block linocut by Michelle Hughes.
Something happened by Raven Wind.
Stauber Memorial Canoe Area, oil, by Scott Murphy.
Swamp Moose, acrylic and Pencil, by Keith Morris, first published in the Cook County News-Herald, 2003.
Acosia Red Elk, dancing in the Black Hills. Photograph by Bryan Hansel.
Online Findings:
Scenes from North House Folk School’s Community Lamp Walk
Lamp walkers by Chuck Olsen.
A collection of lamps, by Chuck Olsen.
The cutie, by Chuck Olsen.
Katie Slanga: The Wilderness that Raised Me
An Interview with Two Extraordinary Ojibwe Brothers
Brothers David Treuer (left) and Anton Treuer grew up together on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota and are both nationally recognized educators and writers focused on Indigenous experiences and culture. Listen to the interview here.
Online Music:
Live Music:
Thursday, October 22:
- Gordon Thorne, North Shore Winery, 6-8 pm
- Tina Hegg & Drew Heinonen, Cascade Restaurant & Pub, 6-8 pm
- Briand Morrison, Raven’s Nest at the Gun Flint Tavern, 6-9 pm
- Silent Disco Dance Party, Moguls Grille & Taproom at Caribou Highlands Lodge, 8-10 pm
Friday, October 23:
- Barbara Jean and Mike Lewis, North Shore Winery, 4:30-6:30 pm
Saturday, October 24:
- Frequency Rising, Up Yonder, 7-10 pm
Sunday, October 25:
- Guitar Pull, Moguls Grille & Taproom at Caribou Highlands Lodge, 7:30-9:30 pm
- Jim Miller, Voyageur Brewing Company, 5-7 pm
- Gordon Thorne, Charlie’s Alpine Bistro, 6:30-9 pm
Tuesday, October 27:
- Eric Frost, North Shore Winery, 4:30-6:30 pm
- Open Stage hosted by Pete K, Up Yonder, 6-8 pm
- Pat Eliasen, Charlie’s Alpine Bistro, 6:30-9 pm
- Community Singing, Log Cabin at the Grand Marais Community Center, 7 pm
- Jim Miller, Stone’s Throw Room, East Bay Suites, 5-7 pm
- Gordon Thorne, North Shore Winery, 6-8 pm
- Frequency Rising, Raven’s Nest at the Gun Flint Tavern, 6-9 pm
Friday, October 30:
- Barbara Jean and Mike Lewis, North Shore Winery, 4:30-6:30 pm
- Briand Morrison, Charlie’s Alpine Bistro, 7:30-10 pm
Saturday, October 31:
- Pat Eliasen, Cascade Lodge Restaurant & Pub, 6-8 pm
- Joe Paulik, Charlie’s Alpine Bistro, 7:30-10 pm
- Halloween Bash & Costume Contest w. DJ Jesse Jazey, Up Yonder, 8-11:59 pm
Sunday, November 1:
- Bump Blomberg, Charlie’s Alpine Bistro, 6:30-9 pm
Photographs:
Let’s start with the birds:
Birdscapes:
Trumpeter Swans make a splash by Cathy Ryan Kennedy.
Peregrine Falcon by Larry Waddell.
Sandhill Crane in lunar conjunction by Clarence Cales.
Heron – such a cool-looking bird by Jeremy Church.
Ruffed Grouse by Bill Marchel.
Snowy Egret makes a splash by Rose-Anne Reyes.
Juvenile Bald Eagles. Photographer unknown.
A Brown Booby Catches Lunch by Chris Artist.
Harris Sparrow by Jill Lavro Beim.
Great Grey Owl by Heidi Pinkerton.
Rusty Blackbird by Jill Lavro Beim.
Great Grey Owl by Heidi Pinkerton.
Flaps Down by Garrick Meyer at Crex Meadows.
Crow working the beach this morning by John Cannell.
Red Tail Hawk by Neil Arena.
Green Heron comes in hot by Bowie David.
Wildlife:
Hmmmm, taking a sniff at the end of the Gunflint Trail by Mickey Anderson.
The Orange Season by Paul Sundberg.
Mom and her twins in the Tamaracks by David Johnson.
An Intimate Moment by Paul Sundberg.
Potpourri:
An inky cap looked to me like a fine filigree silver bell. By Judy Gray.
The state of leaves today Still coming down by Mary Beams.
This one has a great jawline by Mike Wiggins, Jr.
Patterns in nature by Jill Bliss.
This time of year, the colors are beautiful by Sierra Parsons.
Landscapes, Skyscapes and Cloudscapes:
In Tofte at sunrise by Chuck Olsen.
A gale in October by Paul Sundberg.
Chip Lake by Paul Ostrum.
Peaceful Oasis – Stewart Creek at Magney Snively Nature Area by Gregory Israelson.
Dancing Aspens by Mary Amerman.
Caribou Rock Overlook by Paul Sundberg.
Grand Marais Harbor by David Barthel.
Turning rocks to cobblestones by Layne Kennedy.
Have a great time this weekend, everyone!
Psst: Now’s a good time to make your donation to NorthShore ArtScene before Christmas shopping starts. Thank you so much for your support!
Here’s a big thank you to Jeremy Lopez for the Live Music Schedule and tech support, and to Yvonne Mills for proofreading this week. And a special thank you to Visit Cook County for its great Events Calendar.
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