Grand Marais Arts Festival & Other Happenings

Summer appears to have finally arrived, and just in time! The Grand Marais Arts Festival is this weekend, and it looks like it’s going to be stellar weather with lots of great art and activities to enjoy.

The Grand Marais Arts Festival Weekend kicks off at 9 a.m. on Saturday when more than 70 local and regional artists  featured in this year’s festival will open their booths for our enjoyment. The Arts Festival is sponsored by the Grand Marais Art Colony.

Work in every medium is featured in this dynamic show, including painting, clay, glass, fiber, metal, photography, prints, wood and more. This show is a chance to explore the work of local artists as well. In all, 14 Cook County artists are exhibiting their work this year. They include Maggie Anderson, Gail Anderson, Julie Arthur, Betsy Bowen, Tom Crosby, Joan Farnam, Nancy Hemstad Seaton, Mary Jane Huggins, Judith Johnson, Mary MacDonald, Jeff Morgan, Neil Sherman, Natalie Sobanja and Cooper Ternes.

The Arts Festival is more than just artists displaying their work, too. There are all kinds of on-going activities at the Grand Marais Art Colony‘s tent over the weekend, including screen printing a T-shirt or tote (both days), , drawing the lighthouse, creating a superhero, mask-making and more,  as well as a number of demonstrations. To see the complete schedule, click here.

The Art Colony also holds a Clothesline Art Sale as fundraiser for the organization featuring small 5 x 7-inch artworks crafted by local and regional artists. This is always a fun part of the festival, since the artworks are only signed on the back, making the art choice one of “I-like-this-one” and then a pleasant surprise when the work is turned over and the artist is revealed. They are $35 each.

There’s lots going on in the downtown neighborhood, too. WTIP Community Radio with Jay Andersen and  Roger Linnehan will be broadcasting live from the festival on Saturday morning and The Northwoods Fiber Guild will be demonstrating on the lawn of the Johnson Heritage Post on Saturday.

There’s live music in Harbor Park, too. Check the music schedule below.

In Harbor Park, Mila Horak will be hosting this year’s Community Print-by-Number. The theme this year is “Imagine the Northwoods.” Participation is free. All invited. Horak will be set up in Harbor Park on both days.

Also, Mark Lusardi from Continental Clay Co. in Minneapolis will be doing raku pottery demonstrations across from Java Moose on Saturday and Sunday. Participants can pick a pot, glaze it and watch it being fired. Prices vary, according to the size of the pot. And Joy & Company will be holding art activities all weekend.
It’s a great weekend for the arts in Grand Marais. No doubt about that. See you there!

Meanwhile there’s lots of other activities going on in the county, too.

The Arrowhead Sketchers will be at the Rec Park campground on Thursday from 5-7 p.m. to sketch the campground and nearby North House Folk School. Ellen Dolan is host. All invited to bring their notebooks, pencils and paints and sketch.

Tettegouche State Park will open a new exhibit in the Great Hall with a reception at 7 p.m. on Thursday. This month’s exhibit features paintings by Kat Corrigan.

On Saturday, Last Chance Gallery in Lutsen will host a bronze pour at 4 p.m. at the gallery. All invited to see this fun demonstration that combines fire and molten bronze to create art.

Then at 7 p.m.on Saturday, author Ann Marie Mershon will give a reading at Drury Lane Books. Mershon pent nearly five years teaching in Turkey, struggling with loneliness as she adapted to a new culture, and finally coming to love the Turks and their world.

She’ll be reading from her memoir, “You Must Only to Love Them, Lessons Learned in Turkey.” Discussion on Turkey’s changing political and social climate will follow.

Also on Saturday evening, Dom Flemons, co-founder of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, will be in concert at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. You can get a preview of his music by listening to WTIP Community Radio at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

A Grammy-Award-winning musician, singer-songwriter, and slam poet, Flemons carries on the songster tradition, striving to mix traditional music forms with a contemporary approach to create new sounds that appeal to wider audiences.

In his recent solo album “Prospect Hill (2014), Flemons draws from a wide range of styles, including ragtime, Piedmont blues, spirituals, Southern traditional, string-band, fife-and-drum, and jug-band music.

He began his career as a performer in Phoenix, Ariz., where he produced 25 albums for singer-songwriters and slam poets. In 2005, Flemons co-founded the Carolina Chocolate Drops, an African-American string band that won a Grammy for its 2010 album “Genuine Negro Jig.”
Today, Flemons tours throughout the United States as The American Songster. In February 2016, he performed at Carnegie Hall for a Tribute to Lead Belly. In September 2016, he performed at the opening ceremonies for the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

In addition to the evening concert, the North Shore Music Association will also host two educational outreach events by Flemons at the Grand Marais Public Library on Saturday, July 8. Both of these events are free and open to all ages: American Folk Music History Talk & Demo at 1 p.m; and “Rhythm Bones” workshop at 2 p.m. (rhythm bones provided; participants welcome to bring guitars, fiddles, banjoes, etc. to jam.)

On Sunday, local author Reed Schmidt will give a Full Moon Reading at Drury Lane Books at 8 p.m. Under the July moon, author Schmidt will read selected poems by selected poets. Following each poem, an intimate, humorous or tangential letter will be read. The letters were written by Reed in response to the poet’s work. If you have letters, notes, grocery lists or poems to read, please bring them to share. You are invited to read them at any point during the reading. All invited. Free.

Exhibits

The Minneapolis College of Art & Design exhibit at the Johnson Heritage Post continues this week, featuring a variety of work from the college’s alumni.

The Heritage Post is closed on Tuesdays. It is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and Monday and from 1-4 p.m. on Sunday.
The Tweed Museum of Art continues its exhibit of notable photographs of people taken by a wide variety photographers. This week, we feature a historical photo “Taos Water Girls” bu Edward Sheriff Curtis.

Two exhibits are featured at the Duluth Art Institute this month: “Peripheral Vignettes: Jonathan Thunder” featuring paintings as well as videos by the artist and “Play: Robert Dewitt Adams, Elizabeth LaPensee, & Christopher Selleck” who explore games, gaming and game mechanics.

The Thunder Bay Art Gallery continues its exhibit “The Perspective from Here: 150 Artists from the North.”

 Upcoming

Frozen Britches (Tom Van Cleve and Eric Hahn) play Irish music at Cascade Lodge Pub the from 6-8 p.m. the second and fourth Thursdays of every month. There are often special guests, too. Next week, July 13, Jim Aman, a penny whistle virtuoso, will play with the group. All musicians are welcome to sit in.

Marty Harris will open an exhibit at the Hopkins Center for the Arts on Friday, July 14, with a reception from 6-8 p.m. Entitled “Sidewalk to Superior, “it features work he did while exploring the North Shore.

Stars of the North Music Festival, a fundraiser to raise money for a music lesson program for area youth and music instructors, will be held at Harbor Park July 28. The event is organized by the Grand Marais Music Collaborative. Stay tuned for details.

Window Shopping

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the music schedule for the week:

Thursday, July 6:

• Plucked Up String Band, live at WTIP, 1 p.m.
• Joe Paulik, Music by the Campfire, 6:30 p.m.

Friday, July 7:

• The Kilbourne Quartet, Live at WTIP, 1 p.m.
• Gene Lafond & Amy Grillo, Voyageur Brewing Co., 4 p.m.
• Fred Anderson, Live at WTIP, 4 p.m.
• The Wrong Omar, Live at WTIP, 5 p.m.
• Eric Frost, Eagle Ridge Resort, 7 p.m.
• Plucked Up String Band, Grandma Ray’s, 8 p.m.
• The Wrong Omar, Gun Flint Tavern, 9 p.m.
• Eric Frost, Bluefin Grille, 9 p.m.

Saturday, July 8:

• Joe Paulik, Harbor Park, 9:30 a.m.
• Eric Frost & Bill Hansen, Harbor Park, noon
• Briand Morrison, Harbor Park, 2:30 p.m.
• Dom Flemons, Live at WTIP, 3 p.m.
• Two-Bit Revival, Voyageur Brewing, 4 p.m.
• Common Ground, Live at WTIP, 4 p.m.
• SplinterTones, Live at WTIP, 5 p.m.
• J Squared and the Makers, Papa Charlie’s, 6 p.m.
• Common Ground, Cascade Lodge Pub, 7 p.m.
• Michael Monroe, Log Cabin Concert, rural Grand Marais, 7 p.m.
• Eric Frost, Lutsen Resort, 7 p.m.
• Dom Flemons in Concert, Arrowhead Center for the Arts, 7:30 p.m.
• SplinterTones, Grandma Ray’s, 8 p.m.
• DJ Beavstar, Papa Charlie’s, 9:30 p.m.

Sunday, July 9:

• Briand Morrison, Harbor Park, 9:30 p.m.
• Michael Monroe, Harbor Park, noon
• Sky Blue Trio, Live at WTIP, 2 p.m.
• SplinterTones, Mogul’s Grille, 5 p.m.
• Eric Frost, Skyport Lodge, 5 p.m.
• Jim & Michelle Miller, Gunflint Lodge, 7 p.m.

Monday, July 10:

• Briand Morrison & Roxann Berglund, Live at WTIP, 1 p.m.

Wednesday, July 12

• Date Night with Gordon Thorne, North Shore Winery, 7 p.m.
• Bug Dope, Bluefin Grille, 9 p.m.

And here are some of the photos we found this week:

 

 

Here are two takes on a foggy day:

 

We found lots of fireworks photos. Here are a few.

 

 

Here’s a great shot, too.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

FYI: Donations are now being accepted to help support NorthShore ArtScene. Thank you!