A leftover by Eric Humphrey.
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.
Make art at Joy and Company on Thursdays 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.
A Wood-fired Pizza event will be held at North House Folk School on Thursday, hosted by the Cook County Chamber of Commerce.
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 Grand Marais Archaeology Project will be launched on Thursday 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 North Shore Swing Band plays at Up Yonder on Thursday from 6:30-8:30 pm. Photo by Chuck Olsen.
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.
Shelley Getten will present at the library from 6-7:30 pm on Friday.
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.
Lone Piñon performs at Up Yonder on Friday.
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.
Rail Jam will be held at Lutsen Mountains this weekend.
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.
This is the last weekend to see Tracks, a play by Peter Tarsi, at the William M. Kelley Auditorium in Silver Bay.
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.”
Lizzard’s Gallery opens a new exhibit on Friday.
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,
A volunteer event will be held at the Bill Bally Blacksmithing and Welding Shop on Saturday.
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 Grand Marais Film Society will screen a film at the ACA at 7 pm Saturday.
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.
The Member Show at the DAI opens on Tuesday.
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.
Author Margi Preus will give a storytelling workshop at the library on April 22.
The Shrew Detective is the first in her nature-based detective series.
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.
Line, Shape, Color, an exhibit of work by Steven Dahlstrom, continues at the Heritage Post through Sunday.
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.
A Path into the Woods, colored pencil, is one of James Herold’s pieces and is on view at Tettegouche.
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.
They Whisper About Her & She Knows, acrylic, by Danielle SeeWalker.
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.
Untitled, acrylic, by Natalie King.
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.
The deadline to apply to the Grand Marais Arts Festival Artist-in-Residence program during the Arts Festival is April 20.
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.
Stories Beneath the Snow opens on April 24. The opening reception is from 5-7 pm next Friday.
The First Congregational Church will present Peter Mayer and Sara Thomsen in a concert next Saturday.
Peter Mayer and Sara Thomsen will be in concert at the First Congregational Church on Saturday, April 27.
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.
Rotating exhibits are planned at Studio 21 this 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.
WTIP received seven First Place Eric Sevareid Awards this year.
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:
Fly Away, mixed media, by Sue Pavlatos.
Maggie Anderson watches Jemez Pueblo potters work on pottery made from their local clay. Following tradition, they are decorating with crushed minerals from the land.
Gichi Ojibwa, Big Ojibwa, acrylic, by Robert Desjarlait.
Gone but not forgotten Elm in front of Java Moose, oil, by Neil Sherman.
Out of hibernation, acrylic, by Eric Klepinger. He is exhibiting at Sivertson Gallery.
A Moroccan potter at work. Photo by Betsy Bowen.
Cliffside Walker, acrylic, by Kat Corrigan.
Untitled, sanded gesso, by Elizabeth Hlookoff.
Photographing Ice by Layne Kennedy.
Majestic Presence by Shakila Shanum.
Sky Tossing at Alaska Whaling Celebration, 1975, oil, by William Kurelek.
Untitled, acrylic, by Keith Dalgleish.
Northern Lake, 1914, oil on canvas by Tom Thomson, 1877-1917.
Spring Daydreams, fused glass, by Nancy Seaton.
Online Findings:
Blue Ice by Barb LaVigne
Hazel Belvo on why the George Morrison stamps are a perfect story
Spirit Path, New Day, Red Rock Variation- Lake Superior Landscape by George Morrison was created in 1990. Courtesy of the Minnesota History Center. It is one of the stamps in the USPS stamp collection released a few years ago. To listen to the story, click here.
Cambodia has created a statue of Apopo, the landmine-sniffing rat, to honor the hard work he did sniffing out landmines in the country.
Apopo, the landmine-sniffing rat. Read the story here and see videos of the rat at work.
Giving Myself Permission, Part 2, The Butterfly
Online Music:
Music videos suggested by Bill Hansen
Live Music:
Thursday, April 16:
- Nate Weiler, Moguls Grille & Taproom, 4-6 pm
- Gordon Thorne, North Shore Winery, 6-8 pm
- North Shore Swing Band, Up Yonder, 7-9 pm
Friday, April 17:
- Pat Eliasen, Moguls Grille & Taproom, 4-6 pm
- Bump Blomberg, Cascade Lodge Restaurant & Pub, 6-8 pm
- Lone Piñon, Up Yonder, 7-9 pm
- North Shore Rail Jam – Live DJ Sets, Lofty Gondola at Lutsen Mountains, 7-11 pm
Saturday, April 18:
- North Shore Rail Jam – Live DJ Sets, Rosie’s at Lutsen Mountains, 11-8 pm
- John Kerns, Cascade Lodge Restaurant & Pub, 6-8 pm
- North Shore Rail Jam – Live DJ Sets, Lofty Gondola at Lutsen Mountains, 8-11 pm
- EricKaoke, Karaoke hosted by Erick Stee, Up Yonder, 8-1 am
Monday, April 20:
- The Boston Imposter, Voyageur Brewing Company, 5-7 pm
Tuesday, April 21:
- Eric Frost, North Shore Winery, 4:30-6:30 pm
- Open Stage hosted by Pete K, Up Yonder, 6-8 pm
- Community Singing, Log Cabin at the Grand Marais Community Center, 7 pm
Thursday, April 23:
- Gordon Thorne, North Shore Winery, 6-8 pm
Friday, April 24:
- Timmy Haus, Lofty Gondola at Lutsen Mountains, 8:30-11 pm
Saturday, April 25:
- Lutsong Presents with Michaela Anne and Siri Undlin (Humbird), Up Yonder, 7-10 pm
- Timmy Haus, Lofty Gondola at Lutsen Mountains, 8:30-11 pm
Photographers:
Here is a sample of what we found this week:
Wildlife:
Bald Eagle by Brian Swanson.
My friend has returned to the maple tree by Chris Artist.
Northern Harrier by Paul Ostrum.
How many Common Mergansers are in this photo? by Michael Furtman.
Mallards looking for open water in Grand Marais by David Johnson.
Wood Duck reflections by Bill Marchel.
Not close friends by Maryl Skinner.
Wake-up Call by Adam Malmanger.
Turtle Family by Chuck Heller.
Male Ruffed Grouse ready to let everybody know how great he is by Bill Marchel.
The Arrival by Michael Furtman.
Red-Winged Blackbird by Bill Marchel.
Violet-Green Swallow skimming the tide this morning by John Cannell.
Male Northern Shoveler by Bll Marchel.
Mute Swan aglow at first light this morning, by John Cannell.
Landscapes, Skyscapes, Waterscapes & Cloudscapes
Melanie Metz Storm Chasing took this photo near Blue Earth on Tuesday.
Earth set, courtesy of NASA.
Something about a foggy morning by Sam Cook.
High Falls by Roxanne Distad.
Nice night out by David Johnson.
Between Two Worlds by Roxann Berglund.
I miss these times by Jeffrey Doty.
Lake Superior in spring by Yvonne Mills.
It’s the Milky Way season by David Johnson.
Ice Curtains by Michelle Lutke.
Harkening to summer by Eric Humphrey.
Pushing the envelope for summer by Andy Keith.
April Rainbow by Paul Sundberg.
Harbor Ice, a week ago by Paul Sundberg.
Iceland by Penny Arneson.
Cutface Wayside Sunrise by Paul Sundberg.
Milky Way and Northern Lights filled my sleepless night last night by Doug Cottrell.
Milky Way time by Doug Cotrell.
It’s been a pretty good year for ice on Lake Superior this year by Travis Novitsky.
Spring on the Sucker River by Sam Cook.
A lingering winter by Bryan Hansel.
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.