Art Hounds – Details, episodes & analysis

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above. 

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

Former arts administrator Taylor Barnes of Jamestown, North Dakota, has a cabin in Detroit Lakes, and she admires the work of Project 412 in engaging the community to create public artworks.

Last year, they welcomed Danish artist Thomas Dambo to create a series of large trolls, which remain on view in and around Detroit Lakes. Now, the trolls have company: artist-in-residence Olga Ziemska has created four large sculptures of natural materials, entitled “Of the Earth.”

Three of the site-specific sculptures are temporary, but the fourth — a butterfly, currently in the works —will remain at the Ortenstone Gardens & Sculpture Park in Detroit Lakes.

Taylor says: I think they had probably 300 volunteers that worked for over 100 hours with her creating the pieces [three of which portray women built at large scale].

One woman is emerging from the earth. Another head is lying on its side, kind of listening. The third one is the woman's head and torso. I particularly like this one, because she's just got this hair that looks as though it's being blown back by a hurricane that's all made out of twigs and branches and sustainable materials.

— Taylor Barnes

Lux Mortenson of Brooklyn Park is excited for people to see the one-woman musical “Penelope” at the Elision Playhouse in Crystal. It runs June 20–28.

Lux says: I’m so thrilled that “Penelope” at Theatre Elision is coming back this month! I was fortunate enough to see it last year, and it was all I could talk about for weeks.

Christine Wade is a marvel, a true multi-hyphenate who guides the audience on a tight and beautiful one-act journey through the eyes of Penelope, Odysseus' devoted, incredibly patient wife, as she waits for her husband to return home.

Everything comes together to leave the audience spellbound. This is absolutely one NOT to miss this summer.

— Lux Mortenson

Art enthusiast Doris Rubenstein of Richfield recommends visiting the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska to check out the new exhibit in the Reedy Gallery in the visitor center.

It’s called “Wax, Wire, Wood, and Clay,” and four artists use natural materials to create scenes from nature. It runs through July 28. It's recommended that visitors to the Arboretum book a ticket online in advance; children 15 and under are free with an adult.

Doris says: Lynn Sarnoff-Christensen is the driving force behind the exhibition. Lynn is an encaustic artist; she explained it to me as the process of painting with molten beeswax.

For this show, she's taken photos of birds’ nests, incorporating them into the picture, along with other media like oils and pastels. Lynn invited three of her friends to join in the challenge of recreating nature with natural materials.

Jodi Reeb sculptures weird seed pods and boulders from wire. Jim Gallop makes sculptures and bowls from knobby tree burls, and Cindy Syme carves tree portraits into clay tiles.

So what better place could art lovers look for a show about the beauty of nature than the Arboretum, especially at this glorious time of year in Minnesota?

— Doris Rubenstein

Correction (June 12, 2025): An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled Lux Mortenson's name. The story has been updated.

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the original submission.

Jean Shore of Balsam Lake, Wis., recommends crossing into Wisconsin for an evening of American roots music.

Minnesota singer-songwriters Emmy Woods, Sarah Morris and Laura Hugo will perform at The Historic Auditorium in St. Croix Falls this Saturday, June 7 at 7 p.m.

Jean says: Each performer brings a unique voice and style to the stage, blending folk and country and heartfelt storytelling. But what makes this even more exciting is the venue itself.

The Historic Auditorium was built in 1916 and was recently renovated in 2023, and it’s quickly becoming a cultural hub for this area.

— Jean Shore

Twin Cities theater maker Kurt Engh recommends seeing Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Passion,” staged by Theater Latté Da at the Ritz Theater.

Written by the same team that created “Into the Woods,” the show runs through July 13.

Kurt says: “Passion” is one of Stephen Sondheim’s lesser-known musicals, but one of his most complex and most honest and emotional.

It is a melodramatic story set in 1860s Italy during the unification of Italy. It is an uneven love triangle between a beautiful married woman, a very handsome army captain and a in the terms of the musical, a “troubled, ugly woman.” And it is about how love and desire are reflected through beauty and beauty standards.

It is a very fascinating musical in that it is directed as almost a chamber opera at a breakneck speed. There are no applause breaks. It does not let you go. It just keeps moving.

— Kurt Engh

Michael Krefting of Minneapolis loves the improv scene in the Twin Cities, and he recommends the Twin Cities Improv Festival, happening Thursday through Sunday, June 8.

This is the annual festival’s first year at the Phoenix Theater in Minneapolis, following the closing of HUGE Improv Theater last year.

Michael says: They have artists coming in from all over the world, a couple artists coming in from Japan. There are a lot of local names. When they select the artists for the festival, they’re always trying to get the local groups that are doing either the most interesting things or doing something new and creative that's picking up steam.

The whole improv community is very welcoming. And I would, I would come ready to not just laugh but also feel. I would say to expect the unexpected!

— Michael Krefting

(Want more improv? Krefting also recommends Improv A Go-Go at Strike Theater in Minneapolis. Every first, second, and fourth Sunday, four or five improv groups are chosen by lottery to perform, offering an affordable evening of “yes, and” energy.)

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above. 

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

Folk musician Emily Youngdahl Wright of Minneapolis admires writer and community-space-maker Amọké Kubat. She wants people to know about the final step of Kubat’s ongoing project to honor those who mother children by offering them a place to rest — literally.

The exhibit features rocking chairs that were created during a community build and then painted, collaged or otherwise re-created by Minnesota artists.

“Rocking Chair (Re)Evolution” is a free, drop-in show at the Weisman Art Museum on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis.

The exhibit is open Friday, March 28 and Saturday, March 29 from 11-5 p.m., with a ceremony on Sunday from 1-3 p.m. The rocking chairs will be gifted to 12 mothers and grandmothers previously chosen with community feedback. 

Emily said: The whole project itself is just such a beautiful example of thinking about what kind of rest do you need, and what kind of support do you need?

The chairs are an example, I think, of tending to the spirit and the heart and the body [in] this work that really doesn’t end when you’re a parent and when you’re a grandparent, and when you are tending to this world that is in so much need of tending right now.

— Emily Youngdahl Wright

Composer Eric Heukeshoven of Winona plans to head to Rochester to watch Hometown Opera Company’s New Media Opera performance, featuring scenes of new and familiar works staged in a multimedia format.

The first act consists of scenes from Rochester composer Kevin Dobbe’s “Tempus Fugit.” The second act centers women’s voices with scenes from Verdi, Puccini, Dvořák, Wagner and Strauss. Performances are Friday, March 28 and Saturday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the Rochester Civic Theatre. 

Eric Heukeshoven said the staging is: As 21st century as I can possibly imagine.

It is an opera that explores the human experience and time, and it does this by combining live performances of vocalists and dancers with digital projections, what Kevin calls motion-capture ‘metahumans’ and singing projected avatars. I’ve seen a clip that he sent me recently, and it is absolutely mesmerizing.

(He adds that Act Two scenes are “fully staged and choreographed, but also using projections that Kevin has created.”)

— Eric Heukeshoven

Kelly Rabe of Champlain started taking hip hop and breaking classes over the pandemic, and she wants people to know that Minneapolis will be in the national eye this weekend when it hosts the Red Bull BC One Cypher One competition. Local and regional b-girls and b-boys will compete in one-on-one battle style for a spot at the National Finals in Denver.

The event will be held in a new venue on the Minneapolis scene: Royalston Square, located in the North Loop. There are open qualifier preliminaries on Friday. The main event is Saturday, starts at 7 p.m. and costs $10. 

Kelly described her experience: This is probably maybe my third year going to the BC One, and I have to say, it is like the most hyped event I have ever been to in the Twin Cities.

I mean, it’s better than music festivals. It’s better than dance parties. There’s just an energy like nothing else. The spectators are really supportive of the dancers. They’ll be cheering, they’ll be screaming, jumping up and down when they see the dancers do amazing things. It’s a really welcoming community.

Not to mention they have, like, world-renowned DJs that are spinning the tunes for these dancers. So, I mean, it’s a full dance and music action.

 — Kelly Rabe 

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above. 

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

Cindy Pope is a ceramic artist from Waite Park. She got a dose of early spring by visiting the ceramics exhibit “Garden Party” at the Paramount Center for the Arts in St. Cloud.

Created by Stacy Larson, who is originally from Cold Spring, the exhibit features wheel-thrown and hand-carved cups and tableware that look like delicate leaves and flowers, glazed in springtime colors. The exhibit runs through March. 

Julia Cheng of Duluth had a chance to hear the world premiere this fall of “mOthertongue: Lived Experience in Asian America.”

Soprano Jennifer Lien of Duluth performs three song cycles commissioned by Asian American women composers, accompanied on piano by Lina Yoo-Min Lee. Lien commissioned these new works in partnership with the Cincinnati Song Initiative with support from the Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Individuals grant.

The duo has continued to perform these works in what Cheng refers to as “a living collaboration.” They’ll perform highlights of the song cycles at the College of St. Scholastica’s “Lunch With Friends” on March 25, with the full performance on March 28 at the college’s Mitchell Auditorium. 

Julia Cheng was touched by the performance and looks forward to hearing it again.

“I have to say that, as the child of immigrants from China, these songs really resonated with me,” Cheng said. “I always wondered, you know, how did they deal with the dislocation of leaving home, family, language, culture, developing new community, the wrenching loss of being separated from family? These are all things that I heard bits and pieces of in the song cycles by Melissa Dunphy and the other two composers.” 

Annalisa Buerke follows her former colleague artist Rick Love on Instagram, where she enjoyed watching his process of creating a series of sculptures now on view at the Tettegouche State Park Visitor Center in Silver Bay.

The five sculptures are all made of wood — some painted, some charred — that celebrate both forests and sustainability. The works evoke the moon, the sun, a tree, a waterfall and Lake Superior. They’ll be on view through March.

Tettegouche State Park’s Visitor Center includes both juried art shows (of which Love’s exhibit was one) and an artist-in-residence program. 

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above. 

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

Daniela Bianchini is a Minneapolis mosaic artist who is originally from Argentina. She’s drawn toward an exhibit at CLUES’ Latino Art Gallery in St. Paul that celebrates the art of sewing as it is passed through generations of women.

The exhibit, by Columbian-Minnesotan artist Adriana Gordillo and Nena’s Atelier, is titled “Connective Thread.” It opens Friday, March 14 and runs through May 14. There is a Cafecito de Hermanas (Coffee with Sisters) on Saturday, March 15 from 9 a.m. to noon that offers a time for workshops, resources, music and community connection. Register here.  

Daniela says: I feel very related to it. We all in Latin America grew up seeing our grandmas and our mothers sewing. I’ve seen a couple of images that the artists have been posting in their social media: collages of different compositions of fabric and flowers and needles, and things that you see that represent the art of sewing.

The community will be able to write something: their emotions, or their feelings about the exhibition, and some sort of petals that will then be sewed together and put in a dress.

— Daniela Bianchini

Anne Sawyer, executive director of Art Start in St. Paul, is looking forward to seeing Teatro Del Pueblo’s “Voces Latinas: A Broadway Musical Revue.” Directed by Mark Valdez of Mixed Blood Theatre with musical direction by Brenda Varga, “Voces Latinas” celebrates Latino artists’ contributions to Broadway through the years. Shows are at Park Square Theatre in St. Paul, beginning Friday, March 14 and continuing Saturday, March 15 at 7:30 and Sunday, March 16 at 2 p.m. 

Anne says: If you love musicals, this production promises to be so much fun. Teatro del Pueblo’s performers will sing a curated, eclectic collection of songs that is a take on the Latino experience on Broadway. There are some older, really iconic numbers made famous by the likes of Chita Rivera, such as “A Boy Like That” from “West Side Story” and “Bye, Bye Birdie’s” “An English Teacher.”

But there’s also pieces like Selena's "Amor Prohibido” and the “Hamilton” song “Dear Theodosia,” which was sung on Broadway by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom Jr. What is so engaging about this production is the range of musical styles and how they encompass so many themes, societal differences and passionate love, pride in one's mother country, family and the struggle to survive. It’s a show that will take you on a real roller coaster of emotion.

— Anne Sawyer

Laura Hotvet loves the cover band Pandora’s Other Box, and she’s excited for their upcoming concert, which feels tailor-made for Women’s Month.

“The Legacy of Lilith Fair” celebrates the female musicians who took part in Lilith Fair in the late 1990s, and the artists who have followed in their footsteps. The concert takes place at the Women’s Club of Minneapolis on Saturday, March 15 at 7:30 p.m. 

Laura says: Pandora’s Other Box is one of the most energetic and fun-to-listen-to, fun-to-dance-to, talented pop rock cover bands in the Twin Cities. The show features songs from [Lilith Fair concert tour] founder Sarah McLachlan, along with Paula Cole, Sheryl Crow, The Chicks, Bonnie Raitt, Tracy Chapman, Pat Benatar, Indigo Girls and more.

The second act will journey through the 25 years that followed, and this will be showcasing more current artists who benefited from the bravery of the original female pioneers in the Lilith era, such as Brandi Carlile, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Carrie Underwood, Paramore and more.

— Laura Hotvet

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above. 

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

Visual artist Brian Frink of Mankato is looking forward to an exhibit newly opened at the Carnegie Art Center featuring the sculptures of Todd Shanafelt, Pocket Toscani and Jim Shrosbree. “Strange Paradises” is on view through March 22, with an opening artist reception Friday from 5-7 p.m. 

Brian says: Todd Shanafelt and Pocket Toscani are both Mankato residents, and Jim Shrosbree is from out-of-state. Jim and Todd are ceramic artists, and Pocket is more of a traditional sculptor, but what their work shares together is a kind of playful quirkiness.

They are very abstract in their approach. But I would also say they’re kind of obliquely recognizable in terms of the content in the work. There;s also an interesting intersection of functionality and non-functional in all three of them.  

They are also very involved in painting and drawing. So, the exhibition will include their three-dimensional work as well as their two-dimensional work, which I think adds another texture and level of interest to what they're presenting.

Theater lover Brad Pappas of St. Louis Park is looking forward to seeing the indie rock musical “Hundred Days.” It runs through March 22 at Theatre Elision, a black box theater in Crystal. The show is 80 minutes with no intermission. 

Brad describes the show: Abigail and Shaun decide to get married three weeks after they meet. Abigail is plagued by these dreams, and she’s convinced that the man she loves is going to die within in a little over three months.

Abigail and Shaun concoct a plan. They’re going to live their whole lives in 100 days. They’ll have Halloween in the morning, Christmas in the afternoon, birthdays at sundown. This performance sounds so intriguing to me because it’s eight musicians. They’re all a part of the show, but they’re all playing instruments throughout the performance.

Burlesque dancer Renata Nijiya of Minneapolis is intrigued by An Opera Theatre’s “Opera Underground.” There are four performances whose exact Twin Cities location and details will be revealed to ticket holders 24 hours before showtime. Performances are March 12 and March 13 in northeast Minneapolis at 7 p.m., March 16 in the Longfellow neighborhood at 5 p.m. and March 25, 7 p.m. in the West Seventh area of St. Paul, with ASL interpretation. Shows run 90 minutes. 

Renata loves the ways AOT makes opera accessible, through the work it chooses, its pay-as-you-can performances and ASL interpretation. She also offers this tip: 

“After each show, it’s going to roll into an after-party and have a local band performing … each location has a different local band,” she said.

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above. 

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

Daryl Lanz, owner of Chapter Two Books in Winona, is glad to see Theatre Du Mississippi’s One Act Play Festival returning for a second year.

Playwrights from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa submitted original work earlier this winter, and the winning four short plays will be performed together to make a performance running about two hours.

The result is a grab-bag of comedy and drama by regional writers ranging from 10 to 50 minutes. Shows will be performed at the Valencia Arts Center’s Academy Theatre in Winona this weekend and next, Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.  

Visual artist Fawzia Khan of Hopkins recommends the exhibit “Reflections and Conversations: Monica Rudquist and Jerry Rudquist” at the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery at St. Catherine University in St. Paul.

Assistant professor Monica Rudquist explores the relationship between her ceramic art and paintings by her late father, Jerry Rudquist (1924-2001), who taught painting at Macalester College for 42 years.

On the gallery’s second floor, Sophia Gibson — an honors student of Monica’s — extends the legacy one step further by curating an exhibit of Jerry’s portraits. 

The exhibit runs through March 16, with an artist talk by Monica Rudquist on March 5 at 6:30 p.m. There will also be a screening and panel discussion of the short film “The Painted Eye,” which documents Jerry Rudquist’s painting process on March 12. 

In the East Gallery, Monica Rudquist’s deconstructed and reassembled bowls, plates and cylinders reflect the shape and textures of her father’s work.  

“Both artists deconstruct objects and put them together in new ways to create imaginary forms and leave the marks of their hands on the works,” Khan said. 

Diane Hellekson, retired writer and former art critic for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, was inspired by the mixed media exhibit “Sund: Notes from the Sea” showing at Form + Content Gallery in Minneapolis.

Minneapolis artist Moira Bateman created works reflecting on her summer 2024 residency in Ålvik, Norway, and on the human impact of its fjords. The exhibit includes found objects pulled from the fjords, textiles and an audio element that immerses listeners in the sounds of the sea and underwater noise pollution.

The exhibit is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through March 8, with an artist coffee reception on Saturday, March 1 from noon to 3 p.m. 

Hellekson called it an intimate show that gave her a feeling of  “wonder and curiosity.” She says you have to look closely at each piece and see “What is this? Oh my gosh. This is a plastic bag, and you find out that Moira dug it out from among some rocks in a fjord in Norway, and yet, here it is in this strange, deteriorated condition on the wall of a gallery.”

“And it makes you think [how] this thing probably was there for years, and yet, if Moira hadn’t plucked it out, it would have kept breaking down, and all these little shards of plastic would have gone on to pollute and end up in some animal’s belly. It’s very emotionally affecting, and yet it’s also beautiful.” 

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above. 

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

Diane Richard of St. Paul worked for 21 years at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), and she wants people to know about “Artists at Work: the Mia Staff Art Show.”

It’s tucked away in the community commons area just past the cafe and the family center (pro tip: you can bring your lunch with you to the exhibit!) The show runs through April 13. 

Diane explains: You might never have thought about it, but the people who work in museums are often artists themselves — and good ones, too. They work as security guards, and they create public programs, hang art on the walls, help you figure out where you’re going, and sell you stuff in the shop.

And they work in everything from oil painting to watercolor and prints, ceramic sculpture to embroidery, video and collage. There’s even a tarot card created from crop seeds.  

One work waves from the wall: the menacing loon flag was security guard Rob McBroom official entry into the state’s flag contest.  As I strolled around, Cara O’Connell's portrait of Myrna drew me over. It’s from O’Connell’s series on caregivers. Myrna is a beatific presence under a halo of robins.

For me, the showstopper was Adam White’s “It Came with the Room.” White’s triptych collage is layered with thousands of cartoon bubbles filled with intriguing messages, many about the hellhound Cerebus. You could spend hours in front of it searching for meaning. 

Overall, the show gives insight into the mostly unseen hands responsible for MIA’s daily operations. What comes through is their passion for art.

— Diane Richard

Carla Mansoni is the director of arts and cultural Engagement at CLUES, one of the largest and oldest Latin organizations in Minnesota. She wants people to know about “The Art of Mental Health,” a group show of art created by people who work in the mental health field, curated by Kasia Chojan-Cymerman and Thrace Soryn.

The exhibit at the Vine Arts Center in Minneapolis opens this Saturday, Feb. 22, with an artist reception from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. featuring a performance by psychologist/musician Mindy Benowitz. The show runs on Saturdays through March. There is a performance by bluegrass Americana trio Echo Trail on March 15.  

Carla says: The idea is to focus on the mental health professionals who also use art to heal themselves. This is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the diversity of art forms and how art and culture also heals the healer, elevating the humanity of those working in mental health spaces.

 — Carla Mansoni

Jennifer Bowen, founder and director of the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, was deeply moved by the exhibit “SEEN” currently on display at the Weisman Art Museum on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis.

Curated by Emily Baxter of We Are All Criminals, this show is half a decade in the making. Seven artists partnered with seven incarcerated artists to create installations. The show runs through May 18, with a panel conversation planned for Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 6 p.m. 

Some installations respond to incarcerated life, such as work by Sarith Peou and Carl Flink, which reflect the steps of traditional Cambodian dance Peou used to keep himself active and healthy while on COVID lockdown in his cell.  

Jennifer says: There’s another exhibit of a poet named Brian, who’s got a massive chandelier of bird cages hanging from the ceiling with some of his poetry being read and voiced over by himself and other folks that he lives with. And I think the title of the poem is “We Can’t Hear Ourselves Sing,” and it’s about the kind of chaos and cacophony of life inside a prison.

It was the first thing I saw when I walked into the exhibit. And it literally took my breath away, the way that it speaks metaphorically not just to the pain that incarceration causes, but to the kind of human need to still find beauty in the midst of that pain. 

But then there are other artists who chose to think about what the future would look like, or what healing might look like. There’s an artist named Ronald who has a garden reminiscent of the garden his grandfather grew when he was in Detroit that’s meant to be this kind of healing look forward. It’s a really heavy but beautiful exhibit.  

And one thing this exhibit does is offers the community, not only a chance to listen on phones to the artists’ voices and to see interviews, but it also gives the public a chance to write notes to them that will go back to them. 

— Jennifer Bowen

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above. 

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

Writer and art lover Susan Montag recommends the work of Theatre 55, a Twin Cities-based theater company whose shows all feature casts of actors over age 55. Their production of the musical “Little Shop of Horrors” is playing at the Gremlin Theatre in St. Paul through Feb. 22.

She’s particularly looking forward to hearing vocalist Patricia Lacy, who is known for her work with Luther Vandross and with Sounds of Blackness, sing out “Feed me, Seymour,” when she plays the hungry plant from outer space, Audrey II.  

Susan says: I’ve seen a lot of the Theatre 55 shows. They are always so much fun. I like to see on the stage the folks who represent someone in my age group, showing that people over 55 are still very vibrant, very energetic and have a lot of talent to share!

— Susan Montag

MacKenzie McCullum is a writer and podcaster living in the Twin Cities, and she suggests taking your Valentine to see a Minnesota-original rom-com play at Zeitgeist Theater in Duluth.

“String” opens tonight and runs through Feb. 22. There is an ASL-interpreted performance Wednesday, Feb. 19. The play was a runner-up for the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Comedy Playwriting Award. 

MacKenzie says: I like to say that this play is like your favorite Nancy Meyers or Nora Ephron romantic comedy that you see on screen, but it’s on stage. It’s just a beautiful showcasing of genuine love that you can find every day.

It’s an unlikely courtship between a poet and a pizza delivery boy. It’s a great ensemble play: there are lots of great characters that will make you laugh out loud.  

The playwright, Jessica Lind Peterson, is a Duluth native. She actually wrote this play while she was in school at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She went on to co-found Yellow Tree Theater based in Osseo. “String” had kind of a life of its own in productions all over the country, and now it is back in Duluth for the 20th anniversary.

— MacKenzie McCullum

Freelance mathematics writer Barry Cipra of Northfield recommends a solo art show that celebrates the connections between mathematics and art.

John Shier’s exhibit “From Order to Chaos” features visual art created from equations. The show at the Steeple Center in Rosemount runs through March, with an artist reception and talk on Wednesday, Feb. 19 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.  

Barry points out art and mathematics are both fundamentally creative endeavors, adding that John is part of a long tradition of artists using mathematical thinking to create their work. Leonardo da Vinci, anyone?

Barry offers this introduction: John Shier’s a retired physicist. He taught for many years at Normandale Community College here in the Twin Cities, and has been doing his own kind of art, using equations and algorithms to create interesting, colorful [works], everything from landscapes to completely abstract works.

He also uses a lot of randomness. He calls it stochastic geometry — a term of art in the mathematical world. You let chance play a big role in what you get. He then, of course, uses his own eye to make selections. If he doesn’t like what the computer produces, he’ll try it again and see if he gets something that looks better.

— Barry Cipra

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above. 

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

Linda Sloan of Hopkins, Minn., is the executive director for the Council for Minnesotans of African Heritage. She predicts audiences will be on their feet at the Fitzgerald Theater in St Paul this weekend, moved by “The Sound of Gospel: An Anthology Depicting the Rich History and Evolution of Gospel Music.”

The play is written by Rev. William H. Pierce of 2nd Chance Outreach and directed by Academy Award-nominated artist Jevetta Steele, with musical direction by Grammy Award-winning artist Billy Steele. The all-ages show will be performed Saturday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 9 at 3 p.m. 

Linda says: I cannot say enough about this performance. It is amazing. When I went to the show a couple years ago, I was just blown away by the caliber of the talent and then the meaning of the songs. It’s just a phenomenal show.

You’ll hear anything from spirituals to praise and worship. It is just an opportunity for individuals who maybe have never really experienced gospel to understand the roots, the roots of where it comes from and why it is spiritual music. 

It’s so energetic. There are a couple little somber moments, because it is a history of gospel music, and there have been things in the past that maybe occur that required spiritual music. But for the most part, it’s just one of those “toe-tapping, get-on-your-feet, clapping, as if you were in a Baptist church” shows. 

— Linda Sloan  

Actor and singer Anna Hashizume of Minneapolis recommends seeing Frank Theatre’s current production of the play “Sanctuary City,” about two undocumented teens growing up in Newark, N.J., post 9/11.

She describes the play as a series of very short scenes performed by an outstanding three-person cast. The play runs in the intimate Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis through Feb. 23. Masks are required for the Feb. 7 and Feb. 16 performances. 

Frank Theatre, which mounted the play, specializes in works that spark conversation, and Anna says this show feels incredibly timely.

Anna says: I know when [director] Wendy Knox first chose the play we didn’t know the political climate that was going to be happening at this moment in time, but it is a very timely play for what is happening in our nation right now.  

Theater has a lot of different functions. It can just be entertainment, which is also lovely at a time like this, but also being able to be educated and see different life experiences in front of your eyes in a relatively safe space can open something up in all of us.

 — Anna Hashizume

Donna Winberg of Deephaven, Minn., loves to walk the trails at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, so she’s been able to pop inside the visitor center to watch preparations for the Spring Flower show. The enchanted garden displays are now open to viewers with an Arboretum ticket daily through March 16.  

In addition to the Spring Flower show, Donna recommends continuing through the Synder Building to the Conservatory, which is currently packed with orchids and tropical blooms, with a stop at the Rootstock Café for a bite to eat. Additional ticketed events include an Art Fair on Feb. 15 and 16, After Hours with Flowers and Afternoon Tea events. 

MPR chief meteorologist Paul Huttner is also a fan; see his pictures in a recent Updraft Blog here.

Donna describes the scene: You’ll be amazed when you see the huge tree trunks they’ve brought in there, and the mosses and the lichens and the mushrooms. It’s just like a breath of spring, which we all need this time of year! What I really love is the local artist work that is incorporated into the displays. There’ll be different artists coming in [through the course of the show.]

[This week] there are mosaic glass birds and ceramic birds and all sorts of wonderful little fairy houses, bird houses. So you have to stand there and look at things for a while to have it all revealed to you, which is fun.

— Donna Winberg