Art
Perfect Play or Musical of 2013: Duluth Playhouse Children’s Theatre’s Cats
It was a big year for Duluth theater in 2013, with eight productions receiving a significant number of votes for the honor of best play or musical. In the end, the Duluth Playhouse Children’s Theatre production of Cats emerged as the favorite.
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Painting in the BWCA
Duluth artist Ken Marunowski describes the process of making a wilderness landscape painting.
Diorama-rama – March 29
Sarah Heimer says: “Hello all! Getting the word out that the Diorama-rama is happening this year on March 29 at Sacred Heart! This a call out to anyone/everyone interested in making a diorama for a super fun one night show. (For those of you who don’t know … a diorama is a box with a scene inside it.) Anyone is welcome to make and show one, the more the merrier! They can be any shape, size, theme that you want. It will be a night of music and art and fun and it only happens once every two years. Feel free to contact me for more info. Tell your friends!”
Art, Gender, Duluth
I spent part of the last night at Prøve Collective. It was a packed room, as packed as any opening I have attended in a long time, and the walls were dense with a variety of art from a diversity of artists. The photography exploring Barbie iconography reopens cultural wounds that we still have yet to close. Some of the textile work repositions arts and crafts — in this case, pushing those boundaries a little further by leaving needles and thread available to gallery-goers to create.
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World’s Top Public Intellectual at Zinema
… Sarah LaChance Adams, that is, with Noam Chomsky and Michel Gondry doing backup at the Zinema 2.
About 60 people, I would guess, maybe more, attended the Explorer’s Club showing of Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? on Tuesday night.
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Trampled by Turtles’ song deserves Oscar
There I was, sitting in a cavernous multiplex theater at Duluth 10. The movie, The Way Way Back, is one that I had actually chosen by accident. Or chosen erroneously, I mean. The Mrs. and I were on an impromptu date night and picked The Way Way Back thinking that it was actually another movie I had heard about.
A good 30 minutes in I realized both my error, and that the film was not what I had hoped for, a fluffy summertime coming-of-age story, and that it was instead a sort of dark, introspective coming-of-age story that just happened to be placed in a summer setting. At points during the movie I could actually viscerally feel my own awkward teenage summer loneliness flaring up in some deep, dark buried place in my gut. So the film makers nailed that part.
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Call for Photo Submissions: 4x V3.0
The Duluth Photography Institute’s 4x exhibit is back (pronounced “Four-by” as in 4×6, 4×8, etc.) We are hoping to get over 200 submissions this year!
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Ennyman interviews Adam Swanson
The Ennyman interviews artist Adam Swanson here. Good read.
Call for Art: My Funny Valentine
Washington Gallery is looking for funny, silly, sappy, quirky, corny, odd, goofy and peculiar musings on love and romance in the form of visual, written or fine art for a show opening Feb. 14 entitled “My Funny Valentine.” The deadline is Feb. 7.
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Duluth Superior Film Festival
I was able to attend a recent Duluth-Superior Film Festival party. At the risk of turning PDD into a celebrity gossip sheet — can you spot the local arts personalities?
Call Me Mental
Tomorrow I will be embarking on a story-telling campaign to break the stigma of mental illness. The project, ‘Call Me Mental,’ is a partnership between the Human Development Center and Lola Visuals. Stories will be released in episodes online along the trip and a feature length documentary will follow later this year.
We are also asking people to submit their stories, in any format, to our website. If you choose to remain anonymous, that is absolutely okay. You can also check out our Kickstarter if you would like to help support this project.
McKnight Exhibit of the work of Duluth Artist Catherine Meier
Congrats to Duluth artist Catherine Meier. I drove 160 miles to see her opening at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design — and it was worth it.
(Catherine Meier, “I could hear voices on the wind, Sage Creek Rim Road” (right panel), Graphite on paper)
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Photography
I was in the Duluth Photography Institute last night. The current exhibit was a little spicy (about bondage) — but that’s what art institutions give us — something spicy to challenge the mind, right?
Duluth-area Literary Vibe: Zines, journals and other lit publications from the region
I was at the Prøve Gallery last week and was happy to see a blossoming collection of literary magazines beside the small press books from Holy Cow! and the fine art. I thought it might be fun to catch folks up on the literary publications in our community.
Nominations close Feb. 1 for Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards
Celebrating books about northeastern Minnesota published in 2013. Send one book plus $25 nomination fee to UMD Kathryn A. Martin Library. Winners will be announced May 22.
Couple of “streaming” videos from the cold
This second video is much less lovely and mildly NSFW.
Networks of art, history, laughter
The weekend was full of immersion in networks of art, history and laughter.
On Friday, I went to the MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids for the “Bridge” exhibit.
The exhibit is remarkable, and negotiations are under way to bring it to Duluth. From the text, the exhibit is “the result of two years spent documenting the stories of people affected by 2007′s I-35 bridge collapse by photographer Vance Gellert. (more…)
“Last Summer at Bluefish Cove” takes its encore before regional festival
UMD Theater’s production of Last Summer at Bluefish Cove is one of only five productions selected to compete in the six-state Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival regional competition in Lincoln, Neb. from Jan. 19 to 25.
To help defray traveling costs, UMD is hosting an encore performance of this highly acclaimed show at the Marshall Performing Arts Center on Jan. 16.
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2013: The Year in Duluth Gig Posters
Click on any thumbnail to see the full-size image.
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Manheat Eats Low Breaker
Rough video from the Duluth Does Low concert — Dec. 12, 2013.
Merry Christmas.
Call for Vendors
Hardworking craftspersons and working artists looking to share their creations and make some extra cash during the holidays are invited to participate in Washington Studio Artist Co-op‘s upcoming Holiday Arts & Crafts Festival.
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Interview with John Heino on Photgraphy
My interview with John appeared in this week’s Reader, but you can see more of his photography in conjunction with part one of the story at Ennyman’s Territory.
We want your cat (videos)
You probably heard about the Walker Art Center’s Internet Cat Video festival this summer and you were probably devastated to miss it. But don’t get your whiskers out of whack because the Zinema Theater and the Duluth Art Institute are bringing the cats north. On Dec. 10, at 7 p.m., Zinema 2 will screen the insanely popular Cat Video Film Festival along with some special videos made right here at home. Imagine – you can see your favorite feline on the big screen next to lil bub!
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Halloween Banners 2013
It’s the annual call for Halloween banners on PDD.
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