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.

Matt Schneider describes himself as a dancer and dance floor builder for the underground scene of electronic music in the Twin Cities.

He’s looking forward to the Valentine’s Day artist reception of a photography exhibit by married couple Saoirse and Sarah Weiss. Their joint exhibit, entitled “Fíodóireacht Bheirte / A Weaving of Two,” runs through April 5 at the Northside Artspace Lofts Gallery in Minneapolis.

Matt describes Sarah’s work as daytime photographs involving portraits and family and Saoirse’s work as nighttime images that capture the DIY dance scene.

He says the artist reception on Saturday (6-9 p.m.) will be a family-friendly dance scene with live music and a DJ.

Matt says: She's one of the few people who is given the privilege to carry a camera in these spaces where anonymity and privacy are really respected.

— Matt Schneider

Scott Pollock, museum director at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona, made a recent visit to the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, Minn., where he enjoyed seeing Martha Bird’s woven baskets.

Her exhibit, “Fiber, Fragment and Form,” includes baskets displayed through the Spring Flower Show, on view now through March 15. Bird, who has a willow garden in southeast Minnesota, will give an artist talk on Sat. Feb. 21 from 1-2 p.m. called “Cultivating Willow: Building community through the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.”

Scott says most of Bird’s pieces are in the visitor center, though he advises stepping into the Arderson Horticultural Library to see Bird’s Japanese-inspired baskets with ikebana-style floral arrangements.

Scott says: What makes Martha's work really special is the level of detail that she goes into. As a basket maker, a willow harvester, she really looks at the functional approaches to form, but then she takes them into a sculptural level.

— Scott Pollock

Jennifer Olson of Golden Valley says she’s been visiting the American Swedish Institute since she was 5 years old. She’s looking forward to seeing the traveling exhibit “Nordic Echoes” when it opens on Saturday, Feb. 14.

The collection of contemporary Nordic folk arts includes works of textiles as well as work crafted from wood, metal, birchbark and more. A majority of the 24 artists represented are based in Minnesota, including Tia Keobounpheng, Sonja Peterson, Amber M. Jensen, Talon Cavender-Wilson, Pieper Bloomquist and Lucy and Gene Tokheim of Tokheim Stoneware.

The exhibit will be on view through June 7.

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.

Renee Guittar is a Twin Cities dancer, actor, and choreographer. She’s performed in the past with Collide Theatrical Dance Company, and she’s looking forward to being in the audience to see their production of “Little Women.” The show runs Feb. 6–15 at the Luminary Arts Center in Minneapolis.

Renee says: I love seeing Collide’s shows, because the dancers are so impressive and athletic, and the shows are just jam-packed with storytelling that is accessible to all sorts of people, whether you've seen a dance show before or you haven't.

Yes, you're watching cool dance moves and lifts and turns and all that stuff, but there's a reason why the dancers are doing all those movements, and it's because of the story. And I always loved that as a dancer, but then also, since I've been an audience member, it's so fun to watch.

— Renee Guittar

Eric Heukeshoven is a composer and jazz musician in Winona, and he says it’s worth the trip to Rochester on a Wednesday night to catch the Rochester City Jazz Festival. Each Wednesday in February, a different jazz group will perform at Thesis Beer Project from 6–8 p.m.

Heukeshoven has this rundown: This coming Wednesday [Feb 11] is a relatively new group from Rochester called Snacklebox. I would call it sort of an instrumental funk band, something along the lines of Corey Wong or even Tower of Power. Really fun — almost all Rochester musicians or Rochester-area musicians.

And then on February 18, Zacc Harris, who's an amazing guitarist from the Twin Cities, is coming down. He's a composer and a band leader who's been on the Minneapolis scene for many years." He's performing as part of a trio.

And then rounding it out on the 25th is Winona's own Aaron Lohmeyer, and he's formed a trio with a pianist named Mark Whited and Rochester drummer named Alex Ortberg. Aaron has lived in different parts of the U.S., where he’s always been close to the Mississippi, and so his music reflects the various cultures [along the river.]

— Eric Heukeshoven

Charles “Corky” Reynolds works in the Historic Fournet Building in downtown Crookston, Minn., so he gets to see the art gallery on its second floor. That means, lately, he’s had a chance to appreciate Crookston artist Sarah Pester’s exhibit “Stardust & Soul: it’s in everything.”

The series of 41 watercolor, oil and mixed media paintings points both outward to the planets and inward, tying in Pester’s work as a yoga teacher and energy practitioner. The exhibit is on view through mid-April.

Corky says: You get overwhelmed in a sense that we're such a small part of the whole universe concept, and you kind of reflect and go, “You know, the situation we're in now, maybe that's just a little speck in the whole cosmos.”

— Charles “Corky” Reynolds

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.

Erin Janssens is a big fan of the Northfield Arts Guild Theater, and she is looking forward to their play “Little Wars,” which opens Friday. Set in the French Alps on the night before France falls to the Nazis, the play imagines a dinner party of female literary greats: Agatha Christie, Gertrude Stein, Dorothy Parker, Alice B. Toklas and Lillian Hellman.

The play runs Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m., through Feb. 8.

As the characters discuss what they can do to help Jewish people targeted by the Nazis, Erin says the play raises questions that feel timely.

Erin says: What do you want your legacy to be? How do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be remembered as someone who did something to help someone? Or do you want to just be someone who stood back and watched while others helped?

There are some serious themes in the show. They deal with antisemitism, xenophobia and your own moral responsibility.

— Erin Janssens

Minneapolis author Cheri Johnson is looking forward to seeing the Ken Takata Ensemble set the words of Shakespeare, Jane Austen and other classic authors to music. The free event takes place this Saturday, Jan. 31, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at George Latimer Central Library, as part of the St. Paul Winter Carnival. Hear examples of Takata’s work here.

Cheri says Takata began by setting the songs in Shakespeare’s plays to music, but he’s expanded to include short Shakespearean passages, often starring female characters, as well as passages from other classic works. She says the music style varies to fit the words.

Cheri says: Ken started out as mostly a jazz musician, but there’s [also] stuff that sounds very classical, and then other times he does R&B, or it sounds very musical theater. He just sort of chooses a style, it seems, based on what inspires him in the text and how he can imagine a production looking.

— Cheri Johnson

Ella Gates-Mahmoud of Minneapolis says she’s been to nearly all the productions of “The Sound of Gospel” since it began in 2018. The production, presented by Second Chance Outreach, takes place Sunday, Feb. 1, at 3 p.m. at the O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University in St. Paul.

Ella says to expect an array of music, from spirituals to quartets, solos to choirs, spanning the history and styles of gospel.

Ella says: I think it's important to note that gospel music is really a transformative experience. It covers an array of life experiences, and it encapsulates people's emotions, from happiness and joy to sadness to celebration.

It encompasses all of that, and you can find yourself crying and laughing at the same time. It's just a beautiful experience.

— Dr. Ella Gates-Mahmoud