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If you didn’t make it across the river to Minneapolis earlier this spring for the annual ARTCRANK party, fear not! The insanely popular bike-art print event is making a pitstop in St. Paul this Friday, at our own Amsterdam Bar & Hall. The local event, which spawned numerous national and international exhibitions of the same name, is an apt example of what bike culture means to the Twin Cities. Dozens of printmakers and designers prove their artistic chops (and their love of cycling) with reasonably priced bike-themed prints, and of course there’s a great party to go along with it all. Make your way down to the Amsterdam this Friday for art, beer, and a bicycle-friendly atmosphere–we promise you won’t regret it.

We had a little chat with ARTCRANK founder, Charles Youel, about the beloved event and his favorite places to bike in our fair city…

How did ARTCRANK start?

The seeds of the idea for the show started germinating in 2006. I was working for an advertising agency in Minneapolis, and basically just needed a creative outlet that didn’t involve clients, budgets, meetings or agency politics. I’ve always loved bikes, and working with graphic designers instilled a fascination with printing, especially posters. After seeing what Jeff Johnson of Spunk did with Poster Offensive, I thought to myself, “People might dig posters about bikes.” Turns out they do.

Photo courtesy of artcrank.com

You’ve now taken ARTCRANK to cities all over the country, and even the world. Did you ever expect such a big response?

Not at all. I still go into every show with a sense of amazement at how bicycles inspire creativity in artists and designers, and how many people see their own lives and experiences reflected in the work. I’ve stopped trying to imagine where things might go next, because the reality has turned out better than anything I’d dare to dream up.

What’s your favorite ARTCRANK memory?

I tend to get pretty locked in to management mode at our openings, which means I’m constantly on the prowl, making sure that the posters are hanging straight, that there’s enough change in the registers, that the beer hasn’t run out, that people are having a good time. When we did our first show in London in 2010, in the middle of the opening, my wife tracked me down in the middle of the room, grabbed my hand and basically dragged me out across the street from the venue. The place was full, and there were people lined up waiting to get in. She said, “I just want you to stand here and enjoy what you did for a minute, OK?” That one’s pretty hard to top.

What can people expect this weekend at the Amsterdam?

It’s basically the last chance for people to check out and buy posters from our 2012 MSP show. We’ve never done an event in St. Paul, and Amsterdam is just down the block from Big Table Studios, who do a lot of printing work for our shows. Being named after perhaps the world’s greatest bike city, it seems like the perfect place to hold a closing party. Plus they’ve got an amazing selection of beers, which cyclists seem to have a fondness for.

What are some of your favorite things about St. Paul? Any good places to bike around here?

St. Paul is chock full of places to ride. One of my favorite rides is to follow East River Road down to Shepherd Road, which takes you right down along the river into downtown. From there, it’s fun to pick your way around Lowertown, maybe grab a pint and a bite to eat, then head over by the capital and back up the hill to Summit Avenue. From there, you’ve got a majestic, tree-lined spin all the way back to the river, which you can follow all the way over to the U of M campus. If you’re Minneapolis-bound, the Midtown Greenway is just a little ways from the Marshall Avenue/Lake Street bridge.

ARTCRANK MSP at the Amsterdam happens Friday, May 19th from 5-10pm and admission is free. For full details, click HERE or visit Artcrank.com. 

Spring Showcase 2010

When we were kids, we (among many other starry-eyed aspiring acrobats and sword-swallowers) had a dream about running away to join the circus. Luckily for Twin Cities kids, Circus Juventas provides that opportunity — minus the having to run away part. For 15+ years, this Cirque du Soleil-style troupe made up of young performers has been crafting magnificent marvels and feats of agility that delight and amaze people of all ages.

Make your way to the Big Top in Highland Park this week to experience the final few performances of Circus Juventas Spring Showcase. Comprised of the group’s beginning and intermediate students, this performance will be one part adorable (think little kids tumbling around in glittery costumes) and one part impressive (i.e.- ways you could never imagine bending as well as plenty of gasp-worthy stunts). A blend of physical grace, theatrical energy and thoughtful production design is what has kept this group moving, shaking, acrobatting, trapeezing, tightrope-walking and magic-making throughout the years.

Spring Showcase 2010

The Spring Showcase runs through Saturday, May 12th and tickets are still available for select performances (For sold out performances, rush line tickets are available, if you want to take your chances). Click HERE to order tickets online or visit the box office between 9:30 AM – 8:00 PM Mon – Fri or 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM Saturdays. 

For more info on Circus Juventas and their upcoming productions visit www.circusjuventas.org

Brenda Brousseau, "It's Not Nice to Fool Your Motherboard," (detail)

You’re one of the ringleaders in Lowertown as well as the executive director for the art crawl. How did you get involved?

I started with the Art Crawl in 1997, soon after I moved to the Twin Cities, and was a volunteer for years. I took over the position of Executive Director in 2005. I love the Art Crawl for the energy it brings to the neighborhoods that are involved, especially Lowertown, and that you can find any and all types of art. It’s one of the biggest events of this type in the country, and one of the longest running.

How do you think the new lightrail and possible stadium will affect the vibe in Lowertown in the future? 

We are looking forward to the running of the light rail and the development of the Union Depot to bring new visitors to Lowertown, and continuing the energetic building of the neighborhood.

Michelle Worms, "Oskar," glass mosaic

You are an artist yourself, what do you have cooking in your studio for the crawl?

I’ll be showing at the AZ Gallery in the Northern Warehouse, with wonderful gallery and guest artists. I’ve been working on all new hand-painted block prints, that are hand-printed, mounted on canvas, then painted with acrylics and colored pencils. They are inspired by nature, and by the wildlife and locations in Minnesota for the most part.

What are your favorite things about St. Paul (aside from Lowertown, of course!)? 

We are so fortunate to have such a great variety of arts and theater here, and still have a downtown that is walkable. The museums, the Science Museum and the Woodturners Gallery in the Landmark Center, Grand Avenue, and the Selby-Dale area. And the river, and all our parks of course!

The St. Paul Art Crawl runs Friday, April 27th from 6-10pm, Saturday, April 28th from Noon-8pm, and Sunday, April 29th from Noon to 5pm. For more information including participating locations, maps, artists, and much more visit the official website HERE. 

Pop in to the Alexander Ramsey House on April 26th for a cocktail and an artsy history lesson as the MN Historical Society presents its first in a series of History Happy Hours. The smart soiree invites attendees to learn about the unusual and fascinating process of Victorian-era photography from talented girl-about-town and Minneapolis Photo Center instructor, Lacey Prpic Hedtke. She’ll do live demonstrations of the dry-plate tintype process (an old-timey version of “instant” photography) and answer any questions you may have on photo methods of days of yore–and if you’re nice, she may even let you check out her antique large format camera. Peer through vintage stereoscopes to look at old photos or snap up your own Ramsey House “carte-de-visite” (Victorian photo calling card) as a keepsake. All this plus cool cocktails and tasty treats? Sounds like our kind of history lesson.

We caught up with Ms. Prpic Hedtke to ask a few pressing questions about her work and the upcoming happy hour…

What can people expect to learn at the History Happy Hour on the 26th? How did you get involved?

They’ll watch how a 19th century tintype is made, see what a large format camera looks like to the photographer, and get their own carte-de-visites of historic photos of the Ramsey House. All while drinking drinks and eating snacks in a gorgeous Victorian mansion. I’m thrilled to be helping to kick off their History Happy Hours. While I was working on historical photo processes for the photography art cart at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, they gave my name to the the Ramsey House.

Cyanotype by Lacey Prpic Hedtke

You have been working with old timey photography processes for awhile now. What inspired you to do this and why do you love the victorian era?

Oh, I think I’m a transplant from the past. I’ve been working with antiquated processes for 12 years. I love the process and labor involved in this type of photography, and that I get to mix concoctions. I love not having to spend tons of money on new digital equipment to stay current. I like having a direct connection to the beginnings of photography, and making photos that are one of a kind and magical. I love the Victorian era because everything looked so much nicer. I like the cameras because I can fix them with a hammer.

Tintype by Lacey Prpic Hedtke

What art projects do you have up your sleeve this year?

I just finished the photographs for the photography art cart at the MIA, so I’m in full19th century photo mode. I’m going to finish my darkroom (not an art project, but a project to make more art), go tinier with tintypes and perhaps go mobile. I want to work on perfecting making glass negatives.
I’m also organizing Constellation and the Twin Cities Zinefest again this year.

What are some of your favorite historic spots in St. Paul?

Ohhhhhh. The West Side houses. The Original Coney Island. Irvine Park. The theater in the Czech Hall. The Spot Bar. The Schmidt Brewery, All the buildings that weren’t knocked down. Wabasha Street Caves. That weird old power plant thing on Randolph near the river. I could keep going. I love St. Paul.

This month’s History Happy Hour happens on Thursday, April 26th from 5:30-7:30pm at the Alexander Ramsey House. 

Tickets are $20 or $16 for MNHS members (snacks and two drink tickets are included with admission). Pre-purchase tickets are required. 

For more info and to purchase tickets click HERE.

To say artist Alex Kuno is prolific is an understatement. The whimsical painter has been rockin’ 2012 with multiple exhibits–a trilogy of solo exhibits to be exact–and he shows little sign of slowing down. For his third installment in the “Miscreants of Tiny Town” exhibit trilogy, Kuno takes over the Black Dog Cafe in Lowertown, a spot that one could easily say is the anchor of the St. Paul Art Crawl; a respite for much needed food, drink, and entertainment nestled perfectly amid some of the most traversed studio buildings in the district. Showcasing his talent in such a high-traffic locale is a new twist for the gallery-focused artist, especially after coming off solo shows at both Lowertown’s Air Sweet Air and Minneapolis’ art party spot, Cult Status Gallery. We chatted with the artist about his work and even got a tip off about his NEXT solo show…

You’re showing at the Black Dog this Art Crawl after a busy few months showing at Air Sweet Air and Cult Status Gallery. What can people expect to see at this exhibit? Does it tell a particular story?

Since this is my third consecutive solo show of 2012, I wound up looking at it as sort of the last chapter of a separate unintentional “trilogy” in a way. This whole Miscreants of Tiny Town series had apocalyptic undercurrents since it started, but this recent string of shows deals with the concept of apocalypses (global and personal) more directly. Since this most recent hunk of work at the Black Dog is being shown in the spring and in a less formal setting, I wanted to find a more “playful” or “lighthearted” approach to the End of the World. The characters are cut out directly from the wood and use the bare walls as the landscape, some narratives are more abstract but played out within antique framed pieces, and I incorporated some old twigs and blades of grass into some other paintings as well. These funny little experiments are sort of my way of saying “yeah, this is supposed to be the last year…like, ever, so we might as well have fun while it lasts.” I think these new pieces fit the general atmosphere of the space pretty well, too.

Your work has a fairy tale feel to it, but is dark and humorous as well. When and why did you start working with these types of characters?

A friend of mine once described The Miscreants of Tiny Town as Fucked-Up Social Realism, and I think he pretty much nailed it. The series started in 2005 as a kind of unintended side effect of the bleakly surreal world we’ve found ourselves in as the War on Terror hit an especially rough patch. We’ve all been taught from an early age to trust that our country was the best one in the whole wide world and how the paths we’re taught to follow will make us live happily ever after and ride off into the sunset and all that. But, those personal and global structures were starting to show their cracks. And now, in 2012, topics like equality, human rights, religion, morality, even the virtues of capitalism and democracy- basic, fundamental issues we thought were all comfortably handled and wrapped up- are suddenly being hotly debated. Shit’s a little crazy now.

The children I make essentially began as a combination of familiar fairy tale protagonists, grotesque characters from Northern Renaissance painting with elements from pre-WWII German art, but have evolved over the years as I took the paintings more personally. They’ve been handy, easily digestible ways to make bitter, snarky jabs at what ugly, meaningless lies our childhood stories actually were, and how delicate and fragile our society really is. But as I’ve slowly managed to make a living off of these paintings full-time, they’ve also become parodies of my inner monologues in a way. They’re my own little Friar’s Club, “roasting” my self-doubts and weird paranoias and keeping them in line.

What mediums do you use and where do you find the interesting wood pieces that you use as canvases?

I primarily use acrylics, chalk, graphite and ink, but I also include crayons, ballpoint pens, charcoal…anything that’s lying around that I think might work, really. I carve the figures and curved wood shapes myself, so every single piece I make is completely unique and hand-made.’

Have any upcoming projects you want to share?

Once this show at the Black Dog goes up, I’ll finally have some time to finish a bunch of projects and take on some new commissions (hint). In the meantime, I’ve been invited to participate in the Walker’s Drawing Club during the Northern Spark festival in June, then I’ll be getting some pieces ready for some group shows around Minneapolis until my FOURTH solo show, The Miscreants of Tiny Town and the Uncanny Valleys opens at the Curly Tale Fine Art gallery in downtown Chicago. Then, I’ll have work appearing in two new catalogues published by Blab!World at the end of the year.

 Miscreants of Tiny Town: Washing the Lions opens at the Black Dog Cafe on Friday, April 20th and will be on display during the St. Paul Art Crawl, April 27th-29th and through the month of May. For more information visit the Facebook event HERE or the Black Dog site HERE.

Lowertown artist Barbara Evan knows balance, symmetry, and design. But at the same time, she’s completely comfortable with a little bit of chaos. Her colorful, modern works veer between a loose structure of graphic design and pattern yet keep themselves open to the freestyle fluidity of a brushstroke. A bit of the best of both worlds, if you ask us. This Friday, April 6th, you can visit Barbara and many other artists during Lowertown’s monthly First Fridays Art Crawl, but if it’s more-bang-for-the-proverbial-buck you seek, marking your calendar for April 27th‘s annual Spring St. Paul Art Crawl is highly recommended. We had a chat with Barbara about her work and her love of our fair capital city.

How would you describe your artistic style?

I love working with colors that shouldn’t go with one another. I love dots and grids, and lines that feel almost like writing. And stones and ovals. I put these together and then change them again and again, searching for a just-right feeling. It’s hard to put that in writing, but they have to have energy or mystery or some kind of surprise, along with an over-all stillness.

What are your favorite mediums to work in?

Oil paint is my favorite medium. It can be tricky, because I usually don’t have much of an idea ahead of time, and the paint can get ugly if you work it too much. However, there’s nothing better than wrestling with a difficult painting. The final piece can take years, but eventually something happens and, lo, it’s finished! My other main medium is oil pastel. They’re like wax crayons but softer, with more pigment; they let you get right inside the color, literally—you have to work close up and it gets all over you. A couple of weeks ago I pulled out a bunch of old, unsold oil pastel drawings and started reworking them, and I’m falling in love all over again.

What can people expect when they visit your studio this Friday or during any other Lowertown Art Crawl?

I’m lucky to have a fairly large studio in Lowertown. There are paintings in all sizes and oil pastels (at the moment, lots of oil pastels) as well as archival prints and greeting cards. Some artists don’t think much of greeting cards, or even prints, for that matter, but I truly enjoy having something for people who aren’t ready to buy original art. Last month a 5-year-old girl purchased her first “real” art—a small print—and we were both elated.

What do you love about St. Paul?

St Paul is the greatest! My husband and I live just inside the city limits, and we go all over for interesting, inexpensive lunches—Selby for trendy/healthy, University for Asian, Grand for slightly uppity but still laid back somehow, Highland Park for Cecils and the Highland Grill, West Side for Jerebeks and Ali Baba and Mexican, East Side occasionally, and of course artsy Lowertown—and we’re still finding new places all the time. This doesn’t count the coffee shops, elegant restaurants, sports, or culture! We like it here, and it’s wonderful to have so many delightful, engaged, creative friends in Lowertown.

Hundreds of artists, including Barbara Evan, will open their studios the weekend of April 27th for the annual Spring Art Crawl. For more info click HERE.

Each first friday of the month, head to Lowertown for a more low-key mini-crawl to keep tabs on the artists and their work throughout the year. More info on First Fridays HERE. Select studios WILL be open this Friday, April 6th, from 6-9pm.

For more info on Barbara Evan and her work, visit her MNartists.org page HERE or stop into her studio during the crawl in the Jax Building, 247 E. 4th Street, Studio #410.

This Sunday, head down to the Turf Club for the next installment of the hilarious and extremely entertaining Chat Roulette Rap Show with performance artist/rapper/visual artist Michael Gaughan aka ICE ROD. It matters not whether you’ve visited the much talked about website that is the catalyst for Gaughan’s shenanigans, ChatRoulette.com; his alter-ego, a freestyle rapping, dorm room-bound college student named ICE ROD, is something you’ve simply got to see. And though Gaughan’s live Chat Roulette sessions on the stage of the Turf are quite creatively (and linguistically) impressive, the majority of his daily energy is spent teaching (Gaughan has a Masters in Art Education from the UofM) and working as a visual artist, whose brilliantly absurd and beautiful watercolor creations are becoming an increasingly hot commodity both locally and nationally.

We had a quick chat with this charismatic creative about Sunday’s event as well as what he’s currently working on as a visual artist…

The651: Can you explain the concept of Chat Roulette for our readers?

Michael Gaughan: ICE ROD (Michael Gaughan) sets up the stage to look like a dorm room (with “Bob Marley” and “Pulp Fiction” posters, a snowboard, etc) and uses a small inconspicuous microphone, sits on the bed, goes on the chat roulette website and free-style raps to the people on the computer. The whole show is improvised and one of the goals is to entertain the other person on the screen with a specialized rap for them. ICE ROD will lyrically describe visuals of that person, and also invites them to give a topic, engage in conversation, etc. The chat-partner is led to believe that ICE ROD is just a 22 year old kid in a dorm room, and they are having a private one on one rap session, while in reality it is a facade, set up in a crowded music venue, and the computer screen is projected so the crowd can see what the raps are referencing and also see / hear the chat-partner’s reactions. Audience members are welcome to come on stage and act as “dorm neighbors, RA’s etc.” and sometimes the web cam is swiveled to reveal to the chat-partner that they are in fact in front of a crowd.

What is the most memorable thing that’s happened during a CR event?

The most memorable thing from the chat roulette happened during the second show (Dec. 2011). I randomly stumbled into this dude from New Jersey…I was rapping at first when he came on, and then we just started chatting and he stayed with me on the screen for a while, and we kept trying to one-up each other. He was in his attic bedroom, and he was eating (a lot of mcdonalds, like several meals worth) and he was drinking…so I starting drinking my Iced Tea and eating the noodles my friend Colin gave me, He then took off his shirt and flexed muscles, so I pulled out my weight set and started lifting, he then panned the camera over to show his thick, beautiful, puerto-rican girlfriend popping and locking on the bed, so I quickly had people (girls) from the audience come up and dance on my bed, it was so fun and we were both really enjoying it… then I turned the camera to show him he was in fact in front of the whole crowd at the turf club, and he was screaming and saying “oh shit I’m on national t.v.” ha ha ha.

What do you have planned for this Sunday’s session?

What we have planned for Sunday is pretty much the same set up from last time, only we plan to start the show early, Jon Neilson plays first at 8:30, and I perform 9:30pm to 11:30pm. That way it’s not super late for the start of the work week.

Photo by Sharyn Morrow

You are also an amazing artist. Do you have anything cool coming up in that regard?

Ha ha thank you. I am doing tons of watercolor paintings. Pretty much all I do is make art and teach art. I recently finished album art for Diplo and Nicky Da B record, and I am doing some album artwork for my hero, Neil Hamburger, and some posters, t-shirt and album art for Margaret Cho. I do them all in watercolor. I am going to have some exhibits this summer. I will be part of several group shows, and I will have a solo show at the Burnet Gallery, the opening for that will be July 13th from 6-9pm. Besides that I am working with Charles Gehr to get an ICE ROD chat-roulette tour together which will happen in May. May 4th at the Turf, then off to the south and east coast and back. I’ve been applying for artist opportunities all the time. You put out like 32 things and get only 1 back. It is exhausting to keep getting rejected but it’s cool when that one thing comes through. You can’t give up. I just got rejected from the MAEP gallery at the MIA this month so I was bummed, but whatever, I’m gonna keep being me, doing what I do.

What are your favorite things about St. Paul? Other than doing Chat Roulette at the Turf, of course.

My favorite things about St. Paul are the Turf Club, playing shows at Big V’s in 2005. and of course the Como Conservatory, specifically the “tropical encounters” section. so sweet.

In the words of Emo Phillips…”aww Minneapolis with your exciting night life and restaurants and everything, and ahhh St. Paul with your exciting proximity to Minneapolis!!!!” ha ha ha Just kidding I love St. Paul.

For more info on Chat Roulette at the Turf this Sunday, April 1st, check out the Facebook event HERE.

To see more of Michael Gaughan’s artwork click HERE. 

If Prince could declare himself as a symbol, then artist John Fleischer can certainly do the same with an art exhibit, if you ask us. This Friday, the third show at new Air Sweet Air Gallery in Lowertown continues the space’s track record for hosting thoughtful, high quality exhibits. In  ∆ , Fleischer wraps his mind around the axis mundi (the symbolic center) and delves into a conceptual storyline that seems to be both visceral and intricate at the same time–perhaps even a little bit “out there”. Hence, to some, the exhibit’s concept, as well as Fleischer’s thoughts on it below, may feel a bit hard to approach. But we always say that art, at its core, is “what you make of it” and challenging yourself to think with an exhibit such as this, may be just the ticket to an evening of interesting conversation, or at the very least, a memorable visual impact (and who can argue with that?). Fleischer’s exhibit is filled with a variety of media, including sculpture, installation, drawing, projection, sound and more, so expect a full experience!

We asked the artist a few pressing questions pertaining to the exhibit, with opens this Friday, March 23rd, from 7-10pm at Air Sweet Air in Lowertown. 

What is the basis for  ∆?

My current research is guided by an interest in the cultural role of the transformation narrative. Many of these narratives revolve around an image of the symbolic center, the omphalos, the axis mundi. This image often manifests as a mountain, ladder, or tree; it is sometimes represented in human form. At its essence, the image describes a location organized around a point of transition. It is here where earth meets sky, where body and mind interact, where self encounters other. I am inspired by the regenerative opportunities these stories offer when viewed as models for engaging the perpetual change of ordinary existence. Over the last few years I have drawn on these narratives to realize a series of speculative works that explore the relationship between notions such as impermanence and regeneration, immediacy and inaccessibility, growth and decay.

How would you describe your work when speaking in terms of medium? What do you most like to work with?

I tend to describe my work as sculpture. However, my studio practice supports ongoing investigations into drawing, painting, sculpture, sound, and video. The products of these investigations are arranged into installation-like compositions along with ordinary, utilitarian objects (e.g. light-sockets, hot-plates, bedpans) and accumulations of organic materials (e.g. avocado skins, rotting fruits and teas, earth). Networks of low, horizontal platforms (e.g. small wooden tables, heating pads, blankets, yoga mats) provide the organizing structures for the works. These forms direct the gaze downward, literally grounding the visual experience. Vertical trajectories counter this downward pull with a complementary upward motion. A variety of everyday objects (e.g. glass bottles, tin cans, emesis basins, cardboard and wooden boxes) are used to introduce containment and nesting gestures into the works. Often, containers act as sites of transformation. A glass jar, for example, contains a serving of tea, which then develops a skin of mold during the life cycle of the exhibition; a mixture of salt water and steel wool slowly decays into rusty sludge within the confines of a plastic storage bin. In addition to containment gestures, strategies such as layering, bleeding, and illumination highlight a primary focus on impermanence and regeneration.

How do you think the works you create communicate?

These diverse forms are organized into relationships that reflect signs and themes common within the transformation narrative. Each work is an image of transition. The image emerges at the exhibition level, exists for the duration of the event, and then dissolves.

For more information on the exhibit, which opens this Friday, March 23rd from 7-10pm and runs through April 15th, visit the Air Sweet Air website HERE.

Saint Patrick’s Day Parade

Put on your green bowler hat, leprechaun suit, and/or green underpants! A sea of the seasonal shade washes over downtown every year during (and before and after) the annual Saint Patrick’s Day Parade. The parade merrily tromps through the streets of St.Paul spreading luck and good cheer to hoards of merry revelers, in true Irish fashion. Featured in the parade are scores of floats, troupes, organizations and more including the 2012 Miss Shamrock royalty, the St. Paul Police, the City Council, the Vulcans (yes!), and scads of proud Irish family clans, musicians, businesses and dance groups. Almost 100 different organizations participate, and each one of them goes all out to create one grand spectacle of Irish pride. (Noon, parade starts at 5th & Wall and continues on to Rice Park) For more info click HERE.

Landmark Center Irish Celebration

Looking for a more culturally-focused element of St. Paddy’s Day, away from all the green beer and hooliganism of the pubs? Your destination ought be the ye olde Landmark Center for the Irish Music & Dance Asssociation’s Annual Celebration. The Landmark’s historic atrium and numerous other areas of the building will be alive with traditional Irish dance performances, live music, vendors, readings and more. On the main stage see Mooncoin Ceili Dancers, the Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band, The Langer’s Ball and many more throughout the day. Meanwhile, the Weyerhaeuser Auditorium will host an all day lineup of traditional dance from the likes of Green Fire Irish Dancers, The Shamrock School of Irish Step Dance, Corda Mor Irish Dance, and many more. In addition, the Tea Room will host a more intimate presentation of live music, including performances from the Center for Irish Music Intermediate Youth Ensemble, 40 Shades of Green and more. If you want a little education, visit the Seminar Room where a number of lectures on Irish language, music, and more will occur. Have kids? Well, there’s a kid’s stage too! (10am-5pm throughout the Landmark Center) for more info click HERE.

Bonus: This event carries over to Sunday as well, so check the schedule and make your way over!

Head to downtown St. Paul’s newest screenprint shop, Big Table Studios, for the opening reception of Insolvent, an exhibit that artistically (and cleverly) investigates the state of the economy. Peep graphically pleasing prints by 12 local, national, and international artists including Abigail Slawik, Anna Tsantir, Curt Lund, Edie Overturf, Faye Passow, Karl W. Nelson, Jesikah Orman, Joshua Norton, Jonathan McFadden, Jonathan Stewart, Laura Brown, and Snezana Petrovic. Artists interpretations will run the gamut from decrepit business signs to coupons for free “air” and much more. Whipped together by Motörik Arts’ Erik Farseth in collabo with Big Table, this smart and colorful showcase of art ought to spark a little social commentary, but at the very least, a rocking’ good time. Live music from Jim and the French Vanilla will keep things festive throughout the evening.

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 10th // 7-10pm // Free

Exhibit runs through the end of March.

Click HERE for more info