Art Hounds: St. Paul Art Crawl, dreamlike ceramics and a mental health doc
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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.
Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.
Dreamlike landscapes in clay
Annie Dugan teaches art at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, where she also runs the Kruk Gallery. She wants people to know about a retrospective of Jim Grittner's ceramic work at Duluth Pottery that opens this weekend and runs through November. There's an artist reception Sunday, Oct. 18 from 2-4 p.m.
Grittner spent 47 years teaching at the University Wisconsin-Superior. "He taught artists that are now teaching the next generation," says Dugan.
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Now 92, Grittner's recent work is his strongest yet, says Dugan:
"He works in this specific technique called terra sigillata. It's from Roman times. He's doing these abstract landscapes on these vertical pots or vases. They have this sort of ethereal quality, like landscapes from your memory or landscapes from your dreams. There's just this quiet power to his work that I think is really wonderful to see."
Explore studios and galleries at the St. Paul Art Crawl
Andy Lehner of St. Paul recommends that fellow arts appreciators check out the St. Paul Art Crawl this weekend. The event runs Friday, Oct. 16, through Sunday, Oct. 18, at 31 venues across the city, including studios, galleries and other art-centered spaces. Find a map of locations here.
People who want to contribute to the event — and to St. Paul's Halloween spirit — can enter their carved jack-o'-lanterns in a competition at Mears Park. Jack-o'-lanterns can be dropped off between 10:30 a.m. and noon on Saturday, and visitors can vote on their favorites through 5 p.m. that day.
If you’ve never been to an art crawl, Lehner says it’s an easy, drop-in event that lets you choose how much or how little you want to do:
“It really is eclectic. You can choose something in your neighborhood because it's all throughout St. Paul. You can take in as much or as little as you like!”
A documentary traces Minnesota’s mental health reforms
Bill Adams of Fergus Falls is looking forward to attending a world premiere screening of the new Pioneer PBS documentary “Lost Souls: Reforming Minnesota’s Mental Health Institutions.” The screening is Thursday, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m. at the Fergus Falls Center for the Arts. Following the screening, there will be a Q&A with Susan Bartlett, author of “The Crusade for Forgotten Souls: Reforming Minnesota’s Mental Institutions, 1946-1954,” on which the documentary was based; the Pioneer PBS producers behind the film; and Chris Schulke, retired director of the Otter Tail County Historical Society.
Adams offers a bit of background:
“The reason that it's happening in Fergus Falls is because one of the people whose story is told in the book is Anders Schey, and 100 years ago, he became a resident at the state hospital in Fergus. His daughter, Engla Schey, began working in state hospitals — not in Fergus Falls, but in other communities in Minnesota — and she saw things that needed reforming.”
The film follows the work of Engla and others who pushed for fair treatment of institutionalized patients in Minnesota and beyond.
