Entertainment Briefs - June 1

Fairy Garden Talk coming

Fairy gardener Mary Boran will walk participants through whimsical world of creating miniature gardens in two sessions from 10 a.m. to noon June 10 and 13.

Participants will gather at Boran's home, six blocks from the Franklin Arts Center in Brainerd. Address will be given after registration. This is an interactive talk about how to make miniature gardens, participants will not make gardens at this event.

Participants are encouraged to bring their cameras, notebooks and questions as they tour Boran's garden. Discussion will cover the following: Choosing a site, materials, plants, local resources and references.

Cost is $10 for The Crossing Arts Alliance members, $15 for non-members.

For more information contact TCAA at www.crossingarts.org or 218-833-0416.

Former Duluth mayor to visit Brainerd library

Author and former Duluth mayor Don Ness will appear at noon Monday for the next author event at the Brainerd Public Library.

The Friends of the Brainerd Public Library will bring acclaimed authors every Monday to the Brainerd Public Library in June and July to speak about their latest work and the craft of writing. Ness will present information about his book, "Hillsider: Snapshots of a Curious Political Journey." Ness's 2015 book features essays, illustrations and photographs about life-in politics and otherwise-in northern Minnesota.

Attendees are welcome to bring a packed lunch or light refreshments will be provided.

These presentations are sponsored by the Friends of the Brainerd Public Library through their volunteer and fundraising efforts, and are free to the public. No registration is needed.

Upcoming authors include Doug Wood on June 12, Lorna Landvik on June 19 and Beatrice Ojakangas on June 26.

For more information on any of the events, visit the library's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/brainerdpubliclibrary or call 218-829-5574.

Second Saturday coming to Brainerd

The Crossing Arts Alliance will host a youth art event, a featured artist meet and greet and a felting workshop on June 10.

The Crossing Arts Kids art programming will be from 10 a.m to noon in the lower level of the Franklin Arts Center in Brainerd. Youth can create landscapes and cityscapes using paper and a variety of techniques. The class is geared for ages 5 to 13, but any age is welcome to attend. Younger artists will require an adult helper. A $3 per child/$5 per family materials donation is requested but no child will be turned away due to need. No pre-registration is required and the public is welcome and encouraged to attend. Handicap-accessible parking and access is available.

Linda Holliday, owner of Holliday Pottery and Impact Minnesota, will be showcasing her functional wares in The Crossing Arts Gift Shop for the month of June. The artist will be on hand to discuss her work from 10 a.m. to noon June 10.

Holliday trained with several accomplished master potters through the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, including Peter Jadoonath, JD Jorgenson, Ernest Miller and Matthew Krousy. She also had the privilege of participating in an intensive functional pottery workshop in Certaldo, Italy with master potter, Ellen Shankin. Since moving back to central Minnesota in 2012, she has been largely self-taught, focusing on making what she describes as Minnesota-hearty pots with a bit of feminine flair.

"I'm always thinking about the end-user's experience when I set out to create a pot," the artist stated in a news release. "What will it hold? How will it feel in someone's hands? Will it keep coffee or tea hot without feeling too heavy?"

Holliday's pots are wheel-thrown and often altered using a variety of hand tools. They are made with a combination porcelain/stoneware clay body and fired in an oxidation environment to over 2,000 degrees.

Also at the crossing, there will be a needle-felted landscape workshop with Lisa Jordan from 2-5 p.m. June 10. Students will learn to design a needle-felted landscape "painting" by layering colors, building texture, and adding interesting elements to create their own unique piece. Using a specially-barbed needle and fluffy wool, needle-felting is a fun and accessible art form. All materials are included in the class fee. Cost is $20 for TCAA members, $25 for non-members. For more information contact TCAA at www.crossingarts.org or 218-833-0416.

'Open the Door to Art' exhibit coming

The Brainerd Area Art Club is hosting an open house reception for it's current exhibit, "Open the Door to Art" from 4:30-6:30 p.m. June 8 at the Porthole Gallery, located in the Minnesota School of Diving Building in Brainerd. Original work which includes cards and prints will be available for sale, and participating artists will be on hand. The exhibit will open Friday and run through July 27. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

For information on the exhibit, contact club president Joyce Popkin at 218-855-0812.

Regional Adult Show planned

NEW YORK MILLS-The annual Adult Regional Show opened Wednesday at the Cultural Center in New York Mills. An open call is put out the community, region, and local arts council for artwork created by artists within the center's purview.

Dozens of artists are represented in this year's show. Past attendees will recognize old favorites as well as seeing newcomers looking to get their name out in the Otter Tail and Becker Counties arts community.

The reception for the show is 7-9 p.m. Friday and is open to the public. Live music and refreshments are provided by the center.

Before the show closes on June 24, a jury selects four top prizes in addition to the People's Choice award. The latter is chosen by gallery viewers during the entire run of the exhibition.

For more information, contact the Cultural Center at www.kulcher.org or call 218-385-3339.

Exhibit on display in GRA main gallery

LITTLE FALLS-Artists Tiffany Besonen and Laura Grisamore bring their collaborative exhibition "THRESH.HOLD." to be displayed through June 29, with a public reception from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday in the Main Gallery at Great River Arts in Little Falls.

"THRESH.HOLD." is an exhibition featuring the paintings and artist designed fabrics of Besonen, in harmonious juxtaposition to the sharp digital images and fusions of Grisamore. The exhibit allows viewers to explore the process, while embracing the product of overlapping thoughts. Grisamore's work, most from her "Minnesota Artifacts" series, fuses photographs of natural landscapes among various animal skulls. Besonen's work is diverse in material from acrylic paintings on old doors to a short film and digitally created patterns on fabric and wallpaper. The themes explored in the exhibition resonate around crossing barriers- into nature, into change, through loss and somehow accepting what cannot be controlled to find freedom and beauty, it states in a news release.

Grisamore has been taking photographs since 2001, graduating with a degree in journalism in 2003. In 2013, she relocated to Park Rapids, where she opened a portrait and art gallery business. Besonen grew up on a sheep farm in North-Central Minnesota, left for a time, but has returned to create, work and live in a quieter, rural place. She currently instructs art for the Menahga School District.

'What's Left: Lives Touched by Suicide' at GRA

LITTLE FALLS- The exhibition "What's Left: Lives Touched by Suicide" will be displayed in the front of the Morrison County Government Center in Little Falls until June 29.

There will be an open, public reception from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday at Great River Arts in Little Falls.

This multimedia exhibit intends to create a proactive community dialogue about suicide and mental illness with a goal of reducing the stigma surrounding them.

Suicide and mental illness are major health problems that affect everyone, it stated in a news release. The topic is often viewed as taboo, and family members left behind can feel stigmatized and unable to talk openly about their experience and grief. "What's Left" provides a space for participating artists and the broader community to reflect on the impact of suicide and mental illness and explore the use of artistic expression in the process of grieving, healing and expressing hope.

The project originated with Grand Rapids resident John Bauer who lost his daughter Megan to suicide in 2013. Bauer's experience in the aftermath of his family's tragedy is what sparked the idea for an art exhibit as a way to encourage community conversation.

"Whether on the phone or on the street, most people just didn't know what to say to me," Bauer stated in a news release. "How could they if they haven't been through something so horrific. To develop a vocabulary for talking about suicide, we have to be able to talk about mental illness as well. Not in whispers or disrespectful laughter. We need a culture shift where we all take responsibility for addressing the stigma associated with suicide and mental illness. That burden should not be on me and my family alone, nor should it fall to other families who have come before or after us."

The exhibition includes works from over 45 Minnesotan artists working in painting, poetry, sculpture, graffiti, glass, fiber, photography and more.

Author to appear in Wadena

WADENA-Author Lorna Landvik will discuss and sign her new novel "Once in a Blue Moon Lodge" at 11 a.m. June 10 at the Uptown in Wadena.

The novel is the sequel to Landvik's best-selling "Patty Jane's House of Curl."

The new book description: "Set adrift when her mother sells the salon that has been a neighborhood institution for decades, Nora Rolvaag takes a camping trip, intending to do nothing more than roast marshmallows over an open fire and under a starry sky. Two chance encounters, however, will have enormous consequences, and her getaway turns out to be more of a retreat from her daily life than she ever imagined. But Nora is the do-or-die-trying daughter of Patty Jane, who now must embrace the House of Curl's slogan: 'Expect the Unexpected.'"

Landvik follows Nora and an ever-growing cast of characters between city and wooded retreat, Minnesota and Norway, a past that's secret and a future that's promising, but uncertain. Responding to a mysterious letter with a Norwegian postmark, Nora's grandmother Ione travels to her native land to tend to a dying cousin and her husband-two people who played a painful, pivotal role in her past. Nora accompanies her and is surprised by her grandmother's long-ago love story-but even more surprised by the beginning of her own.

Landvik is the author of 11 novels including "Angry Housewives Eating BonBons," "Oh My Stars" and "Best to Laugh." She has performed stand-up and improvisational comedy around the country and also is a public speaker, playwright and actor.

Book sale and Jessie's Doll Boutique coming

CROSBY-The Jessie F. Hallett Memorial Library Friends Foundation of the library in Crosby, will host a three-day Mega Book Sale beginning June 21.

Each year the Friends sort through a multitude of book donations of all genres and prepare for the sale; like-new cookbooks, bestsellers, children's titles, westerns, inspirational, collectibles and more.

This year, in addition to thousands of books, the friends will be hosting "Jessie's Doll Boutique," a collection of dolls and accessories will be featured for sale in the Backstreet Books/Le Connection area within the library.

The annual sale will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 21-22 and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 23 at the Jessie F. Hallett Memorial Library in Crosby.

Proceeds raised will be used to fund Author Talks.

1/5: The Brainerd Area Art Club is hosting an open house reception for it's current exhibit, "Open the Door to Art" from 4:30-6:30 p.m. June 8 at the Porthole Gallery, located in the Minnesota School of Diving Building in Brainerd. Submitted

2/5: Don Ness

3/5: Bridge of Harmony students perform a spring piano recital May 21 at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Brainerd. Submitted

4/5: Jim Brandenburg’s photograph will be among the artwork displayed in the exhibition “What’s Left: Lives Touched by Suicide” in the front of the Morrison County Government Center in Little Falls until June 29. Submitted

5/5: Carolyn Nygard’s piano students performed a recital May 17. Students were Hakon Haapajoki (front row, left), Angus Jacobson, Jonathan Bergmann, Baylee Fasching, Maddox Brooks, Esme Malloy, Abigail Smith, Eva Bergmann, Sloan Saffell, Christian Gunderson (second row, left), Kedrah Brooks, Brynn Haapajoki, Jed Klang Brooke Krivich, Jaden Wendt, teacher Carolyn Nygard, Keyahna Kurilla (third row, left), Meagan Tollefson, Grant Yliniemi, Maria Bell, Kierston Wheat. Submitted