Your Weekend Outlook: Open

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The Walker Art Center is launching its "Open Field" this weekend.

Wow. WOW. WOW!! I've got my fingers crossed for great weather this weekend, because there are so many events that celebrate both art and summer. But whether it rains or shines, you've got plenty to choose from.

The Walker Art Center is launching a new summer project called "Open Field." The idea is to create a "cultural commons," a place that belongs to everyone and is a hub to entertainment, relaxation and artistic expression.The Walker is calling it "a park celebrating the creative assets and collective knowledge that abound in the Twin Cities." People can post their ideas for projects on the Open Field Calendar, and invite others to join in on the fun. The catch? The Open Field will only be as good as your participation.

Looking for an outdoor experience that's less art and more science? The Science Museum of Minnesota has re-opened its "Big Backyard" for the summer, featuring a nine-hole golf course that illustrates landscape evolution, an "outdoor darkroom," a maze of prairie plants and panning for gems and fossils.

This Saturday marks the opening of Minneapolis Mosaic, the city's festival of arts celebrating cultural diversity. The festival launches with an evening of free entertainment off Hennepin Avenue between 7th and 8th Street.

The Flint Hills International Children's Festival is underway this week, culminating over the weekend with performances in the Ordway Center and the surrounding parks and plaza, as well as arts activities and exhibitions. Cost for two full days of shows in the Ordway is $5 per person; all outdoor activities are free and open to the public.

Looking for something a little more dangerous? Bedlam Theatre and Infiammati Fire Circus present Persephone: Reign of Fire. Mounted in the theater's parking lot (because face it, do they need any more building damage?), Persephone: Reign of Fire tells the story of an innocent maiden's journey to the underworld, her rise to power as queen and her incandescent return to the living as harbinger of spring. Performances, which run through Sunday June 13, feature fireworks, puppetry, aerialists and "acro-stilting."

Starting at 10am on Friday, the 44th Annual Edina Art Fair gets underway, featuring well over 350 artists from all over the country.

This year the fair is adding

The fair includes a new "Green Art" section for artists who work exclusively with environmentally friendly materials.

Oh and then there's Grand Old Day this Sunday, featuring an art fair, art cars, lots of bands, and of course, shopping.

Now if the weather's bad, or if you simply want to chill out a little bit, check out the following:

The vocal ensemble Cantus is back with its perennial favorite "Cantus Covers" in which the guys rework music by The Beatles, Beck, Fleetwood Mac and more. At the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis this weekend and next.

Up north for the weekend? Or are you always up north? Either way, you might want to take in "American Buffalo" by David Mamet at the Rubber Chicken Theater in Duluth. It's the story of a group of guys bent on stealing a rare coin collection, and the mistrust that builds amongst them along the way.

Altered Esthetics presents Bike Art V, featuring photography, sculpture, spoke-card art and more. And excuse me, but what is this about a "bikini bike wash?"

And finally, this weekend marks the beginning of Red Eye Theater's "Works in Progress," a month-long festival of multidisciplinary works by some adventurous artmakers.

So, this isn't everything, but it is enough to fill up anyone's weekend. What are you going to do?

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