Arts Briefs: Opera in Rice Park and other stories

Arts Briefs is a weekly roundup of Minnesota Arts News compiled by the MPR News arts team.

Rice Park serenades

Saturday, the Ordway will continue its annual Inside Out series of concerts. These free programs project concerts onto a video wall in Rice Park in St. Paul.

The show begins at 7 p.m. and will feature the Minnesota Opera.

For other shows and dates, visit the Ordway website.

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Curtains fall in Fridley

The North Suburban Center for the Arts, a 45-year-old arts organization in Fridley, has closed permanently.

In a statement issued Monday, the organization’s Board of Directors blamed financial difficulties and an uncertain future, including difficulties with grants and fundraising.

Artist and former board member Mary Jo Pehl says the closure impacts the larger arts environment:

“The smaller organizations are so necessary because they are serving diverse communities, meeting people where they’re at, literally and figuratively. So it’s disheartening to know that these resources won’t be available.”

The Center was a venue for local artists, art classes and youth programming.

Hmong futures grant

Theater Mu and author Katie Ka Vang have been announced as recipients of a major arts grant.

They will receive $100,000 from the Joyce Foundation to pursue a project called “Hmong Futures.”

The project will feature community events and workshop reading. It will reflect the diversity of the Hmong community in the Twin Cities and commemorate the 50th anniversary of Hmong resettlement to the area.

This year, the grant is one of five Joyce awards to artists and arts organizations across the Great Lakes Region.

Outdoor art awaits

The outdoor art fair season continues Saturday and Sunday.

The 33rd annual Powderhorn Art Fair at Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis will feature more than 190 artists and 20 food trucks.

Meanwhile, the Uptown Art Fair will move to the Bachman’s on Lyndale in South Minneapolis this weekend due to road construction at its original location.

A view of a crowd at a fair. — The Uptown Art Fair has relocated to Bachman's on Lyndale in South Minneapolis this year.
Courtesy of Uptown Association

Designing women showcase

A new exhibition called “Women in Design and Craft” opens Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Minneapolis.

On display are modern and contemporary industrial designs and crafts from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Featured artists include ceramicist Clarice Cliff and American inventor Marion Weeber. The exhibition will be up for two years.

Sip, sing, Sotheby’s

Performer Donna Oblongata brings a one-woman show about Vincent Van Gogh to The Hive Collaborative in St. Paul.

The show is described as a combination of a Sip ‘n Paint, a karaoke night and a Sotheby’s auction — and is decidedly NOT family friendly. Audiences are recommended to be 16 years or older.

The performance is titled “The Van Gogh Shogh.” It continues through Aug. 4.

Fringe fest frenzy

The Minnesota Fringe Festival began Thursday in theaters throughout Minneapolis. The 30-year-old festival will feature more than 100 shows, all less than an hour in length.

For late-nighters, the Fringe also features Fringe After Hours at various venues. Starting at 11 p.m., these will include food, drinks, games and other activities — as well as an opportunity to rub shoulders with Fringe performers. It will culminate in a closing night party at Can Can Wonderland in St. Paul.

The festival will continue through Aug. 11.

Among the shows: the ambitious “Transition: A Story of Two Trans People Becoming Themselves,” created by Emily Boyajian and featuring music from a live orchestra.

Concerning a certain Hibbing singer-songwriter

If you haven’t seen it yet, the trailer for “A Complete Unknown,” the biopic of Bob Dylan starring Timothée Chalamet, has dropped.