The Friends of the Northfield Public Library welcomed Teresa Jensen, our new Director of the library and IT, with a gathering at the library. Teresa shared her story of earning her MLS at the University of Minnesota and working in the Hennepin County Library System for a number of years. Could it have been our winters? -- she decided to stretch her professional legs in the warm sun that shines on the San Antonio TX Public Library. But her family in the Twin Cities and the position at our library beckoned. Now she is getting to know Northfield, whose riverwalk was inspired by San Antonio's Paseo del Rio riverwalk (thanks to former Northfield News editor Maggie Lee). You'll find Teresa in the Director's office or out and about in the library. Introduce yourself! Or you can welcome her via email at Teresa.jensen@ci.northfield.mn.us.

In a new installation celebrating 25 years of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, the work of Carleton College art professors David Lefkowitz and Stephen Mohring is featured in “Walker on the Green: Artist-Designed Mini Golf.” On Thursday, May 23, The Walker Art Center will open two eight-hole courses, featuring individual holes created by various architects, artists, engineers, machinists, and mini-golf aficionados. The new interactive installation features everything from garden gnomes masquerading as foosball players to a scale model of a French chateau, along with mazes, gopher holes, and contours mapped from the course of the legendary Augusta National Golf Club. The result is a delight for both serious golf purists and lovers of outdoor kitsch.

Lefkowitz and Mohrig contributed Hole 3, entitled “18 Holes in One.” The hole is a physical manifestation of an overlay of all 18 legendary greens at the Augusta National Golf Course, home of the Masters Tournament. The result will thrill and challenge both the novice and seasoned mini-golfer alike. With 18 potential targets in their sites as they approach the undulating surface of the composition structure, golfers will encounter a nonlinear spatiotemporal golfing experience like no other.

When Doug Bratland and Ann Mosey sat down for a beer at The Contented Cow a couple of years back, the conversation circled around how to create an arts-focused event calendar for local artists. They had heard time and time again that there was a void of immediate access to when, who, what, and where things were going on in Northfield.

Fast forward a bit: Amy Smith joins the group, and the three of them develop Northfield ArtsTown, a comprehensive website for artists, venues, and fans in which everyone and everything is connected.

The new website, online now at ArtsTown.us, offers not only a comprehensive calendar of local events for dance, film, literary arts, music, theater, and visual arts, the site also features membership-based portfolios of local artists and arts-related businesses.

The Cannon Valley Regional Orchestra (CVRO) will complete its 34th season with two concerts playing music to celebrate the coming of spring. Under the theme ”Voices of Spring”, mezzo soprano soloist Deesa Staats will join the CVRO on Thursday, May 16, at 7:00 P.M. at the Paradise Center for the Arts in Faribault and on Friday, May 17, at 7:00 P.M. at St. Ansgar’s Lutheran Church in Cannon Falls.

Volunteers are needed for two events happening this Saturday, May 18 in the Cowling Arboretum. From 6 to 9 a.m., the College will host its Annual Spring Bird Count and from 9 a.m. until noon, participants are invited to help with an Arboretum Spring Clean Up.

Thursday, May 16: Back by popular demand, Billy Johnson confirms his status as one of the Twin Cities’ best feel-good, blue-collar, barroom-rousing tunesmiths. Billy has opened for the BoDeans, Five For Fighting, Train, Poco, Paul Thorn, Van Hunt, Lowen and Navarro, Old 97s, and many many more. Learn more at www.billyjohnsonmusic.com.
 

Friday, May 17: Northfield native Jon Manners has charmed audiences locally and throughout the Twin Cities with his passionate brand of bluesy folk-rock. The Lounge is pleased to bring this engaging artist back to the Tavern stage. More at www.jonmanners.com.

St. Olaf College Writer in Residence Benjamin Percy recently released his second novel, Red Moon, to widespread critical acclaim. 

On the heels of their first official concert in almost seven months, the revered St. Paul Chamber Orchestra comes to Carleton College for a special performance on Saturday, May 18 at 8 p.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel. Tickets, available at the door, are $10 the general public, $7 for students and seniors, and free for those with a Carleton or St. Olaf College ID.

Considered to be one of the finest chamber ensembles in the world, the SPCO’s performance will feature a pairing of French music—including Arthur Honegger’s “Pastorale d’été”and Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns’s “Symphony No. 2”—with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Sinfonia Concertante K. 364.” The program also includes Heinz Holliger’s “Sketches for Violin and Viola,” an homage to the work of Mozart.

This not-to-be-missed concert will be conducted by violinist Thomas Zehetmair and also features acclaimed violist Ruth Killius.

Executive Director Hayes Scriven announces that the Northfield Historical Society will be hosting two events May 16. Beginning at 6 p.m. the society will honor its 2012 volunteers of the year: Ian Iverson and Barbara Rippley. During the two-hour event the public also will have the opportunity to tour the collection storage rooms of the newly named Joan Olson Research Center.

Acclaimed award-winning author Benjamin Percy, currently touring the globe in support of his latest buzzworthy release, “Red Moon,” will appear at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, May 20 at J. Grundy’s Rueb-N-Stein in Northfield. The event, which is free and open to the public, will feature a reading from “Red Moon” and reception with the author, as well as a performance by popular local band, The Counterfactuals. Copies of “Red Moon” will also be available for purchase at the event.

Percy’s website, www.benjaminpercy.com, offers this description of “Red Moon:”

“They live among us.
They are your neighbour, your mother, your lover.
They change.

Carleton College’s Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE) will host the annual Empty Bowls fundraiser on Friday, May 17 on the campus Bald Spot at 11:50 a.m., following the weekly convocation address. This popular event is open to the public.

At the April 30 community calendar meeting, participants identified the benefits and concerns of seven calendar concepts. At the end of the meeting, participants were asked to vote yes or no on each one (abstaining was also permitted), answering this question:

Does this calendar type have enough merit to move it forward for more consideration and "fleshing out" with specific detail and actual days?

If you were not able to attend the meeting, this calendar concepts online straw poll is your opportunity to weigh in.  You can vote yes or no on each calendar concept, or you can abstain.

Teen Risk-Taking and the Developing Brain

This article was written by Joan Janusz, a member of the Northfield Mayor’s Task Force on Youth Alcohol and Drug Use. 

Where is she? Why didn’t she plan ahead and call? Smoking?—he said he would never try cigarettes.  Surely our son wouldn’t ride with someone who has been drinking. 

Last month in our Guest Column, the Mayor’s Task Force on Youth Alcohol and Drug Use talked about concerns of possible high risk behaviors connected with prom such as substance use, drinking and driving, unsafe sex.  For fun and safety, planning ahead was emphasized.

Running a restaurant is hard work. Fortunately, Northfield has had a long history of places to eat meals carefully prepared and served by people of vision, energy, creativity and determination. Many of these places, in addition to providing food, serve as gathering spots, adding to the character of the community. Some have had short lives, while others have been in business for decades.

The current Northfield Historical Society exhibit provides a glimpse of the long history of eating-places in our town.  NHS Director Hayes Scriven says the exhibit features those places still open and which have been in business the longest.  Others, including some that have passed into history, are also documented. The exhibit will be on display through the summer.

The Northfield Arts Guild is hosting auditions for THE MUSIC MAN (Book, Music and Lyrics by: MEREDITH WILLSON; Story by: MEREDITH WILLSON and FRANKLIN LACEY) on Sunday, May 12 and Monday, May 13; 6:00 - 8:30 pm both days.  CALL THE NORTHFIELD ARTS GUILD THEATER OFFICE at 507-645-8877 for a half hour audition appointment.  Walk-ins accepted.