Arts and Entertainment

The One Acts Plays at the high school continue this weekend with performances on Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm.

Also on Friday, the Cow is having a Winter Dance Party at 7pm, and Ben Aaron is playing the Tavern Lounge 8-11:30pm.

A Chess Tournament is taking place in the middle school media center on Saturday 9am-12pm. The Cow is hosting Jon Larson's Neil Diamond Tribute 8-11pm, and Lonesome Dan Kase is playing the Tavern Lounge 8-11:30pm.

Head to Froggy Bottoms on Sunday for special deals during Super Bowl Sunday at the Frog!

Four teenagers who organized a benefit concert for a family who lost their home in a fire are the December 2011/January 2012 recipients of the Healthy Community Initiative’s  “Making a Difference” Award.  The award celebrates those groups and individuals in the community who have a positive influence on Northfield youth.

Within hours of learning of the Thanksgiving Eve fire that destroyed the home of the Haslett-Marroquin family, ARTech students Gabby Frenstad and Olivia Upham and Northfield High School students Jasmine Barksdale and Jon Fried rallied support for the family through a Facebook page and organized a concert and bake sale.  Their efforts have raised more than $6,500.

A few St. Olaf-related news items of note from the past week include an alumnus winning his second Caldecott Medal, longtime Northfield resident and Professor of Philosophy Gordon Marino (in photo) writing about the legacy of Joe Paterno in the Chronicle of Higher Education, and a Star Tribune obituary about how the late Frank Gery (find the Strib link at the end of our story) transformed the St. Olaf Economics Department "into a bastion of modern economics, steeped in statistical analysis." 

The high school's One Act Plays are finishing up this weekend, with performances on Friday and Saturday 7-10pm in the Northfield High School Auditorium.

Also on Friday, Kinda Kinky is playing the Contented Cow 8pm-12am while Mike Pattinson plays the Tavern Lounge 8-11:30pm and Whiskey Trick begins their set at Froggy Bottoms at 9:30pm.

The Paradise Center for the Arts in Faribault is holding January Thaw on Saturday, an evening of music and dancing that begins at 7pm. The Cow's music includes The RCAs 8-11pm followed by Fristad Jazz Combo 11:30pm-1am, and Jeff Ray is playing the Tavern lounge 8-11:30pm.

Southeastern Libraries Cooperating (SELCO) and the Northfield Public Library encourage you to submit your original unpublished poetry to be considered for publication in a regional poetry anthology. Please send your poetry submissions by February 15, 2012.

Submission Guidelines:

 Poets must be 16 years of age or older and must reside in Dodge, Fillmore, Freeborn, Goodhue, Houston, Mower, Olmsted, Rice, Steele, Wabasha or Winona counties.

 All poetry styles are welcome for submission.

 Poems must be typed and can be submitted as either digital attachments through e-mail or mailed paper copies.

 Submit digital files by e-mail to poetry@selco.info as one of the following document types: .doc, .txt, .rtf, or .pdf.

Poor Mortimer Brewster has problems.  Not only has he backed himself into a romantic corner, he has a menagerie of kooky relatives to contend with!  His sweet, old spinster aunts have taken up an ethically questionable hobby, one brother thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt, and another brother has had plastic surgery and now looks like Boris Karloff!  This dark comedy is sure to cause spontaneous laughter.

The cast of this wonderful production includes talent from the Northfield and surrounding communities,  including Susan Carlson, Susan Dunhaupt, Bob Gregerson, John Gottskalkson, Emma Langemo, Steve Lawler, Mickey Morstad, Thom Pinault, Bryan Reed, Samira Sabri, Paul Seguin, Chad Severson, Fred Stanley, and Jim Westcott.  The director for this production is Frank Blomgren.  

Have you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes of a theater productions? Or want to get involved, but didn’t know how to get started?  You’re in luck!  The Northfield Arts Guild theater committee is hosting FREE workshops to introduce you to the behind the scenes action of the theater! These sessions are open to ANYONE interested in attending, age 9 to adult.

The Northfield Arts Guild and the Puppet Tellers would like to invite children of all ages to spend part of the day off school on January 23rd with Basil and Samantha!  The Puppet Tellers will be presenting a special performance of A Night on Bear Island at the Northfield Arts Guild Theater from 3:30-5PM on January 23.

Marooned on Bear Island, good friends Basil and Samantha have an adventure!  When they are frightened by noises on the island, they must overcome their fears of imaginary monsters and make a new friend!  They meet a one-of-a-kind Batquito, a bear who loves “marshmellers,” and a poetic frog.  This fast-paced and engaging production features large, colorful puppets, bold graphics and dramatic sound effects that keep everyone interested!  This is a wonderful family show for all ages.

Carleton College will host a guest artist concert by the acclaimed Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) on Saturday, Jan. 28 at 8 p.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel. The performance, led by eminent English conductor Paul McCreesh and featuring the SPCO debut of English tenor Robert Murray, will include String Serenade by Edward Elgar and Nocturne for Tenor and Chamber Orchestra by Benjamin Britten.  Tickets for this not-to-be-missed performance will be available at the door.

Conductor Paul McCreesh has established himself at the highest levels in both the period instrument and modern orchestral fields and is recognized for his authoritative and innovative performances on the concert platform and in the opera house. Together with the Gabrieli Consort and Players, of which he is the founder and Artistic Director, he has performed in major concert halls and festivals across the world and built a large and distinguished discography for Deutsche Grammophon. To learn more about McCreesh, fondly referred to in Europe as “McMaestro,” visit www.gabrieli.com.

Carleton College’s Perlman Teaching Museum, located in the Weitz Center for Creativity, will be hold a special reception from 7:30 to 9 p.m. on Friday, January 20 to formally celebrate the new art exhibition, “A Complex Weave: Women and Identity in Contemporary Art.” On display in the museum’s Braucher Gallery through March 11, the exhibit looks at the ongoing vitality of the feminist movement in art with works by contemporary female artists of varied backgrounds. The reception is free and open to the public.

Along with light refreshments, the reception will also feature a guided tour of the exhibition at 8 p.m., led by Martin Rosenberg, a professor of art history at Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey. Rosenberg co-curated “A Complex Weave” along with J. Susan Isaacs, a professor of art history at Towson University in Maryland.

From January 16 through February 27, Northfield Arts Guild Member Fred Gustafson shows a series of large-scale plates at Allina Clinic.  Influenced by traditional Chinese painting styles, Gustafson has decorated some of his thrown plates with Chinese characters, landscape scenes, and bamboo motifs.   Other plates are covered in a range of vibrant glazes.

This gallery is located near the lab waiting area at Allina Medical Clinic of Northfield at 1440 Jefferson Road.  Regular Clinic Hours are 7 am to 8 pm Monday through Thursday, 7 am to 7 pm Fridays, and 9 am to 3 pm Saturdays.

Northfield artist Judy Saye-Willis has created an installation art exhibit titled, “Where Are The Children?” The exhibit explores the lives of orphan children and beyond. An artists’ reception, that includes work from several Minnesota artists, will be held this Sunday, January 15 from 2-4 p.m., at the Owatonna Arts Center.  Hear an interview with Saye-Willis, and read more about the exhibit. Other participating Northfield artists include: Patsy Dew, Matthew Bunch and Kathy Anderson. The exhibit continues until January 29.

Head to Artech on Friday at 7pm for Arts for Martin: Gathering Community, Creating Art, Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. The Northfield Arts Guild is having an opening reception for the exhibits Surfacing and One Stroke at a Time 7-9pm. Live music at the Contented Cow includes Occasional Jazz 5-7pm, and The Beguine Brothers 8-11pm, and Matthew Griswold is playing the Tavern Lounge 8-11:30pm. The Rueb 'n' Stein is hosting The 8th St. Band at 9pm and Mark Mraz is playing Froggy Bottoms at 9:30pm.

The second annual Winter Scream is happening on Bridge Square 12-2pm on Saturday. The Cow is hosting New Moon Trio 5-8pm followed by Spruce Top Review 8-11pm and Dirty Petrov and the Gentilionaires 11pm-1am. Relativity is playing the Tavern Lounge 8-11:30pm, and Froggy Bottoms is hosting Whiskey Trick at 9:30pm.

What do soup cans, flying toilet paper, and a disco ball have in common? 

They're all part of Target’s impressive new Rube Goldberg-like machine that was constructed last summer by St. Olaf students and alumni. The complex contraption performs a series of tasks in chain reaction involving Target products. 

Carleton College’s Weitz Center for Creativity is the setting for two new art exhibits opening in January 2012 in the College’s Perlman Teaching Museum.  In the Kaemmer Family Gallery, “Running the Numbers: Portraits of Mass Consumption” presents large but intricate color images based on statistics to visually dramatize aspects of contemporary American culture.  In the adjoining Braucher Gallery, “A Complex Weave: Women and Identity in Contemporary Art” reveals the ongoing vitality of the Feminist artist movement with works by 17 contemporary women artists exploring aspects of identity through painting, drawing, needlework, photography and other media. Both exhibits will be on display Friday, January 13 through Sunday, March 11, 2012. Gallery admission is free and open to the public.

“Running the Numbers” features the work of Seattle artist Chris Jordan, who has composed huge color photographs based on statistical facts about American consumer culture. Employingdetailed photographic prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs, Jordan hopes to “raise some questions about the roles and responsibilities we each play as individuals in a collective that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.”