The Back Track to Art

The Guthrie theater is offering free tickets to actors for the December 19-20 performances of Sweet William.

A large-spirited salute to the Bard, Sweet William is part biography, part analysis and part performance. Reflecting on his long international experience as a director and leading actor, and having spend some 20,000+ hours onstage performing Shakespeare, Michael Pennington sets out to celebrate the life and work of the theater icon.

A seasoned actor/director, Pennington’s career has spanned more than 40 years, during which time he has played leading roles for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and his own award-winning English Shakespeare Company, which he co-founded with Michael Bogdanov in 1986. Perhaps best known to younger audiences as Moff Jerjerrod, commander of the Death Star in Star Wars – Return of the Jedi, he has also published three “User’s Guides” to individual Shakespeare plays, and delivered the annual Shakespeare lecture at the prestigious British Academy.

If you are an actor, and you are interested in these tickets, please contact me at michael(at)northfieldartsguild(dot)org.

The Landmark Cinemas in Edina have passed on to us a couple of free passes (each for two persons) for a movie screening next week.

Movie: Atonement starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy (and based on the book by Ian McEwan)

Time/Date: 7:30 pm, Wednesday, November 28

Place: Landmark Edina Cinema, 3911 W. 5oth St., Edina, MN

Please contact us if you can make use of these free passes:

Email: michael(at)northfieldartsguild(dot) org or call: 507-645-8877

The passes will be given out on a first-come-first-serve basis. You’ll be able to pick up the tickets here at the Guild next week (as the office will be closed for the holiday weekend).

Happy holidays!

I know, I know… terrible pun. And for it I apologize.

But as with Bravo’s popular Project Runway, the Northfield Arts Guild asks of local artists, “do you have what it takes to be ‘in’?”

And by “in” I mean, “in the 9th annual Northfield Arts Guild’s Festival of Trees (on December 6-8)”?

The Arts Guild is seeking top-notch local designers and artists willing to lend their skills, vision, talent, and time to Project Wreathway–aka the Festival of Trees.

As in other years, artists provide hand-crafted holiday ornaments and hand-decorated holiday trees that then are auctioned off to a hungry local audience. But this year there’s a twist–we’re offering smaller items, lots and lots of them (you guessed it: wreaths, and tabletop trees, and “kissing balls,” as well as all sorts of gift items, tickets to arts events, trinkets for aunt Ellen, gadgets for uncle Bob, and much more!)–all perfect for taking home straight from the event.

So, all you artists and artisans, crafters and craftspeople–join Project Wreathway! Let us know what you’re willing to donate, decorate, or provide. (michael(at)northfieldartsguild(dot)com; 507-645-8877).

Art Guild member and local visual artist Riki Kölbl Nelson would like to inform the NAG community of the current three-person show she is participating in at St. Olaf. (The following description was written by fellow exhibiting artist Doug Bratland):

As a Minnesotan of mostly Norwegian descent, I’m not
altogether comfortable with self-promotion. Which is
why it’s taken me until now to write a story about the
three-person art show that’s on exhibit at St. Olaf
until Saturday. [Note: We've just been informed this
show will be extended until Thanksgiving.]

My twin brother, Don, and I and our friend Riki Kölbl
Nelson all graduated as art majors from St. Olaf in
1987. Riki, the one actual “working artist” among us,
organized an exhibition to concur with the celebration
of our 20th reunion, which was last weekend.

Read on for an illustrated description of the show….

Riki Kölbl Nelson is a poet and painter who has
exhibited her work locally, nationally and
internationally during the decades she’s lived in
Northfield. Her works are the most diverse of the
three exhibitors, featuring pieces mainly inspired by
St. Olaf’s memorial chime tower and wind turbine. Riki
is an Austrian native who worked on her undergraduate
art degree while her son was in high school. She has
additional degrees in English literature and an MFA in
painting.

Don Bratland’s work is a series of 26 black & white
photographs—each representing one letter of the
alphabet—depicting scenes from the landscape of his
rural life. He lives on a hobby farm in Nerstrand with
his family, a bunch of horses, a few cats, a dog, and
lots of breathing space. Don is co-owner of Holmes
Design in downtown Northfield and the art director of
the St. Olaf Magazine, but this is the first exhibition
of his photography since 1987.

In my own works I utilized various materials to
explore a single theme: rocks. Varying from real to
realistic to surrealistic, my pieces mix photographs
with sculptures rendered in clay, papier mache, wool
and packing tape. This is also my first full art
exhibition since college, but I’ve been making visual
art off and on since moving to Northfield in 2002. My
normal gig is working on websites, both as a long-time
volunteer with Northfield.org and as a recent addition
to Carleton’s web services group.

If you decide to stop up on campus to check out the
show, don’t get discouraged when you have trouble
finding the exhibition space. It’s not in the art
building, but in the student center, Buntrock Commons.
Head for the back wall and look for a pair of closed
doors to the left, near the cash machines; the show
hangs in the hallway leading to the telecom office.
You can email me [Doug Bratland -- dbratland(at)gmail.(dot)com]
for more detailed directions or additional information.

I’m going to date myself here, but the NAG Theater reminds me (and I mean this in the best possible way) of Spanky, Alfalfa, Darla, Stymie, Buckwheat, Porky, Froggy, Butch and all the other youthful members of the Our Gang/Little Rascals series of shorts from the 1930s.

Whenever the gang confronted a seemingly insurmountable problem (”You mean you lost all of the gang’s money?” “Gosh, how can we help pop save his farm?”), someone would eventually come up with a resolution by saying: “I know. Hey gang, let’s put on a show!” We would then be treated to a long variety show– with Alfalfa, the consummate artiste, croaking Barber of Seville, Spanky mimicking Cab Calloway, Darla crooning “Head Over Heals in Love Again,” and the whole gang singing “Old Brown Jug.”

Why does this remind me of the NAG Theater? You ask.

Well, between you and me, this little gang called the Northfield Arts Guild sure has seen it’s share of troubles of late (”you mean you’re cutting our funding in half?” “you mean you really can’t renew your long-standing sponsorship of this essential program?”). But ever-enterprising, the NAG Theater committee has responded yet again by saying, you guessed it, “Hey gang, let’s put on a show!” (Namely “Jesse Jane’s Jamboree II: Kitten Kaboodle,” a fundraiser to benefit your Northfield Arts Guild.)

This rollickin’, roilin’, downright rivetin’ variety show was written by Northfield playwright Brendon Etter, directed by our own Rachel Haider, and it involves a host of local technical and performing talent all intent on helping the Guild!

Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday, September 6 - 8 at 7:30 pm, with an additional show at 5:00 pm on Saturday. Tickets are only $8.00 and are available by calling 507-645-8877 or online at the NAG website.

Hope to see you there!

Arts administration, like art itself, is not just work and toil–occasionally it can be fun.

Such is the case when just a few weeks ago when, on a glorious Minnesota summer evening, I traveled to the home of Sam Demas and Laurel Bradley to fulfill an obligation I had made at the Northfield Arts Guild’s Annual Art Auction back in February.

That Auction event in February, by the way, occurred just a week after I started my position as the director of the Guild, which meant I spent my first days working in Northfield mired in the last-minute scramble to find prizes and to organize the event. Since, in my off-hours I fancy myself an amateur mixologist, I humbly offered my own services as a cocktail mixer as a prize in the auction. More specifically, I offered to “invent” two new cocktails and provide enough ingredients for a cocktail party of 10 people. The prize was won by Sam and Laurel, who wisely waited until the loveliest time of year to cash in, making the event gloriously enjoyable for me and, I presume, for everyone involved.

For your benefit, here are cocktail recipes for the two drinks I invented and brought to the party for Sam and Laurel. They were both created with consideration for the preferences of the party hosts, and they were intended to be appropriately summery and refreshing.

Longfellow’s Song

In a highball glass, place 3-4 sprigs of fresh basil and 1 tablespoon of orgeat syrup and muddle generously. Add crushed ice and 2 oz gin, and add the juice from 4 lime halves, leaving 1-2 lime shells in the glass as a garnish. Add 2 cucumber slices, top off with soda water, and garnish with a sprig of basil. Viva la summer!

The Typhoon

In a pitcher or large jug add 8 cups water, 2 cups of fresh lime juice (about 20 limes), 2 cups superfine sugar, and about 10-15 thin slices of fresh (peeled) ginger. Whisk together the ingredients until the sugar dissolves. Leave the pitcher in the refrigerator overnight and strain out the ginger pieces.

In a highball glass, add ice, a fresh lime wedge, and one jigger of rum. Fill glass 3/4-full with lime-ginger juice, and top off with soda water. Add a mint sprig as a garnish, and enjoy!