Thursday's Give to the Max Day lets Duluthians - well, all Minnesotans - see the non-profit organizations in their communities that are working so hard to make life better for all of us.
Not surprisingly, Annie Dugan is recommending you pay particular attention to arts organizations, but you can find a pretty complete list of all the local non-profits who could use some love right here.
The 9th Annual CHOICE, unlimited Evening of the ARTS begins Thursday evening at 6:30pm. The venue, the Lincoln Park Middle School, seems especially appropriate, according to Annie, given Lincoln Park art teacher Chrissy Valento's work with her students.
Also Thursday night, the Duluth Coffee Company is holding an opening reception for a joint installation of the work of Cameron Conlon and Tom Moriarty.
According to event organizers, "Cameron has spent the last four years as a full-time apprentice at Great Lakes Academy of Fine Art and just recently painted a mural in downtown Duluth. Tom has spent the last several years in Duluth and you may recognize some of his work from the Brewer's Garage as well as Taco Arcada."
Saturday and Sunday will give you the chance to
- Make community art
- Cut a rug
- Wash your feet
- Walk, stomp, sing, kick and roll
It's Community Felt Rug Making at the Duluth Folk School both days from 10am to 5pm and the event is free.
The art of felt rug making has a long history of bringing people together and this event is inspired from the felt rug making traditions of Kyrgyzstan. The rug will begin about 8' by 10' with the design ready to go and together we will add soapy water and start walking on the rug with our bare feet. Over the course of two days, along with the help of live music, we will walk, stomp, sing, kick and roll the wool into a strong felt rug that will be a gift for the Duluth Public Library. All hands and feet welcome! You can drop by for 10 minutes or stay all day. No experience necessary.
Finally, Saturday evening at Prove Gallery is a celebration of "art, love, and rock and roll." Venus DeMars and Lynette Reini-Grandell host Trouble: A Glam-Punk Trans-Rock Love Storybeginning at 7:00pm.
Lynette Reini-Grandell and her spouse of 36 years Venus de Mars read from and discuss the process of writing separate memoirs on their parallel journeys through the ups and down of art, love, rock and roll. They will share writing writing strategies that have helped them move forward in creating book-length manuscripts and how they've coped with dredging up the sometimes painful past.
