Culturology 10-27: The Pasty Edition

by Travis Ryder

Our food says a lot about our culture. Lutefisk, wild rice, venison and potica all reflect place as well as history.  The pasty, a meat-and-vegetable meal-in-your-hand, has been Iron Range lunchbucket fare since the 1880s, when expert miners from Cornwall, England brought the recipe to their new homes and jobs here. Heidi Holtan recently visited with folks on the pasty assembly line at Hibbing's Wesley United Methodist Church. For seventy-five years, they have been producing pasties as a fundraiser.  What food is part of the culture where you live?  Send us your stories: arts@kaxe.org.  

The Tweed Museum of Art at the University of Minnesota-Duluth has a new show up through the winter.  It’s the Art and Design Faculty Show.  KUMD’s Maija Jensen visits with printmaker Robert Repinski whose work is in the show.  The Art and Design Faculty Show is on display through March 4 at the Tweed Museum on the UMD campus in Duluth.

Martha Larson  

The gypsy-jazz outfit Clearwater Hot Club has a special pair of gigs this weekend: the group will be joined by a kindred spirit toting a cello.  Martha Larson has played in the scene in Chicago, as a member of the Northwestern Philharmonia and learning the gypsy style with Alfonso Ponticelli. Professionally, she's an engineer and is now back home in Minnesota as the sustainability manager for Carleton College in Northfield.  Clearwater Hot Club guitarist Sam Miltich joined us in studio, and Larson connected by phone for this chat.   The group plays at Brigid's Cross in Bemidji Friday night and the Grand Rapids VFW on Saturday; both gigs start at 7.

Culture Calendar 
Thursday, October 27

Ian Ethan performs on his double-neck acoustic guitar at Davies Theater on the Itasca Community College campus, tonight at 7:00.  Listen today in the 2:00 hour.  Ian talks and performs for us on “Currents”.

An evening of Irish music and mythology with Garry Jones and Laura MacKenzie.  This starts at 7:30 tonight at the Headwaters School in Bemidji.  They'll also appear at 2 p.m. at Bemidji Public Library.

Friday, October 28

The closing reception for the October show at the Edge Center Gallery in Bigfork is Friday night from 5 to 7. Gordon Coons’ drawings, prints, and carvings finish their engagement on Saturday.
A poetry reading at Itasca Community College this Friday, featuring Bart Sutter, who has won the Minnesota Book Award in three categories.  Sutter was Duluth’s first poet laureate and has a Bush Fellowship to his credit. Ryan Vine's poems have appeared in many literary journals including American Poetry Review and Ploughshares, and his book, Distant Engines, won the Weldon Kees Award.  Their performance will be followed by an open mike and readings by ICC faculty and writers published in the campus literary journal Spring Thaw.  The reading will start at 7 in Backes Student Center on the ICC campus.
Grand Rapids High School presents an original farce, “Bird Brains,” penned by local dramatist John Schroeder.  Friday and Saturday at 7:30.
Sam Miltich and Clearwater Hot Club featuring cellist Martha Larson at Brigid’s Cross, Bemidji. 7 p.m.

Saturday, October 29

‘Tis the season: Hear local ghost stories at the Beltrami County History Center from 1 to 2:30 on Saturday. Come in costume for half-off museum admission, refreshments included. Bring a story to share!
Hall of Fame bluegrass player Dick Kimmel will be on hand for a concert, workshop, and dinner at Deep Portage Learning Center in Hackensack.  Workshop starts at 5 with dinner at 6 and concert at 7.

Sam Miltich and Clearwater Hot Club featuring cellist Martha Larson at the VFW, Grand Rapids.  7 p.m.

Wednesday, November 2

It’s Only Clay, the ninth annual clay arts celebration, opens with a community lecture by juror Guillermo Cuellar at the Headwaters School in downtown Bemidji.  It starts at 7 p.m. 
Ashley Kolka leads a discussion on American art in Minnesota collections during a Brown Bag session Wednesday at noon.  It's at MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids.

What's on your calendar? Let us know: arts@kaxe.org. 

Minnesota History Datebook

Did you know Itasca County has existed for as long as there have been counties in Minnesota?  The territorial legislature created the original nine counties of Minnesota this week in 1849. Benton, Dakota, Itasca, Ramsey, Wabasha and Washington still exist in some form, and three no longer appear on a Minnesota map: Wahnahta County, near Lake Traverse; Pembina County included much of what would become North and South Dakota; and Mahkahta County was north of present-day Crow Wing County.

October 28, 1949: President Harry S. Truman appoints Eugenie Moore Anderson of Red Wing as ambassador to Denmark, making her the United States' first woman ambassador.

Two Twins wins:  In the seventh game of the World Series, October 25, 1987, the Twins beat the St. Louis Cardinals with a score of 4-2, winning the series 4-3.  On October 27, 1991, Jack Morris pitches a ten-inning shutout as the Minnesota Twins beat the Atlanta Braves 1-0 in the seventh game of the fall classic.

Culturology: Talking Circle Promotes Understanding

A family-services worker with Ojibwe ancestry uses the circle technique to encourage open sharing and real listening. KAXE's Travis Ryder joins a Grand Rapids-area spiritual growth group in the circle, listen: Talking Circles Promote Understanding

Hear that feature and more on the Culturology page. Discover and get involved with the broad and deep world of arts and culture in Northern Minnesota. Each edition features profiles of artists from a wide spectrum of creativity, from painters, potters and sculptors to fine-arts and heritage musicians, authors and poets.Presented by Northern Community Radio and 91.7 KAXE.

Culturology 12-16: Log Church and Good Food

by Travis Ryder

 This edition of 'Culturology' features a piece by Justin Cook on the beautiful, 102-year old Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in the west Range town of Coleraine.  The city's founder/designer and Oliver Mining superintendent John C. Greenway was a charter member.  By 1987, the congregation could no longer maintain the landmark.  The City took ownership and a local group took action to preserve the sturdy structure and make it available for special events.  The 'Christmas in the Country' concert, held in the church each December, benefits the preservation fund.

Also featured this week, Heidi Holtan's documentary takes us to the garlic fields of Itasca County and several co-operative grocery stores in our region. 'RealGoodFood' is another in the series of documentary pieces produced by KAXE staff as part of a recent training course.

Also, the Culture Calendar and a look back in this week's Minnesota history moments.

Culturology airs select Thursdays at 8:10 am, and is supported by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

Culturology on 91.7 KAXE

Culturology with Travis Ryder and volunteer/freelance contributors Select Thursdays, 8 a.m on 91.7 KAXE. Discover and get involved with the broad and deep world of arts and culture in Northern Minnesota. Each edition features profiles of artists from a wide spectrum of creativity, from painters, potters and sculptors to fine-arts and heritage musicians, authors and poets. The program also endeavors to be an entry point into the rich cultural past and present of our region. Join in the cultural conversation by using the calendar of events, and providing stories and reviews of events you attend. A variety of arts and culture voices, textures, and topics await you select Thursday mornings in the 8 o’clock hour. Check out recent features from Culturology.

Ben Moore and 'Boom Drawings'

by Travis Ryder

Luther College assistant professor of art Ben Moore is primarily a painter.  His new work at MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids departs from that form, with silkscreened images from past parties he has attended intermixed with exceedingly subtle pencil drawings of explosions and dust clouds.  They're called "Boom Drawings", and he says the images portray "calamity, things that are about to go wrong.  That moment right when you know something bad is going to happen."

Double Head

Don't Be Jealous

These works and many others are hanging until Thanksgiving week at the center in downtown Grand Rapids.  I speak with Ben about his new images Thursday morning in the 8 o'clock hour.

Klueg, Molberg Create New Ceramic Work

by Travis Ryder

UMD art and design professor and ceramics area head James Klueg spoke with me at the opening of his exhibition, "Weapons of Mass Seduction," last Friday. The work features layers of glazing scratched back to match the graphics he creates digitally and projects onto the flat-sided vessels. The deliberate and highly-contrived nature of Klueg's work contrasts nicely with the stark concrete, steel, and weathered wood of Marie Schrobilgen's sculpture, also on display at MacRostie Art Center in downtown Grand Rapids through the end of September. See more of his work here.

Roald Molberg lives and produces pottery north of Duluth. He talked with us recently about a new technique he learned that involves creating aesthetic vessels from the inside of a temporary shell. The result is striking to the eye, creating a remarkable level of relief without the usual pitfalls of a traditional applique method. More images of Molberg's work are located here.

The audio from these stories is available on the front page of kaxe.org and via the AMPERS.org arts and culture archive site.

These segments are made possible with support from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.