Public art is often large but seldom nomadic. Our own Minne the Lake Creature is an exception. Inspired by the 1934 “surgeon’s photo” of the Loch Ness Monster, created by Minneapolis sculptor Cameron Gainer, the 13-foot fiberglass beast first appeared in Lake Harriet in 2009. She (who knows why it’s a she?) has since visited two or more Minneapolis lakes each summer. This summer, she’ll stay put in Wirth Lake. Say hi at Saturday’s free community grand opening of Wirth Lake Beach, which has now been restored after the devastation of the 2011 North Minneapolis tornado. June 9, 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m., Wirth Lake Park. Minne is a public-art project of the Minneapolis Parks Foundation.

Public art at its most imaginative, community-centered and effusive, the second annual Northern Spark starts at dusk on Saturday and ends at dawn on Sunday. Here’s a fine piece by Deborah Carver that puts the event in context, presents a cheat sheet to this year’s five “zones” and key events, and includes a short film about last year. Here’s Sheila Regan at City Pages. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Walker, and the Weisman are open all night; on this night only, the Walker displays three popular works from its collection, including Franz Marc’s “The Large Blue Horses.” Visit the Northern Spark website for detailed schedules, descriptions of artists and events, maps, and more. Pick up a printed guidebook at one of several locations. Download the free mobile app (for iPhone and Android). Then take a nap on Saturday, grab the kids (many Northern Spark events are kid-friendly), and stay up late.

Photo by Dusty Hoskovec'Scattered Light' by Jim Campbell at the 2011 Northern Spark

Or don’t take a nap and hang out at the 8th Annual Famous Dave’s BBQ and Blues Fest. New location (on Nicollet between 3rd and 4th), great lineup including Charlie Musselwhite, Walter Trout, Davina and the Vagabonds, the Johnny Rawls Band, Sena Ehrhardt, and Charlie Parr. Noon to 10:30 p.m. Saturday, free. Two words: Music. Ribs. 

More music and ribs: For you big-band fans (I know you’re out there), the 22nd Annual Festival of Jazz on the Prairie takes place Sunday at Staring Lake Amphitheatre in Eden Prairie. A whole afternoon of big-band jazz by the Good News Big Band, Just Friends Big Band, ACME Jazz Company, Bend in the River Big Band, River City Jazz Orchestra, and Jazz on the Prairie Big Band. 2 p.m. – 8 p.m. FMI. Free. Each year features a rotating lineup of area big bands but always ends with the Jazz on the Prairie Big Band led by Don Bates, former director of the Hopkins High School bands and father of drummer JT Bates and bassist Chris Bates. Like half of the Twin Cities jazz community, Don showed up at Icehouse on Monday to see JT inaugurate the new venue’s big stage.

Bob Marley on the Mississippi? A marriage made in heaven. A benefit for the Jamaica Minnesota Organization’s scholarship program, the 16th Annual Reggae on the River Boat Ride features live music by Ipso Facto, a DJ, and door prizes. Tickets at Guyam Grocery, Harry Singh’s, Marla’s Cuisine, the Black Dog, and Urban Lights Music. $30 advance, $35 at the boat. 21+; ID required. Boards 8:30 p.m. Saturday night at Harriet Island, rain or shine.

The Schubert Club has announced a special recital that should have the box office phones ringing off the hook. On April 30, 2013, American opera singer Jessye Norman will perform. Winner of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and Kennedy Center Honors, Norman is one of the most celebrated artists of our time. The French named an orchid after her. This will be her fourth recital at the Schubert Club; her most recent appearance was 15 years ago. The occasion: the Schubert Club’s 130th anniversary. Norman will sing a program of American songs and spirituals from the past and present. Tickets are on sale now to International Artist Series subscribers. Individual tickets go on sale July 23.

We now know the 2012-13 McKnight Screenwriting Fellows. Melissa Brandt impressed the judges with her script “Chicken Day” about a troublesome teenage girl and a small-town competition; Matt Stenerson earned his honors for “Death to Prom,” about three high-school misfits in a unique love triangle.

Kristen Marx has been hired as arts program assistant at the McKnight Foundation. She comes to the McKnight after four years at the Walker Art Center. Before then, she worked at the Walker, the Jungle, the Ordway, and Park Square Theater.

Free outdoor concerts return to the Minnesota History Center in July and August. The Minnesota Historical Society has announced this year’s “9 Nights of Music” lineup. As always, this popular Tuesday-night series looks to be eclectic and fun. July 3: the South Side Aces (New Orleans jazz). July 10: Jumbo Ya Ya (Zydeco, blues and swamp pop). July 17: Surf Dawgs with Zip Kaplan (classic surf, complete with blow-up pools and a Hawaiian shirt contest). July 24: Moonlight Serenaders with Lee Engele (swing). July 31: Tropical Zone Orchestra (Brazilian). Aug. 7: Voices of Sepharad (Mediterranean Jewish). Aug. 14: Paul Metsa and Cats Under the Stars (rock, country and blues). Aug. 21: Ross Sutter, Paul & Daniel Dahlin and Äkta Spelmän (Swedish). Aug. 28: Barley Jacks with Brian Wicklund (Bluegrass). FMI. Free.

Sound Unseen’s summer programming begins June 13 with the Minnesota premiere of the documentary “Paul Williams Still Alive.” Williams was everywhere in the 1970s, winning Grammys and an Oscar, writing #1 songs, appearing as a guest on The Tonight Show (50 times), and singing with the Muppets. A fan tracks him down and finds out where he’s been. July 9-11: “Last Days Here,” about musician Bobby Liebling and his band, Pentagram. Aug. 15: “What Did You Expect,” a concert/documentary film on the North Carolina band The Archers of Loaf. The director and producer will be present. All films screen at the tiny but fab Trylon Microcinema. FMI and tickets.

Courtesy Goldstein Museum of DesignA basket from the Goldstein show

Opening tonight at the Goldstein Museum of Design: “Quest for the World’s Best Baskets,” with more than 200 baskets from around the world. You may think you know what baskets look like, what they’re made from, and what they’re for; this exhibition will flex your perceptions. My notion of baskets utterly changed when I first encountered St. Paul basketmaker Tressa Sularz, whose beautiful and often surprising work is currently on display in a collaborative show at the Grand Hand Gallery in St. Paul. Goldstein opening reception tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. Show closes Sept. 9. Grand Hand “American Baskets: From Traditional to Contemporary, from Coast to Coast” through July 8.

Open now at the Weinstein Gallery: “Gordon Parks: At 100,” an exhibition of more than 40 important photographs reflecting his cross-cultural, poetic and humanistic vision. Born in Kansas, Parks spent many years in St. Paul, where much of his family still lives. Through July 28.

The Music in Mears series of free summer concerts began last night and continues on Thursdays through August 30 (no show July 5). The music starts at 6 and ends at nine, with three bands performing. This year’s lineup includes the New Standards, Honeydogs, Charlie Parr, No Bird Sing, Mayda, Pippi Ardennia and the PipJazz Experience, Communist Daughter, and Zoo Animal. Complete schedule here.

Now in its 25th year, Illusion Theater’s “Fresh Ink” series begins July 12-15 with Zaraawar Mistry’s “The Other Mr. Gandhi,” an illumination of the Indian-Pakistani conflict that premiered at Dreamland Arts (Mistry’s performance space with his wife, Lesley Orr) in February. Also in this year’s series of works in progress: “It Happened in Texas: Dallas, Jack Ruby and the Lone Star State” by Tessie Bundick and Beth Gilleland (July 19-22), and “A Night in Olympus: A Musical,” a prom musical set in the crossroads of America, with music and lyrics by Chan Poling (The New Standards), book by Jeffrey Hatcher and Bill Corbett (July 26-29). “Fresh Ink” focuses on new scripts and allows artists to develop their work in front of audiences. To date, the series has presented more than 120 plays, many of which have gone on to become full-length productions.

Courtesy Minneapolis Musical TheatreGilligan's Island, the Musical

“Gilligan’s Island: The Musical” docks at the Illusion tonight through June 24. Sit right back and you’ll hear a tale of a brave Skipper, hapless First Mate, fabulously rich Howells, Movie Star, Professor and Country Girl. The musical stage adaptation of the TV show, written by series creator Sherwood Schwartz and his son, Lloyd, features 19 songs composed by Hope Juber and Laurence Juber, the Grammy-winning lead guitarist for Paul McCartney’s Wings. Presented by Minneapolis Musical Theatre. FMI and tickets.

Skylark Opera launches its fifth annual Summer Festival this weekend with two contrasting American operas, Leonard Bernstein’s “Wonderful Town” and Victor Herbert’s operetta “Mlle. Modiste.” Winner of five Tony Awards, “Wonderful Town” follows two sisters from Ohio as they search for success and romance in 1930s New York. Starts tomorrow, ends June 17. “Mlle. Modiste” is the tale of a spirited Parisian hat seller and an aristocratic military officer. Starts tonight, ends June 16. All performances are in the 310-seat Pearson Theatre at Concordia University in St. Paul. FMI and tickets.

Connie Evingson may have just released the best album of her career to date, which is saying a lot. In 2009, she told MinnPost about her interest in Norman Gimbel, an Oscar- and Grammy-winning lyricist whose name has largely been forgotten but whose songs – “The Girl from Ipanema,” “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” “I Will Wait for You” – are part of the canon. Her new CD, “Sweet Happy Life,” is the first all-Gimbel album ever recorded, and it’s delicious. Hip-swinging samba and bossa nova, sensuous love songs (“his gaze swept over me like a slow hot wind”), and a song by Antonio Jobim with never-before-recorded lyrics by Gimbel. Plus a pensive new arrangement of “Killing Me Softly,” a song forever identified with Roberta Flack but convincingly reinterpreted by Evingson. For her CD release at the Jungle this Sunday, she has, as always, gathered a sterling band including Kansas City guitarist Danny Embrey. Two shows, 4:30 and 7 p.m., with food and drink in the lobby afterward. FMI and tickets.

Penumbra celebrates its 35th birthday by throwing itself a party on Monday, June 11, starting at 5:30 p.m. The live performance is a Who’s Who of leading Twin Cities artists including Greta Oglesby, James Craven, T. Mychael Rambo, Dennis Spears, Jevetta Steele, Regina Williams, Austene Van, and Penumbra director Lou Bellamy. With food, wine, desserts, champagne, and an auction. Tickets here.

On Sunday at Macalester’s Weyerhaeuser Memorial Chapel: “Sound Life II,” with three improvising giants: avant-garde trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith (seen at the Walker earlier this year with pianist Vijay Iyer), multi-instrumentalist Douglas R. Ewart (who recently won a 2012-13 McKnight Composer Fellowship), and electronics maestro Stephen Goldstein. At 1600 Grand Ave. between Snelling and Macalester in St Paul. 8 p.m. (Chicagoans will enjoy “Sound Life I” tonight at the University of Chicago.) Free (Mac students, staff, faculty), $10 (students and seniors), $15 (the rest of us).