Art Crawl and Classical Music Crawl this weekend in St. Paul

Spring’s Saint Paul Art Crawl will take place this weekend … snow or no snow. Starting tonight (Friday, April 26) at 6 p.m., ending Sunday at 5, artists’ studios and galleries will be open in Lowertown, ground zero of the Crawl, and downtown, on the West Side and West 7th, in Highland and on Cathedral Hill, at Raymond Station, in the Midway and Merriam Park and on the East Side. This year’s Crawl has 41 locations – up from 33 in 2017. Some locations have multiple studios and stops. More than 400 artists will take part; some 20,000 people are expected to show up.

As always, the Crawl will be loaded with performances and other special events, hands-on opportunities to explore your inner artist, and countless more reasons to wander the streets, talk with strangers, and bring home some art. You can peruse and/or download a catalog here (or pick one up along the way), get a map and free MetroTransit passes here, and check out the events schedule here.

We’ve ID’d a handful of things and places we think are worth checking out.

At the Minnesota State Arts Board: “A Creative Investment: Celebrating 10 Years of Legacy Art and Impact.” A visual arts showcase featuring work by artists from 39 communities across the state, all made possible by funding provided through the Legacy Amendment we the people voted for in 2008. The show will include pottery, textiles, painting, sculpture, regalia and photography. If you can’t visit this weekend, the exhibition will be on display weekdays from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. until August. 400 Sibley St., Suite 200. FMI. Opening reception at 7 p.m. tonight (Friday).

In Lowertown on Saturday: Saint Paul Classical Music Crawl. Multiple 15-minute performances by 16 groups and organizations at six locations (but just three buildings): the Baroque Room, Studio Z, Northwestern Building, the Black Dog, AZ Gallery and Nautilus Music-Theater. Performers include Flying Forms, Cerulean Fire, the Bach Society of Minnesota, Zeitgeist, DeVon Russell Gray aka dVRG and Joe Horton (for the American Composers Forum), Ladyslipper, Mill City String Quartet, Skylark Opera Theater and Minnesota Opera. Mini-concerts on the hour and half-hour. Free. Here’s the schedule. Note that you can also sign up for a 1½-hour guided tour with Steve Staruch, John Birge or Andrea Blain of Classical MPR.

On Payne Ave.: New art spaces by Jon Oulman and Chris Larson. Will Payne Ave. be the next Lowertown or Northeast Minneapolis? Earlier this year, Oulman – artist and arts supporter, owner of the Amsterdam in St. Paul and the 331 Club and the Sheridan Room in Minneapolis – bought a pair of buildings at 1106 and 1108 Payne. Before then, artist Chris Larson and his wife, Kriss Zulkosky, bought 1128 Payne for a collaborative art space called Second Shift Studio, which will host residencies for women and non-binary artists. Oulman’s plans for 1106 and 1108 include a future gallery space and café/wine bar. During Art Crawl, 1106 will feature an infrared film piece by artist Holly Streekstra and 1108 will host ceramics and prints by Erica Terwilliger. Second Shift isn’t ready for visitors (look for that in June), so Larson and fellow curator Maria Cristina Tavera will be at the old Swedish Bank Building at 965 Payne with “Thirty Three Views,” a show of work by 33 Twin Cities-based women and non-binary artists. The exhibition will occupy the third floor of the vacant building for one week. Reception Saturday from 7-10 p.m. Years from now, you might be bragging about seeing these spaces first.

At TPT: Friday is Open Mic Night. From 6-10 p.m., the TPT stage will host four hours of 10-minute performances emceed by Desdamona. TPT provides the stage, lighting, and a single mic. Anything goes – spoken word, comedy, vocal and/or acoustic – but no profanity. (On Thursday afternoon, there was one time slot left.) Saturday is Tour the TPT Studios Day. See where the magic is made, including the “Almanac” set. A new tour will start every 15 minutes from noon to 6 p.m. Come to the Street Space for snacks and coffee while you wait for the next group. Sunday is STEAM Day with SciGirls. An afternoon of science, technology, engineering, arts and math crafts and activities for kids and toddlers. Noon – 5 p.m. All at 172 East 4th St.

The picks

Tonight (Friday, April 26) at the O’Shaughnessy: Octavia E. Butler’s “Parable of the Sower – The Concert Version.” Afro-futurism imagined by a groundbreaking science fiction writer, translated into a theatrical work by musician Toshi Reagon, her mother Bernice Johnson Reagon (founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock) and director Eric Ting, performed by an ensemble of 20 singers and musicians. Based on the novels “Parable of the Sower” and “Parable of the Talents” by Octavia E. Butler, the first successful  black female SF writer, this genre-defying work covers two centuries of black music as it explores gender, race and the future of human civilization. 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($5-57). A Women of Substance event.

Tonight and Saturday at Orchestra Hall: Vänskä Conducts Beethoven and Sibelius. The first half pairs Beethoven’s Overture to “The Creatures of Prometheus” with the U.S. premiere of contemporary American composer Geoffrey Gordon’s “Prometheus,” featuring bass clarinetist Timothy Zavadil in his first solo performance with the orchestra. The second half includes Haukur Tómasson’s Piano Concerto No. 2, with award-winning Icelandic pianist Vikingur Ólafsson making his Minnesota Orchestra debut, and Sibelius’ “Tapiola.” This is not music you hear every day. 8 p.m. both nights. FMI and tickets $30-102).

Saturday: The Minneapolis Lyndale Farmers Market will open for the season. It will stay open daily from 6 a.m. – 1 p.m. Other Farmers Markets will follow soon: Nicollet Mall (Thursdays) on May 2, Mill City (Saturdays) on May 4, the Hennepin County Government Center (Tuesdays) on May 7. Here’s a list of markets and their schedules. Here’s an interactive map.

Saturday at Groveland Gallery: Opening receptions for “The Hill That Walked Away” by Dan and Lee Ross and “Chain of Lakes” by Justin Terlecki. North Shore artists Dan and Lee Ross have made a life together in art, inspired by nature, animals and landscapes, the views of Lake Superior from their studio windows and their travels to places like Newfoundland and Labrador. Working with clay, stone, ink and paper, they create strong, distinctive sculptures and monoprints – some literal, some abstract, all with stories to tell.  Using oil, acrylic, watercolor, and pen and ink, Justin Terlecki captures moments in everyday life: shoes scattered on a floor, a festival on the State Capitol grounds, a man sketching at his dining room table. 2-5 p.m. Both shows run through Aug. 1.

Saturday at Spectrum Business Systems in St. Paul: “AA4: Music for Typewriters (and People).” Occasion: the launch of a new artist book, with images, a reading, a small exhibition of typewriter models owned by Ansel Adams, and sound performances. Location: a St. Paul typewriter shop. Project support was provided by the Visual Arts Fund, administered by Midway Contemporary Art with generous funding from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York. It all started when someone found a 50-year-old audio recording of Adams typing an unknown letter. 3-5 p.m. FMI. Free.

Saturday at Crooners: Happy Apple. The legendary Twin Cities experimental jazz trio of Dave King (drums), Eric Fratzke (bass) and Michael Lewis (saxophones) formed in 1996; the three friends have maintained their freshness ever since. Their appearances are rare and we have always been, well, happy to see and hear them. Fratzke recently played a show at Studio Z with Brandon Wozniak and Anthony Cox; Lewis just last week performed at the Lab with choreographer/dancer Eva Mohn as part of the SPCO’s Liquid Music series. One of King’s other groups, a little something known as The Bad Plus, is about to leave on a European tour. This show will be on Crooners’ main stage – the bigger of its two performance spaces, but still intimate. 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($25).