From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above. 

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Thinking about the future with all your senses 

Theater artist and educator Kathy Welch of Minneapolis saw the multidisciplinary show “Legacy Dream Space” at the Owatonna Arts Center last year. She’s thrilled that the project has continued to expand and will now be on view at Modus Locus Expansion in Minneapolis.

Created by Craig Harris and Candy Kuehn in collaboration with Kym Longhi and Jim Peitzman, “Legacy Dream Space” opens Wednesday and runs through Sept. 25. 

Kathy says: This is an exhibition that evokes all of the senses. It’s an immersive and interactive exhibition that includes sound and lights and projections.

The theme is “legacy,” so the exhibition asks you to think about what sort of legacy we want to leave behind. The audience gets to interact with buttons, and they can record responses, and they can be captured on video, and all of that is incorporated into future iterations of the work.  

It was a way to think about the future with all of my senses. It does apply to your intellect, but also when you walk in there, the sounds and the colors and just the tactile [experience] — it was absolutely enlightening to me to see a way to think with your entire body, with all of your senses.

— Kathy Welch

Learning from strong women of the past 

Rebecca Damron of Lanesboro appreciates how History Alive Lanesboro looks to the past to draw connections to our present and our future. She’s looking forward to seeing their production this weekend, entitled, “Time for Women: 150 Years of Leadership.”

The original play highlights the roles of real women in southeast Minnesotan history who have worked for women’s rights and civil rights. The play also celebrates the centennial of Indigenous suffrage in 2024. The two acts span 1870 to 1970.

The show wraps up its tour, which has included Red Wing, St. Paul and historic Forestville, back in Lanesboro this weekend, with performances Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. at the St. Mane Theatre. Tickets are free for people under 18. 

Rebecca adds: Something really fun that will happen is that History Alive Lanesboro will invite the audience to take part in a suffrage rally during the intermission of the show, and then the show will end with a discussion that’s led by the League of Women Voters.

I’d really love for people to come see it, because women’s issues are still at the forefront, especially in this political year.

— Rebecca Damron

And now, let’s all look at horses 

Doris Rubenstein of Richfield is the arts reporter for the American Jewish World newspaper. She recommends seeing the new show of equine portrait artist Nanci Fulmek. 

The opening date for the show is currently being revisited, but check with the ArtBarn52 Gallery for updates.

Doris tells it best: The State Fair is over, and since I fractured my ankle, I wasn’t able to go to my favorite place, the horse barns. The little girl who loved horses desperately still lives on inside me, and I need a horse fix badly as soon as possible. Looks like I’m going to get it, though.

Oil painter and instructor at the Atelier Studio Program of Fine Arts Nanci Fulmek will be exhibiting her fantastic portraits of beautiful horses, amongst other subjects, both serious and whimsical.

Please refrain from trying to feed the horses any carrots or sugar lumps. The paintings are so lifelike that you’ll be tempted! 

Nanci shares that same girlish adoration of horses of all breeds as me, and she went on to paint amazingly life-like portraits of horses. You can almost feel the breath escaping from those flaring equine nostrils, and you'll have to control yourself to keep from patting one of those velvety noise noses.

— Doris Rubenstein