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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.

Jim Voegeli of Rochester visited to Winona Arts Center recently to see the opening of a photography and poetry exhibition entitled 

Retired environmental engineer Pete Mutschler spent six years taking photographs along the full length of the Mississippi River, and for the past two years retired state demographer and poet Tom Gillaspy has written poems to pair with the photographs. The resulting 26 images and poems are on display through March 2 at the 

, which is open from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends.   

Voegeli appreciated both artistic halves of the exhibit. He says the enlarged photographs, encompassing all types of transportation along the river, “looked almost like paintings.” The title has a dual meaning.

 The river does just physically connect all of these photos together and poems. But as Peter said in the reception, the people that he met along the way, all the way up and down the Mississippi were such nice, friendly people that the meaning also has to do with all the people that live along the river, that we’re all connected together.

In June, the exhibit will be on view at the Great River Road Visitor and Learning Center (also known as Freedom Park) in Prescott, Wis. View the ongoing project at 

A daughter sings her love for her father 

Delta Rae Giordano is an actor and teaching artist based in Falcon Heights. She recommends the show 

Elena Glass wrote and performs this show about her father, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was 14. The show includes original music by Twin Cities duet 

. It runs Jan. 24 through Jan. 31 at the Hive Collaborative in St. Paul.

 I’m really interested to see how Elena is going to talk about this, present it to an audience, and create art out of something that’s, you know, a really sad personal loss. But from the description that she has on her event information, it sounds like she really wanted to let people know about this wonderful relationship she had with her dad, and probably some wisdom that he imparted. 

It’s directed by Allison Vincent, who is a very well known local performer and theater maker. She actually did a show about [losing] her own father that was just performed at the fringe last summer.

High school thespians’ 35 minutes to shine 

Georgette Jones is an arts educator and advocate in Watson and she is excited to enter the competition season for 

the Minnesota State High School League one-act plays.

From Pipestone to Mora, Detroit Lakes to Mountain Lake, each competing school has 35 minutes or less to shine with a play of their choosing, and Jones says the styles of show vary from comedy to drama to everything in between. 

The subsection tournaments begin today across the state. 

 They competition culminates in a state festival held at the O’Shaughnessy at St Catherine University in St. Paul on Feb. 6 and Feb. 7.

 Some of these schools are coming from well-funded programs with huge, wonderful facilities. And some of these schools have a stage at the end of a gym and a volunteer director. 

And yet, the quality of student acting and performance and different theater making criteria is just amazing. Every year, I never cease to be surprised by what I see on a stage at a one act play festival.

Author

Art Hounds recommend “The River Connects Us,” “Loudly, Clearly, Beautifully” and Minnesota State High School League one-act plays.

Art Hounds recommend “The River Connects Us,” “Loudly, Clearly, Beautifully” and Minnesota State High School League one-act plays

Art Hounds: River photography, paternal theater and high school one-acts

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