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.

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

Derek Dahlsad is a filmmaker, actor, and writer in Moorhead. Recently he visited the The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum in town to check out its ninth annual Art Ghoullery. Artists answered the call for Halloween-themed art of all varieties. This year's theme was "Nine Lives to Live." Unsurprisingly, cats featured prominently in a number of the pieces. The exhibit runs through Sunday, Nov. 1, with a masquerade artist reception taking place on the evening of Halloween from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. That reception is free and open to the public.

Dahlsad said the themed art ranges from cute to creepy, including "a stack of zombie doll heads, sculptures welded from tractor parts, and paintings of a variety of devils and spirits and vampires."

Patrick Strait of Minneapolis is the owner of MNComedy.net and the author of two books about Twin Cities stand-up comedy from the Minnesota Historical Society. He recommends marking your calendar for "Advice Column," a series that takes place on the fourth Wednesday evening of each month at 7 p.m. at Sisyphus Brewing in Minneapolis. Hosts Sam Schedler and Lahiru Samarasinghe welcome a rotating cast of four comedians to join them at each show to give advice, win prizes, and keep the audience laughing. Their show on Oct. 28 is a Halloween edition, and costumes are welcome. Audience members must be 18 or older .

Strait notes that November marks the show's one-year anniversary:

"Really, they've found their stride,” said Strait. “They've got a lot of really cool people who want to be a part of this, and it's a well-oiled machine as well as I guess you can be when you have a couple of comics giving you therapy on a weeknight."

Kristine Stewart says she was very involved in the arts community in Worthington, where she lived until recently. She recommends the Sundays on the Steinway at the Memorial Auditorium for the Performing Arts in Worthington. There are three concerts remaining in the series designed to celebrate the 100th birthday of the auditorium's Steinway piano. The piano could have been lost to time, but 30 years ago a group came together to raise the money to have the piano fully refurbished.

The free concerts each take place at 2 p.m. This Sunday, Kurt Haag will perform. Charlie Albright performs Nov. 15, and on Dec. 6 community piano teachers take the stage.

Stewart adds a bonus tip: on Nov. 14, on the day before Charlie Albright’s solo concert, he will perform with the Worthington Area Symphony Orchestra.

"They end the concert every year with holiday classics. It's kind of a kickoff to the holiday season, so it'll be a fun time. An amazing concert,” said Steward. “They always are."

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.

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

Rochester trombonist Jon Sievers suggests looking at — and listening to — “Canvas to Composition” at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona. Minnesota composer Eric Heukeshoven created sonifications of four artworks in the museum’s permanent collection.

The composer assigned sounds that describe the color, texture and feeling of the works. The compositions will be revealed Friday, at the museum’s New Look Masquerade Party, which is part of its 20th anniversary celebration, but here’s a preview:

In the museum, Sievers says, you’ll be able to hear the music without wearing headphones:

“It's like focused sound that's aimed at just at you, and there's an indicator of ‘here's where you should stand’ as you're appreciating the sonification of [each] particular artwork.”

Kristine Chapin of St. Paul says she was captivated by Linda Snouffer’s installation, “A Prairie Stroll,” at the Dow Gallery in St. Paul. Snouffer’s botanical prints recreate the native grasses and varied shades of the Minnesota sky. Hung on dowels, the dyed and printed fabric sways as you walk through the room, which Chapin says gives you the feeling of walking through a tallgrass prairie.

The show’s run has been extended through Oct. 17 to align with the St. Paul Art Crawl, and Snouffer will be on site Oct. 16 from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Oct. 17 from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Theater blogger Kendra Plant of St. Louis Park is looking forward to an evening of music when Soul Trouvère and Ukrainian Village Band perform an all-ages concert this Saturday to benefit Unidos Minnesota. Both Minnesota bands perform folk music from Eastern Europe, and Plant says dancing is encouraged. The show is Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Celtic Junction in St. Paul.

“I’m drawn to the way the event connects Minnesota’s Ukrainian and immigrant communities through music while supporting Unidos MN. It feels especially relevant to Minnesota right now, and like a strong example of local art responding to the communities around it,” said Plant.

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.

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

Annie Dugan teaches art at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, where she also runs the Kruk Gallery. She wants people to know about a retrospective of Jim Grittner's ceramic work at Duluth Pottery that opens this weekend and runs through November. There's an artist reception Sunday, Oct. 18 from 2-4 p.m.

Grittner spent 47 years teaching at the University Wisconsin-Superior. "He taught artists that are now teaching the next generation," says Dugan.

Now 92, Grittner's recent work is his strongest yet, says Dugan:

"He works in this specific technique called terra sigillata. It's from Roman times. He's doing these abstract landscapes on these vertical pots or vases. They have this sort of ethereal quality, like landscapes from your memory or landscapes from your dreams. There's just this quiet power to his work that I think is really wonderful to see."

Andy Lehner of St. Paul recommends that fellow arts appreciators check out the St. Paul Art Crawl this weekend. The event runs Friday, Oct. 16, through Sunday, Oct. 18, at 31 venues across the city, including studios, galleries and other art-centered spaces. Find a map of locations here.

People who want to contribute to the event — and to St. Paul's Halloween spirit — can enter their carved jack-o'-lanterns in a competition at Mears Park. Jack-o'-lanterns can be dropped off between 10:30 a.m. and noon on Saturday, and visitors can vote on their favorites through 5 p.m. that day.

If you’ve never been to an art crawl, Lehner says it’s an easy, drop-in event that lets you choose how much or how little you want to do:

“It really is eclectic. You can choose something in your neighborhood because it's all throughout St. Paul. You can take in as much or as little as you like!”

Bill Adams of Fergus Falls is looking forward to attending a world premiere screening of the new Pioneer PBS documentary “Lost Souls: Reforming Minnesota’s Mental Health Institutions.” The screening is Thursday, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m. at the Fergus Falls Center for the Arts. Following the screening, there will be a Q&A with Susan Bartlett, author of “The Crusade for Forgotten Souls: Reforming Minnesota’s Mental Institutions, 1946-1954,” on which the documentary was based; the Pioneer PBS producers behind the film; and Chris Schulke, retired director of the Otter Tail County Historical Society.

Adams offers a bit of background:

“The reason that it's happening in Fergus Falls is because one of the people whose story is told in the book is Anders Schey, and 100 years ago, he became a resident at the state hospital in Fergus. His daughter, Engla Schey, began working in state hospitals — not in Fergus Falls, but in other communities in Minnesota — and she saw things that needed reforming.”

The film follows the work of Engla and others who pushed for fair treatment of institutionalized patients in Minnesota and beyond.