According to MPR News, Art Hounds is a member of Minnesota’s arts community who looks 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.

Do you want to become an art dog? Submit here.

Want a crank

Norah Rendell is the executive artistic director of the Center for Irish Music in St. Paul. She saw – and loved – the original narrative musicalThe well tree» by the Heartwood Trio last spring.

The trio is made up of Sarina Partridge of Minneapolis, Heidi Wilson of Vermont and Willie Clemetson of Maine. They are back for performances of “The Well Tree” tonight at 7 p.m. at the Twin Cities Friends Meeting House in St. Paul and Friday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. at the New City Center/Walker Church in Minneapolis.

Norah says she imagines the acoustics of the church rooms will be well suited for a show with beautiful harmonies.

Norah says: It is an original singing story show that includes songs, instruments, acting and illuminated paper cut-out artwork called “cranks” (so named because a person turns a crank to scroll to new images).

It tells the story of a young woman who finds herself fleeing her home, and throughout her journey she encounters songbirds, snails, and ancient trees as she returns home. And the three artists performing are super talented. They are magnificent harmony singers. There is a fiddle player, a banjo player and they are all actors and they invite the audience to sing.

It seems like it’s aimed at children, but it’s really suitable for anyone of any age who enjoys the experience of singing with other people. You leave the show feeling good; it’s very inspiring, very positive. The show itself is truly inspiring.

-Norah Rendell

The male gaze

Erin Maurelli is an artist and educator in the Twin Cities. She wants people to know MCBA Residency / Jérôme Book Arts which is currently at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, inside Open Book in Minneapolis.

Free and open to the public, this exhibition presents the work of the three Jerome Book Arts Residency winners: photographer Christopher Selleck; papermaker Jelani Ellis; and the artist and printmaker Louise Fisher.

Erin says: Christopher Selleck is a photographer who tackles the body, the figure and what we consider idealism, and through the lens of the camera he is able to capture a sort of ideal male body – which, in my experience, we don’t do. we see a lot of it in art and art history. Christopher addresses issues of identity and sexuality in his work as a gay man. I think the male gaze becomes part of her narrative.

Christopher was selected to be part of the Jerome Book Arts Fellowship, and the exhibition will run until January 4 next year. He is one of three artists who are part of this exhibition. There are hand-made books featuring his photographs as well as sculptural elements. He plans to integrate the photographic process into book creation.

-Erin Morelli

Baroque at Gaylord

Charles Luedtke is a retired music professor from Martin Luther College in New Ulm, and he’s heading to Gaylord tonight to see The Great Band.

The group specializes in performing music written between 1600 and 1800, using instruments from the period. Their November concert celebrates Handel’s 340th birthday with two of his works set near water, his famous “Water Music Suites” as well as his cantata “O come chiare e belle.”

Handel’s “Water Musicks” will be performed tonight at 7:30 at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Gaylord. Michael Thomas Asmus, the founder and artistic director, will give a talk before the performance at 6:45 p.m. on music.

Charles says: It’s pretty spectacular because he lives in Gaylord, just outside of Gaylord and his shows are kind of centered around that area, sometimes in St. Peter, sometimes in New Ulm.

So, it’s rather local, but (it’s) of extraordinary quality. They are not amateurs, never amateurs. They are all truly professional performers and on period instruments, baroque instruments.

—Charles Luedtke