Chef Brandon Randolph created this one to hit us right in our Minnesota hearts, Chipped Fish with Dorito-Crusted Cod, Tarter, Lemon.
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Make Better Fun
Arts + Rec Uptown is an art-forward entertainment venue serving a chef-driven menu and expertly crafted cocktails. Showcasing the talent of local creatives, Arts + Rec Uptown features a playful rooftop patio, an intimate black box theater, a lively speakeasy, and an artist-designed 9-hole mini golf course. Connect, revel, and play at Arts + Rec Uptown – where better fun awaits!
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Never Out of Fashion is crafted with our House Whiskey Blend, Chicory Syrup, Cour Cherry Liqueur, Orange Crema, and Bitters.
We invite you to an immersive, one-night-long artistic experience!
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Join us for the original music, art, food and drinks that will transport you to another place and time.
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At 7:00 pm, Zapotec masters Saul & Alma will unveil their masterpiece Snowy Owl. The sculpture, made from the sacred wood of the copal, was commissioned by the Latino Youth Development Collaborative (LYDC) and will find a new home here in the Twin Cities as a public artwork for the Latinx community.
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Numerous local and international artisans will be presenting and selling their crafts, so come hungry, thirsty and ready to be transported!
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This event is vegan-friendly, eco-friendly and all are welcome!
Aalebrijes artisans Saul Aragon-Ramirez and Alma Arreola are from the village of Arrazola, Oaxaca, Mexico. This talented husband and wife team work together to carve and hand paint the beautiful fantasy animals from copal wood.
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Alma and Saul.
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Alebrijes are an internationally respected Mexican tradition that first originated with Pedro Linares in the 1930s. Linares fell ill and while unconscious he dreamt of a strange forest. There, he saw animals turning into fantasies. Donkeys with butterfly wings, a rooster with bull horns and many more creatures, with all of them shouting one word, “Alebrijes.” Upon recovering, he began recreating these figures in cardboard and papier-maché.
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Saul first learned the art of carving and painting at the age of 11, thanks to the help of his older brother Ramiro. Alma began painting alebrijes shortly after meeting Saul. Together, inspired by the nature and shapes of the wood around them, they created a family business now in its third decade and second generation of artists! More recently, 18 artisan families from Arrazola founded a conservation association known as Ecoalebrijes A.C., dedicated to reforestation and conservation of the coal tree. This conservation work is supported in part through a service and cultural exchange program with San Jose State University Health Science Department.
Large and small alebrijes will be available for purchase throughout the weekend. They are sold following the principles of the Fair Trade Federation, which among other things provides the opportunity for each artisan to earn several times the Mexican minimum wage, while preserving their local culture and helping to protect their environment. Proceeds from the sale support the artisans in Arrazola and allow them to maintain a workshop there to pass the tradition on to the next generation.
Northloop: With its extensive transformation nearly complete, the new Luminary Arts Center on 1st Street North recently held an open house for with food trucks, live music and open tours with the North Loop invited.
“We really wanted to be able to open it up and invite people in, both of the direct neighborhood community as well as the wider performing arts community before we opened,” said Julia Gallagher, Luminary Arts Center Director.
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Formerly known as Lab Theater, the performance venue has undergone a massive renovation, with a new entry and concession area, lighting, seating and acoustic upgrades. Minnesota Opera purchased the building in 2019, in part, to have a smaller venue in addition to the 1,800 seat Ordway Center in St. Paul where most of its performances are held. The Luminary will have seating for about 220.
Minnesota Opera’s first show in this space, Rinaldo, is “a baroque chamber opera that we could never do successfully in The Ordway,” said Gallagher. “So it provides a different type of intimacy and allows for a different type of staging and an expansion to our programming.”
New panels, angled walls and an overhead reflector have been installed to provide better acoustics for the facility, with the historic stone and brick walls in the front and back of the room staying uncovered and unpainted.
The newly-remodeled space won’t just be used for opera. Other arts companies will still use it for theater, dance and variety shows. The theater group Ten Thousand Things will be the first to use the new stage with its play Iphigenia at Aulis September 21st – 25th and September 28th – October 2nd.
“Obviously our industry is one that was hit incredibly hard (by the pandemic),” said Gallagher. “So to be able to open a space, to feel fairly confident we’re going to be able to have people and performances and make that live art, that’s really exciting.”
Midwest Home: Emily Vikre, mom of two and co-founder of Vikre Distillery, poses in her combined library, art studio, and office space—a sensational room packed with pattern and color.
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“I’ve never felt I had a single calling,” says Emily Vikre, co-founder of Vikre Distillery. Her resume proves it. The Duluth native has worked as a science journalist, museum educator, food writer, and photographer’s assistant—plus earned a stack of degrees (including a Ph.D.) along the way. She says she has always leaned heavily into her creative side, noting her “undergrad thesis was an illustrated poem about vesicular transport at neural synapses.”
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Vikre’s imagination was nurtured by a happy childhood in Duluth, where she roamed her neighborhood and explored the woods in a tightly knit community that celebrated holidays and marked the seasons together. She also spent time each summer in Kjerringvik, Norway, with her Norwegian mother’s extended family.
The dining room is a departure from the lighter and brighter spaces of the abode and features a playful portrait of the family pup.
Near the entry of the 1920 Duluth home, small statues and art decorate a corner nook.
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The spark to start a craft distillery came from Vikre’s parents, who attended a spirits tasting in 2011 and recounted the experience to Emily and her husband, Joel, when the couple were visiting from Boston, where they lived at the time. Emily recalls, “They said, ‘Did you know all you need to make great spirits is great grain and great water?’ And I said, ‘Well, Duluth has the best water anywhere.’ Then it hit us—someone should start a distillery here.” The couple returned home, started researching, wrote a business plan, and moved back to Duluth. In 2014, they launched their very own Vikre Distillery with three gins: Juniper, Cedar, and Spruce.
Their son Espen, 8, was born in 2013 and younger brother Vidar, 4, followed in 2017. The family settled into a four-bedroom house in the Hunter’s Park neighborhood, one block from Vikre’s parents. The bright 1920 home is filled with art she has been collecting since high school, along with a few antiques from her grandparents and great aunt in Norway.
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Vikre says she always carves out a spot for the kids to work on creative projects but admits they end up doing art all over the house. “My friend, Siri, is an interior designer, and I remember her saying she wanted a dining table that constantly has paint and marker on it. That stuck with me.”
In addition to being a mother and CEO at Vikre Distillery, Emily is also the author of two books, on the board of several Duluth nonprofits, and an exceptionally clever party planner. Her backyard soirées have themes ranging from Alice in Wonderland (candelabras, a giant rabbit, and a custom cocktail called “Drink Me”) to Winter Olympics (with a mini biathlon, ice skating, and curling competitions using brooms from the house). “I love a good theme,” she says. “The structure gets my creative juices going, and sometimes, I just want to dress up.”
A pretty pop of pink shines in Vikre’s living room—an area carefully designed with the kids in mind.
Influencer | Emily Vikre
Do you have a wildly impressive bar cart at home? We did have an adorable bar cart at one point, but now it’s an art cart, which I highly recommend. It’s the highest calling for a bar cart. My cocktail stuff is tucked away in the kitchen. I have a bunch of vintage glasses and an embarrassingly large array of spirits.
What do people not know about Duluth? Duluth is the woods masquerading as a city—there’s so much green space and wildlife, but at the same time, there’s an amazing music and art scene. It’s a great balance.
What are some of your favorite local spots? We’re frequent fliers at Love Creamery,
and we get pizza from LuLu’s Pizza almost every week. For art, I like the Joseph Nease Gallery.
Any party-planning tips? Plan activities. Have a craft table, or ask a friend with a big personality to come up with a performance piece or toast to give the occasion an air of festivity. It’s more fun when guests have something to do besides just eating and drinking.
What’s the worst pronunciation of Vikre (VEEK-ra) you’ve ever heard? Valkyrie, which is kind of awesome.
Another Anna Wintour biography on a fashion book list? Groundbreaking. But unlike other musings on Vogue‘s iconic editor-in-chief, this one — by author and fashion journalist Amy Odell — focuses on Anna the person, not the “Devil Wears Prada” caricature. Warm-hearted and Anna Wintour may not usually be used in the same sentence, but in “Anna,” it is. Threading Wintour’s humble beginnings leaving high school and working as a shop girl in London to stories about her being the ever-so-keen fashion assistant (hard to imagine, right?), the book reveals an endearing, caring side of powerful editor, thanks to interviews with over 250 people. On top of being a great addition to your fashion library, it will make you think twice about the aloof-seeming fashion girls you’re too intimidated to talk to.
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“Africa: The Fashion Continent” by Emmanuelle Courrèges
Author and West African fashion journalist Emmanuelle Courreges documents Africa’s many and varied fashion scenes; for fashion history buffs, this is must-have in your arsenal. This book isn’t your typical fashion coffee-table book (although the beautiful pictures would look great in a flat lay next to your Aperol Spritz), as it provides important historical context to Africa’s fashion legacy and how clothing played a part in the continent’s culture, politics and economy over time. Each chapter explores noted African designers, the different histories and trends going on in each country and how each part of the continent defines African fashion.
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If you like reading fashion designer bios, living vicariously through larger-than-life characters, or just need some romantic Parisian escapism, you will love this book about Christian Dior’s little sister, Catherine Dior. It’s not your usual indulgent biography. Justine Picardie, author and former editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar UK, does extensive research, including into the Dior archives, to essentially restore Catherine Dior’s life. Far from the typical beautiful socialite, Dior was a resistance fighter, concentration-camp survivor and a cultivator of rose gardens. Picardie creates a Netflix-worthy page turner of a story following Miss Dior’s colorful life, from being born into old-money opulence, to losing it all and living on a farm in Provence, to working with her iconic big brother in Paris.
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“Dress Code” by Veronique Hyland
A series of essays by Veronique Hyland, Elle‘s fashion features director, “Dress Code” will enthrall the fashion girlies who aren’t afraid to question fashion’s power, as well as educate and surprise those who may underestimate it. Hyland explores thought-provoking questions like: Why has the “French girl” persisted as our must undying archetype? What does “dressing for yourself” really mean for a woman? And how should a female politician dress? After reading this book this summer, you’ll have lots to talk about with your fashion friends in September.
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“Karl Lagerfeld: A Life In Fashion” by Alfons Kiaser
What more can be said about Karl Lagerfeld, the most celebrated, remembered and distinct fashion designer of the 20th century? According to Dr. Alfons Kaiser, Lagerfeld’s biographer, friend of 20 years and a critically acclaimed German fashion critic, quite a bit. It’s hard to believe there is so much the public doesn’t know about this massive persona. Kaiser guides the reader through Lagerfeld’s public and personal life from drawing illustrations, or “Karlicatures,” in Hamburg, to the Chanel catwalks in Paris. If you miss Lagerfeld’s funny quick wit and quotable quips, you’ll definitely want to pick it up.
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“By Her Own Design: A Novel of Ann Lowe, Fashion Designer to the Social Register” by Piper Huguley
If you haven’t heard about Ann Lowe, you’re unfortunately not alone. Most people don’t know much about the first African-American couturier, but Author Piper Huguley aims to change that by telling her remarkable and emotionally uplifting story through a new work of historical fiction. From the 1920s to the 1960s, Lowe’s elite clientele of society women included none other than Jacqueline Kennedy; Lowe is most known for designing the iconic first lady’s wedding dress — no big deal. For those who love forgotten fashion history, society, women and couture, “By Her Own Design” is a must-read.
Large and small alebrijes will be available for purchase throughout the weekend. They are sold following the principles of the Fair Trade Federation, which among other things provides the opportunity for each artisan to earn several times the Mexican minimum wage, while preserving their local culture and helping to protect their environment. Proceeds from the sale support the artisans in Arrazola and allow them to maintain a workshop there to pass the tradition on to the next generation.
