Noteworthy Events for the Calendar: Two Art Walks and a Honey Bee Festival

Did you know that bees can see all colors except the color red? I didn't know that. Furthermore, I'd be curious how scientists know things like that.

Bees play an important role in our world. They make an essential contribution to the pollination of flowers and 400 hundred kinds of agricultural plants, or approximately 1/3 of all we eat. They are also hard workers and make great role models for our children. (At least in the old days when kids paid attention to bees and weren't on the iPhones all the time.) And who doesn't love honey? In fact, if there were no bees, there would probably never have been the expression, "You're my honey." What would be say then? "You're my blueberry" just doesn't cut it.

All this to say that we're less than three weeks away from the Honey Bee Folk Festival at the Oldenburg House in Carlton.

The first annual Honeybee Folk Festival will feature local bands from the Northland and a few surprises from outside our region. In addition to truly great music we be a ton of information and fun pollinator friendly activities goin on.

The Music Lineup is shaping up like this:
FRIDAY 8/3 
Northern Shoveler, Gossamer Strings, Lowland Lakers, Black River Revue
SATURDAY 8/4 
Moonlight Community, Northern Shoveler, Woodblind, Four Mile Portage, Superior Siren, Feeding Leroy, and LASKA

The honeybee celebration will begin in earnest on Friday 3:00 p.m. with a pronouncement from the Mayor of Carlton and the Carlton City Council stating the City of Carlton has become a Pollinator Friendly Town as outlined by the Pollinate Minnesota organization.

Special Pollinator Friendly Activities will include:
City of Carlton – a Pollinator Friendly Town
Honey Bee Poem and Story Hour
Bees and Blooms Hike – Jay Cooke State Park
Bee Lodge Construction
Presentations from Master Gardeners – U of MN Extension

There will also be vendors on hand selling:
Beeswax candles
Health/beauty products
Hives and beekeeping supplies
Honey
Salves
Cough syrup
Pollinator-friendly perennials
Area potters and artists who have incorporated bee images into their work
Honey based fruit spritzers and made-from-honey alcohol products (White Winter Winery)
Pollinators Blend Peace Coffee (Magnolia Cafe)
Food items that include honey

Now tell me, if we didn't have honey bees, how would we have ever gotten the expression, "The Bees Knees"? 

TICKETS HERE

Art on the Planet sells Kris Nelson's Art Chairs, Shawna
Gilmore paintings, Esther Piszczek's Zentangle art,
and a number of my paintings as well.
Check it out This Coming Thursday evening.

Superior residents from "back in the day" remember that Thursday Night was a "thing."  Most businesses were open later as a way to drive traffic to the downtown area by offering shopping opportunities after the regular business day. This meant that people with day jobs could still stop in to browse and buy after THEIR work day was over. It became such a popular option that it even generated significant shopping traffic from Minnesota and the greater Douglas County area. Some businesses made a point of sidewalk sales or other deals that could be had only during the extended Thursday night hours to further boost business.

The small business community of Superior has been collectively encouraging visitors to come out to our business districts like The Good Old Days on the Third Thursday of each month to simply stroll the neighborhoods/districts and see what the business community of Superior has to offer. New and established businesses are participating as well as hopeful additional businesses from our East End, Billings Park and North End business neighborhoods.

This campaign follows the insights of Thursday night initiatives already established by businesses like blue arrow boutique and Shannon's Stained Glassery in reviving the past proud tradition of extended hour Thursday night shopping or dining in Superior later after work or during their children’s night activities.

Participating businesses have been offering special events or incentives such as street performers, special sales or samples during extended hours, etc.

Here at Art on the Planet/Wine Beginnings we host the sweet sounds of Similar Dogs to offer a musical background during the #ThirdThursday extended hours.

This summer is a good time to stop in to some favorite businesses, explore new businesses, browse a bit and re-discover the renewed vibrancy of the Superior small business community.

Art on the Planet

Where Fine Art meets Fun Art

FOURTH FRIDAY ART WALK --> DULUTH

If you Google Fourth Friday Art Walk, you'll find that all kinds of places are hosting designated evenings for the arts, from Prescott and Lee's Summit to Fairhaven and Wilmington. Big cities like St Louis and towns like Belfast, Maine are throwing out their welcome mats for arts activities. A half dozen years ago here in Duluth, an informal trio of galleries began coordinating their Second Friday Art Crawls with great effect. Today, a host of galleries, artist studios and related creative businesses are continuing this Ark Walk tradition in a bigger and more vibrant way.

The Downtown Duluth Arts Collective has provided a more formalized framework to help promote and grow this year-round art night adventure. The best part of having the art walk take place on the same evening is that people can schedule their other activities around it.

For what it's worth, an art crawl makes a great date night for friends, lovers and married couples. For little to know cost you have entertainment, and a little finger food along the way...

This month's Arts Walk will be FRIDAY JULY 27.