Art Hounds: Wee Cabaret, Puppet Lab, and more than a mass

This week's hounds focus on an art gallery that's become a performance venue, a world premiere of a choral work built on a mass, and new puppetry for adults.

(Want to be an art hound? Sign up!)

Twin Cities actress Amanda Whisner applauds Form + Content Gallery's foray into Twin Cities performance by presenting "Wee Cabaret" during the month of February. It's a weekend showcase offering dance, hip hop, improv and more. On Saturday Feb. 11, and Sunday Feb. 12, choreographer Justin Leaf, performance artist Kjellgren Alkire and "The Truant Lovers" are featured, with rapper Dessa Darling and improv artist Jill Bernard at the end of the month.

Create a More Connected Minnesota

MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.

Puppetry for adults. For some that may sound like somewhat of an oxymoron, but for Inver Hills Community College Music professor Andrew Martin, something to celebrate and support. For Andrew, that means going to see In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre's "Puppet Lab," which is winding up this weekend (Feb. 11-13). Puppet Lab features four new works from up and coming puppetry artists.

Local composer David Evan Thomas can expect to have a great Saturday evening this weekend. That's because one of David's favorite vocal groups is singing a new piece by a composer he thinks highly of. The Singers will gather at First Lutheran Church in Columbia Heights at 8pm to perform Jocelyn Hagen's "Amass." It's a work that expands upon the traditional mass by adding spiritual poetry and new instrumentation.

For more Art Hounds' recommendations, check us out on Facebook and Twitter.

And you can get an early sneak peek at the Art Hounds' picks every week by texting the word ART to 677-677.