Art Hounds: Pinocchio, Seamus Heaney, and an architectural jewel re-opens

This week's hounds sing the praises of puppet portrayals of "Pinocchio" in Plainview, a Nobel Prize winning Irish poet who's visiting Minnesota, and a newly expanded architectural gem that was Frank Gehry's first foray into museum design.

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Minneapolis puppeteer Soozin Hirschmugl has a real appreciation for performers who can breathe life, emotion and humanity into inanimate characters such as puppets. Soozin says that skill is on full display in Jon Hassler Theatre's production of "Pinocchio" in Plainview, so much so that it gave an old children's classic a new dimension. It's on stage through Oct. 16.

Tim Nolan once shared a smoke with Irish poet Seamus Heaney at a party in New York City, which was a thrill because Tim, a Minneapolis attorney and poet himself, views Heaney as the greatest living poet in the English language. Heaney is making two stops in Minnesota in the coming days. He'll be at the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph on Sunday, Oct. 2 at 2pm. Heaney will also be in conversation with Joe Dowling at the Guthrie Theater on Monday, Oct. 3 at 7:30pm.

Walker Art Center Executive Director Olga Viso took a tour of the University of Minnesota's newly expanded Weisman Art Museum recently, and she was thrilled with what she saw. Olga says the expansion of the Frank Gehry-designed museum transforms its exhibiting capacity and connects it physically and programmatically in a much more meaningful way to the rest of the campus. The Weisman celebrates its re-opening at WAMdemonium on Sunday, Oct. 2, 1-6pm.

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