Conn Gallery – The Passion of Art: Creating and Collecting – July 12 – Oct. 31, 2026

Conn Gallery Exhibition

July 12-October 31, 2026

The Passion of Art: Creating and Collecting

Artists Loretta Bebeau, Pam Mitman, and collector Gunda Luss. From universal abstraction to intriguing artifacts of African culture and the hyperrealism of everyday scenes, this exhibition offers a feast for the heart and mind.

Loretta Bebeau

Loretta is a full-time artist with a studio in the Northrup King building in NE Mpls. Her paintings feature a common word from languages collected through interviews, painted onto canvas, showing multiple cultures in our community. The common word means HEALTH, spoken differently but with the same meaning. We all want health.

Pam Mitman

Pam retired from the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota in 2009 and has been focusing on her artwork ever since. Her genre is hyperrealism, using mediums such as oil paint, pencil, watercolor, and markers. See her art at https://www.artforthemindandheart.com/

Gunda Luss

Gunda is a Collector of African artifacts and textiles. Her collection was acquired in 1975-1978 while she and her husband were teaching at a Teacher’s training College in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

New exhibit coming on March 8 in Conn Gallery

Matt Brown and Sophie Kissen

March 8 – June | Conn Gallery

Matt Brown, Artist

Born in Boston, Matt Brown headed west 50-years ago to attend the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Matt has been making art ever since. While attending MCAD, Matt was focused on large-scale sculpture working in a variety of materials. Over time he explored adding paint and color into the sculpture, blurring the line between the two mediums—painting and sculpture—to bring about a transition into painting.

By using a variety of materials in different mediums, a continuing thread weaves through his art from his sculpture to painting and later to his installation work. Often paint is a choice of material from among many to achieve an end. Themes in his new work called “Home” concern housing security, migration and nature.

Matt has had many exhibitions throughout his career, including being one of the youngest artists to have a solo exhibition at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. He has been a visiting artist/lecturer residency at University of California Santa Barbara. His work is widely collected by corporations and individuals. Matt lives and works in St Paul with his wife Lia.

Sophie Kissin, Jewelry Artist

Blending the ancient and the experimental, Sophie Kissin crafts jewelry that is personal and avant-garde. Rooted in traditional fabrication and sand-casting techniques, her pieces explore form, texture, and innovation. Sophie began metalsmithing at Carleton College, where she studied Art History and Russian. She began her jewelry practice in 2016, specializing in wearable modern jewelry and custom heirloom redesign.
Inspired by nature, art history, personal narratives, and the stories of those who wear her work, she invites you to make each piece your own vehicle for storytelling and self-expression.

Sir John Rutter and VocalEssence at the St.Paul Cathedral (1/17)

Spend an afternoon with John Rutter at the Cathedral of Saint Paul on Saturday, January 17, with the VocalEssence Chorus. Ensemble Singers and orchestra ring in the new year with some of his beloved Epiphany carols and the U.S. premiere of his latest masterwork inspired by James Weldon Johnson’s poem “The Creation.”

More information and tickets for both events are available at vocalessence.org/events.

Indigenous Women Water Protectors Exhibition | Reception Nov. 2 at 11 am

Indigenous Women Water Protectors Exhibition

Conn Gallery November 2, 2025 – February 28, 2026

We are privileged to display a portrait exhibition by John Kaul, which honors twenty-one indigenous women water protectors and also displays art by five of these women. It was born out of a friendship between John and Sharon Day, the spiritual leader of the Nibi Walk movement. The Nibi (Water) Walks are indigenous-led, extended ceremonies to pray for the water. Every step is taken in prayer and gratitude for water, our life-giving force.

Reception: Nov 2nd, 11 am – 1 pm
Sunday Forum: Dec 14, 10 am

Artists

John Kaul

After decades of policymaking experience and lobbying at the Minnesota State Capitol, John Kaul is using documentary filmmaking, photography and art to raise awareness on the critical issues of our time.
www.afton-films.com

Sharon Day

Sharon M. Day is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Peoples Task Force and is known as a leader of Nibiwalks along the rivers to pray for our waterways. Sharon is an Ojibwe artist working in a variety of mediums, such as watercolors and sculpture.

Gio Cerise

Gio Cerise ‘Giiwedini Binesiikwe’ of the Eagle Clan is a descendant and citizen of the White Earth Nation. She is Beishigo Asemaa Program Assistant for the Indigenous Peoples Task Force and a Usui Reiki Master.

Maryanna Harstad

Maryanna Harstad is enrolled in the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and has paternal lineage in the Blackfeet Nation. As a performance artist, Maryanna has participated in unscripted performance pieces to raise awareness on topics including climate change, anti-military parody, and Ojibwe and Dakota culture.

Heidi Inman

Sunkawakan Ota Wicayuhe Win A/K/A Heidi (Miner) Inman Dakota/Lakota/Anishinaabe, is a citizen of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. Her art and activism honor water, ancestors, and women’s leadership, carrying forward stories of resilience and care.

Tanaǧidaŋ To Wiŋ

Tanaǧidaŋ To Wiŋ ( Tara Perron) is a Dakota and Anishinaabe mother. She grew up in Imnížaska (Saint Paul), Minnesota. The loving hearts of her sons inspire Tara, who is a creator, a plant medicine enthusiast, and has always loved to write. She believes in the healing power of storytelling. www.bluehummingbirdwoman.com

MMT presents Anyone Can Whistle by Steven Sondheim in the Conn Theatre

Presented by the Minneapolis Musical Theater, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE is a zany musical about a corrupt mayoress who devises a scheme to attract tourists to her bankrupt town. Chaos erupts when the “Cookies” — patients from a local asylum — escape into the crowd, making it impossible to tell who’s sane and who’s not.

Ever since its infamous nine-performance run on Broadway in 1964, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE has become a cult classic and remains strikingly relevant today – tackling themes like politics, mental health, religion, and societal conformity. With a groundbreaking score that foreshadows Stephen Sondheim’s later work, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE IN CONCERT is a rare opportunity to experience this unsung gem.

All performances will take place in the Conn Theatre on the following dates and times. Details and tickets at www.aboutmmt.org.

September 5 at 7:30 PM
September 6 at 7:30 pm
September 7 at 2:00 pm
September 12 at 7:30 PM
September 13 at 7:30 pm
September 14 at 2:00 pm

Literary Witnesses and The Loft Present an Evening with Terrance Hayes – October 2

National Book Award–winning poet and MacArthur Fellow Terrance Hayes will give a public reading from American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin and his newest collection, So to Speak. The author of seven books of poetry, Hayes is known for his distinctive work exploring popular culture, music, race, masculinity, and language itself. His poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, earned multiple Pushcart Prizes, and been finalists for—and winners of—the National Book Award.

This free event will be held at Plymouth Congregational Church (1900 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis) and will include a reception and book signing. Books will be available for purchase from Milkweed Books. We recommend entering off LaSalle Avenue; free parking is available off Franklin Avenue.

Co-presented by Literary Witnesses at Plymouth Congregational Church and The Loft Literary Center.

Don’t miss the opportunity to join the Loft for a creative writing workshop with Terrance Hayes, the next day, October 3.

Sign up here

Musette Mania w/ Dick Hensold and Maria Jette on 8/24 at 3 pm

Here’s a program you won’t hear ANYWHERE else this weekend, or probably this decade: music for Musette, the dainty bagpipe used in the kind of elegant chamber music played by Louis XIV’s pals! Dick Hensold, deluxe bagpiper (and recorder virtuoso) and obsessive musette researcher, leads a petite bande and Maria Jette in several arias by various excellent yet forgotten composers, plus a neat little cantata, LE BOUQUET— plus plenty of instrumental music, most of which has likely never been heard in MN.

If you are unable to make the 3 pm concert, Dick and Maria will also be performing as part of the 10 am worship service that morning.

Anthem: Wayfaring Stranger, Maria Jette, voice, Dick Hensold, Northumbrian smallpipes

Postlude: Hills of Glenorchy (traditional Scottish) / Joys of Wedlock (traditional Irish) / John MacLean © Dick Hensold, Highland bagpipes

Update on the Plymouth Embroideries

Those entering the Guild Hall recently have likely noticed that the west wall is missing the usual adornment of an embroidery. The Board for the Arts arranged for all four embroideries to be professionally cleaned (and frozen to rid them of any pests) and delivered them to the Midwest Art Conservation Center for that purpose last month. The embroideries should return to Plymouth sometime in August, and the Board expects one to be hanging in Guild Hall by Rally Sunday.

In addition to the direct care of the embroideries, the Board for the Arts collaborated with the Board of Finance and Administration (BoFA) to develop an endowed fund specifically to attend to the long-term care and preservation of the Plymouth embroideries and embroidered furnishings. BoFA approved the creation of that endowment fund in April, and to date, $11,000 has been pledged toward it.

The fund’s goal is $50,000. If you have interest in learning more details about the Plymouth Embroidery Endowment, please contact Dan Dressen. His email address is dressen@stolaf.edu.

Additionally, all are invited to visit the Jack Parsons room (just west of the Library) to view the informative display about the embroideries, the story of their creation, the people involved, and the context from which they were conceived.

“Precarious Equilibrium” Art Opening and Exhibit – July 13

Join us for an art exhibition with artists Dan Tran and Barbara (Babs) Larson at the Conn Gallery.

Date: June 13

Location: Conn Gallery

Time: Artist talk at 9 am, Chapel. Opening reception at 11 am, Conn Gallery.

Dan Tran is a self-taught artist from Vietnam and a biomedical engineer.
His paintings, “Precarious Equilibrium of Ambivalent States,” use geometric forms to meditate upon the duality-laden relationships in the physical, emotional, and spiritual worlds. Dan invites viewers to see order and harmony within the chaos and turbulence.

https://www.dantranart.com/artist-statement

Barbara (Babs) Larson is an epileptic who uses art and poetry to explore and share her life experiences with viewers. “Howling to be Heard” is a series of mixed-media components and poetry using elegant, bejeweled hardwood clipboards from India. Babs is publishing a book of poetry on this series and plans to make it available.