2022 Winter Carnival: Great Northern Festival highlights winter events
Jan. 20—The St. Paul Winter Carnival is one of the events included in the Twin Cities-wide 2022 Great Northern Festival, which takes place Jan. 27 through Feb. 6.
The Great Northern features performances, food events, site-specific art and highlights ongoing Twin Cities winter events, including Carnival, City of Lakes Loppet and U.S. Pond Hockey Championships.
A partnership between Great Northern and these longtime, heritage events brings them all to a wider audience, says Kate Nordstrum, who has been executive and artistic director of the Great Northern since December 2019.
"We're all singing at the same time," says Nordstrum, a longtime arts producer. The Great Northern adds a focus on climate change that's meaningful to all of the participating groups. "We can't just celebrate what we have without thinking about what we stand to lose," she adds.
Last year's Great Northern had a mix of virtual and outdoor events. Nordstrum says the 2022 festival adds performances and art exhibits, including a couple of big pieces in St. Paul.
An ice-enclosed functioning greenhouse, titled "Conservatory," will be located in an alley at 340 N. Sibley St., near Mears Park in Lowertown St. Paul. The greenhouse will feature black coneflowers, velvet petunias, mondo grass, coleus and more, celebrating Black life. The artists say the installation's message is centered on survival and life flourishing in oppressive climates and the common need for warmth, community and comfort. It's scheduled to be on display throughout the Great Northern.
Also in St. Paul, 50 dancers create a site-specific performance on Como Lake on Feb. 5. Created by dancer/choreographer Dimitri Chamblas and titled "Slow Show," it's described as "a 20-minute intensive, collective dance whose movements are minute, precise and concentrated — inspired by principal roots of trance, exultation, telepathy and unconscious memories." The dance on Como will feature accompaniment of samples, live electronics and guitar by Eddie Ruscha.
Second Shift Gallery on Payne Avenue presents "Perspective," a work by artist Molly Joyce, opening Jan. 28, as part of the Great Northern. Joyce's "Perspective" is an ongoing multimedia project featuring words and stories of disabled interviewees set within a complementary soundscape. Joyce produced a winter iteration of the project that interviews people with disabilities in the Twin Cities, Nordstrum says. The sound installation explores concepts of darkness, resilience, isolation and restraint. Interviewees included musician Gaelynn Lea and storyteller Kevin Kling.
The Great Northern is also partnering with US Soccer on the World Cup Qualifier at Allianz Field on Feb. 2.
Other Great Northern events include a troupe of five local Latinx performers reflecting on their distinct Minnesota winter experiences in a comedic, tragic and passionate variety show set on the frozen Lake Nokomis; and thermic bathing experiences in Minneapolis.
For dates, times and all of the specific Great Northern events, go to thegreatnorthernfestival.com.
