Heather Lawrenz of Red Wing Arts was deeply inspired by Journey to Rock Bottom, a visual arts show that celebrates athleticism. Burnsville artist Annie Young began creating this show after running an ice marathon in Antarctica in 2018.

She interviewed her fellow runners about their Antarctica journeys, then created paintings inspired by their stories and her imagination. An artist living with blindness, Young also collaborated with 10 local artists with a variety of backgrounds and abilities.

A free artist reception Saturday will bring together many of the artists as well as the “athletes coming in from all over the world who inspired these pieces,” Lawrenz said. Some of the runners plan to compete in the Twin Cities marathon on Sunday. The reception is from 5:30 to 8 p.m. The show runs through Nov. 5 at the Ames Center Art Gallery in Burnsville.

There is an audio description of the exhibit scheduled for Oct. 15, 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., including a discussion led by the artist.

Singer/songwriter Clark Machtemes of Waconia is preparing for a trip west this weekend to meander through towns along the Upper Minnesota Valley, checking out arts studios. The annual Meander Art Crawl is a juried event with more than 30 stops at studios in Ortonville, Appleton, Madison, Milan, Dawson, Montevideo and Granite Falls.

This free, self-guided tour includes potters, printers, basket weavers, painters, and more. Machtemes says he discovers something new every year. The Meander runs Friday through Sunday. Find a map and description of all the stops brochure-color-corrected.pdf">here.

Farther north, the 19th annual Fargo Moorhead Visual Arts (FMVA) Studio Crawl invites visitors to check out the work of 40 artists and organizations Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Find a map here.

If you take the studio crawl, Naomi RaMona Schliesman of Fergus Falls recommends a stop in Moorhead to see the collaborative “Mother Trees” exhibit from Ms. Anna Lee’s Gray Matter Series.

The title refers to trees in the forest that connect with and nourish others through the mycorrhizal relationship between fungus and plant.

The multi-step collaboration behind this exhibit moved from art to dinner party to more artwork. Chris Larson’s mural was the backdrop for a fungi-themed dinner party created by chef Candace Stock. Local creatives gathered at the dinner possessed skills ranging from photography to poetry to hairstyling. Photographer Sarah Faith Strong, artist Nancy X. Valentine, and poet Julie Larson created works resulting from that evening.

The works are on display at the Arthouse Gallery, a new space in Moorhead.