“As Long as the Rivers Shall Run” Opening Exhibition

AICHO Galleries returns to in-person events with the opening exhibition for “As Long as the Rivers Shall Run,” featuring new works by papercut artist Ellen Sandbeck of Duluth. Registration is required to attend the reception. This event is free, but there is a suggested donation of $10 at the door.

“As Long as the Rivers Shall Run” is an exploration of major rivers. The series includes endangered, recently extinct and invasive species found in each of the featured rivers. The text for this series will include the scientific name, conservation status, and a snippet of natural history for each of the featured species, as well as brief comments about the environmental challenges faced by each river. The Mississippi will be represented by five large-scale papercuts: “Mississippi River Headwaters,” “Upper Mississippi River,” “Middle Mississippi River,” “Lower Mississippi River” and “Mississippi River Delta.” The other rivers that the artist hopes to eventually include in this series are: the Yangtze, the Mekong, the Nile, the Ganges and the Amazon.

Sandbeck has been a papercut artist for more than 35 years. Her illustrations have been published by several publishing companies and her artwork has been shown all over Minnesota, and in Wisconsin, Illinois, Virginia, and New Jersey. In 2020, she was awarded a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant and she is on the artist roster for the Minneapolis Airport Foundation.

Visitors to the gallery will be required to wear face masks regardless of vaccination status and social distancing guidelines.

The exhibit will remain on display through Feb. 24. Registration is not required for general viewing, Tuesdays and Fridays only, from 4 to 6 p.m.