The exhibit, “North Shore Photographers” opens at the Johnson Heritage Post March 5 and includes photos from six area photographers. Pictured above is “Lighthouse,” by Don Davison.

The shortest month of the year ends with a bang as far as the arts are concerned, with all kinds of fun events scheduled that weekend.

First up is Winter Tracks, a festival celebrating all-things snow on the Gunflint Trail Feb. 25-28. The Winter Plein Air Festival is part of that event with more than 12 artists registered to get outside and paint. Many will be staying at Menogyn, which is partnering with the Grand Marais Art Colony for this event. An exhibit of the work will open at Gunflint Lodge at 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27. There are all kinds of things to do that weekend, too, including a dinner and dance at Windigo on Saturday night. Trail's End Band will play. Check out the complete schedule at www.wintertracks.com.

The Inuit Premiere itself is on Saturday at Sivertson Gallery with the opening of a wonderful collection of new Inuit work from Alaska, Greenland, Nunavik, Nunavuk and the Northwest Territories. Ohito Ashoona will give soapstone carving demonstrations all day, and Lydia Etok (Nunavik) and Nina Segalowitz (NWT) will give traditional throat-singing demonstrations as well.

"Caribou Spirit," carved by Karen Olanna, guest speaker at this year's Inuit Premiere March 13.

Also that weekend, the Local Musicians Showcase is at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts on Saturday night starting at 7:30 p.m. Sponsored by the North Shore Music Association, the Showcase will introduce some new musicians as well as the tried and true. They include: Paul Peterson, Briand Morrison, Jane Howard, David Demmer, Michael Hyde, Jim and Michele Miller, Philis Anderson and Max Bichel, the Pincushion Warblers (Nathan Baker & Barbara Jean Johnson), and the Cascade Mountain Syrup Lickers (Bump Blomberg, Bill Hansen, Eric Frost, Jessa Wallendal and Nathan Baker).

Painter Adam Reef will be the featured artist at Sivertson Gallery’s Fireside Chats at 6 p.m. Saturday night, too. The event is free.

March is also a great month for art on the North Shore.

The Johnson Heritage Post will open its first show of the season, North Shore Photographers, with a reception at 5 p.m. March 5. This should be a stupendous exhibit with large-scale photographs and prints from Don Davison, Travis Novitsky, Bruce Johnson, Paul Sundberg, Roger Nordstrom, Bryan Hansel and Jon Wood. Put this one on your calendar.

The Irish band, the HiBs, will play at Cascade Restaurant on Friday and Saturday, March 12 and 13, starting at 6 p.m.each night.

Sivertson Gallery’s Fireside Chats continue with a presentation by woodcut printmaker Nick Wroblewski March 6 at 6 p.m.

For Yardbirds fans, they’ll be at the Thunder Bay (Ontario) Community Auditorium on March 7.

St. Patrick’s Day weekend (March 12-13) will be really busy this year, with wonderful Irish music at the Cascade Restaurant all weekend with the HiBs (fiddler Jode Dowling and flutist Kate Dowling, music from 6-9 p.m.), the 10th Annual Inuit Premiere at Sivertson Gallery and the Mush for a Cure fundraiser on the Gunflint Trail.

Trail’s End Band will play at Trail Center on Friday night for Mush for the Cure. The race itself starts on Gunflint Lake in front of Gunflint Pines on Saturday, March 13, at noon and ends at Trail Center in the afternoon with celebrations following.

The Inuit Premiere weekend begins at North House Folk School with a screening of an Inuit film at 7 p.m. Cape Dorset soapstone sculptor Ohito Ashoona will teach two classes at North House that week, too. Call 387-9762 for more info or to register.

The honored guest speaker this year is sculptor Karen Olanna of Nome, Alaska. She is noted for her mystical Eskimo-inspired works carved from Alaskan caribou antler, musk ox horn, whalebone and ancient wooly mammoth bone.

One of the high points of the event will be a panel discussion between the five participants, illuminating similarities and differences between the circumpolar regions and the artists that work there. The discussion is set for 6 p.m. and should be fascinating. The exhibit at the gallery continues through March 31.

Also on March 13, the Opening Doors Talent Show, a fundraiser for handicap accessible (push pad) doors into the Arrowhead Center for the Arts and the main (eagle) entry to Cook County High School, will be held. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The Community Band will play and David Hahn will paint a watercolor landscape until the show starts at 7 p.m. It will be auctioned at the intermission. Confirmed acts so far include perfomers Philis Anderson, Monica Houglum, Tyler Howell, Irene Thompson, Libby Zafft and the Miller-Nickolay family.

Another March show is the “Stations of the Cross” exhibit at the Grand Marais Art Colony featuring works by 27 local artists in textiles, photographs, woodblock printing, oils, watercolors, clay and multimedia. The show, which opens March 21 at 12:30 p.m., is a collaboration between the Art Colony and the Spirit of the Wilderness. Kalamazoo College dean and George Morrison student, Lisa Palchick, will present a lecture on the history of icons in art at 3 p.m. The exhibit continues through April 4.

In other art news, WDSE, PBS-8 is creating a new weekly series showcasing the arts in the Arrowhead region. Called Play List, the regular half-hour show debuts Thursday, April 1, but a preview of the show, “Playlist Presents: Trampled by Turtles,” will be screened at 9 p.m. Thursday, March 18 on Channel 8; Karen Sunderman, the show’s producer, was in Grand Marais recently, to talk about the project with the art community here. She and photographer Steve Ash taped an interview with Betsy Bowen at her studio to be used in one of the early shows. Play List will cover artists in all mediums, including the visual arts, music, poets, novelists, dancers, filmmakers, architects and designers and invites suggestions from viewers as well as video clips. For more info, visit www.wdse.org/shows/playlist. The project is made possible by a grant from the Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.