The end of fall kicks off with fun things to do over the Halloween weekend, including a Halloween Dance with the Sensational Hot Rods at the Grand Portage Lodge & Casino on Friday night and an Octoberfest at the Chicago Bay Marketplace in Hovland with Jim and Mary Schliep.

On Saturday, there are lots of choices, including a Halloween dance at Windigo with Trail’s End Band, a costume party with Ignore the Girl (Amy Flack Brooks) at the Harbor Light Supper Club & Bar and a Halloween Bash with Paul Metsa at the Gunflint Tavern.

Also that weekend, the nationally acclaimed bluegrass band, Monroe Crossing, will be in concert at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 28. The concert is co-sponsored by the North Shore Music Association, the Grand Marais Playhouse and Cook County Community Education.

Jim Stafford, right, and Steve Gulley will be the featured musicians at this year’s Bluegrass Masters Weekend at Lutsen Resort.

Music on the North Shore continues the next weekend with the 21st annual Bluegrass Masters Weekend at Lutsen Resort. This very popular three-day jamming/workshop weekend is scheduled Nov. 4-6, but jamming starts in the lobby of the resort as soon as the first musicians arrive. Grammy award-winner Tim Stafford of Blue Highway fame will teach a variety of workshops on Saturday, Nov. 5, from very basic tuning techniques to playing lead guitar in a bluegrass band. Stafford will be joined by singer/songwriter Steve Gulley (Mountain Heart, Grasstowne) for a songwriting workshop on Saturday, and the pair will be in concert at Lutsen Resort at 8 p.m. Saturday. Workshops are $7 or $30 for the full day. Tickets for the concert are $18 adults, $8 for 12 and under. They are available at the event. For more information, visit www.northshoremusicassociation.com.

The Grand Marais Playhouse production of “The Rockin’ Tale of Snow White,” a youth/community play, will be performed Nov. 5-6 and 12-14 with Saturday shows at 7 p.m., Sunday shows at 2 p.m. Tickets sold at the door.

The next week is the Empty Bowls Dinner and Silent Auction at the First Congregational Church, a fundraiser for the Cook County Food Shelf. The event is from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 5-7 p.m. on Nov. 10.

Karen Sunderman of The Playlist, aired on PBS North (Channel 8) at 9 p.m. Thursdays, and the show’s producer and videographer Steve Ash filmed the Quick Paint competition on Artist Point during the Grand Marais Art Colony’s Plein Air Competition at the end of August. Sunderman and Ash are pictured interviewing plein air painters Scott Lloyd Anderson and Neil Sherman at the event. The half-hour program was shot like a reality-TV show --- the artists had just an hour and a half to complete their paintings, and it got pretty exciting for awhile there. More than 30 artists positioned themselves on Artist’s Point and worked hard to complete their works in time. Sherman won the Quick Paint competition. Anderson won first place in the overall Plein Air Compeition. The “Reality-TV” show will be aired at 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 10.

After attending Empty Bowls on Thursday, Nov. 10, people need to rush home and turn on their TV because WDSE Channel 8 Duluth will be airing a special half-hour “Reality TV show” on The Playlist about the Quick Paint during the Grand Marais Art Colony’s Plein Air Art Festival and Competition this fall. The show’s producers, Karen Sunderman and Steve Ash, were out on Artists Point during the competition, filming and interviewing the artists. The Playlist airs at 9:30 p.m.

Another highlight of November is the Winterer’s Gathering at North House Folk School Nov. 17-20. It is always a fun weekend, with lots of workshops and speakers, and a spectacular film festival as well as a contra dance with Over the Waterfall Friday night and a ski and gear swap on Saturday. Guests this year are Isle Royale moose/wolf study expert Rolf Peterson and filmmaker George Desort as well as Canadian film maker Mark Terry. For more info on the weekend, visit www.northhouse.org.

November is the season of holiday bazaars, too, and the first one is scheduled for the Schroeder Town Hall and the Cross River Heritage Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 19. The event includes the North Country Creations Holiday Bazaar at the Town Hall and Mrs. Santa Claus, krumkaka and hand-crafted gift items, including fiber art by Mary Jane Huggins, at the Heritage Center.

Tom McCann was the artist in residence at Quetico Park this summer where he documented historic bronze plaques with watercolor paintings over wax rubbings. He donated “French Portage” above, to the Quetico Foundation in Toronto, Ontario, which sold it for $2,800 at a live auction recently. McCann said the painting under the wax rubbing is a loose copy of a studio painting of the portage by Paul Kane, which was painted in 1845.

Blue Moose Gallery will reopen with special holiday displays from Nov. 25 through Dec. 22.

Last Chance Gallery will hold its annual Holiday Reception bonfire lighting ceremony and caroling from 5-7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 25 with lots of new work in the gallery. The public is invited.

The Hovland Christmas Arts Festival is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 26 at the Hovland Town Hall, where more than 20 artisans will exhibit.

Early December sees the Sneak Preview and Holiday Art Underground Sale at Betsy Bowen’s Studio Dec. 2. Northwoods Fiber Guild’s Holiday Sale and Open House at the Grand Marais Art Colony and the Christmas Craft and Bake Sale at the Evangelical Free Church Dec. 3.

Grand Marais illustrator and woodcarver Betsy Bowen and photographer Stephan Hoglund partnered with Minong, Wis.-based Jack Link's Beef Jerky, the No. 1 U.S. meat snack manufacturer, to create a pumpkin carving template featuring Sasquatch, star of Jack Link's award-winning Messin' With Sasquatch advertising campaign. One of Hoglund’s photos of a pumpkin carving is pictured above. Bowen, Noah Prinsen and Lucy Kreusel carved the pumpkins and Hoglund was assisted by Staci Drouillard and Barb LaVigne. The photographs of the pumpkins will be used online at www.JackLinks.com and for the brand's public relations efforts.

The always popular Community Christmas Concert at Bethlehem Lutheran Church is at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 4-5. Stay tuned for more details next month.

In other art news, award-winning wooden bowl maker Cooper Ternes gives a fireside chat at Sivertson Gallery 6-7 p.m. Nov. 18 during Winterer’s Gathering. Ternes has just completed a successful art festival season in the region.

The Northern Photography Show, featuring photos by David Brislane, Don Davison, Joi Electa, Betty Hemstad, Bryan Hansel, Stephan Hoglund, Gary “Jake h Jacobsen, Roger Nordstrom, Travis Novitsky, Ellen Stubbs, Paul Sundberg, Sandra Updyke, Kjersti Vick, Andrew Wood and Jon Wood  is on-going at the Johnson Heritage Post Gallery through Dec. 4.

Signed books by local authors are available at Birchbark Books & Gifts, including copies of “Around a Woodsy Corner” by Marcy Blonger with illustrations by Rhonda Weitzel.

Silver Bay artist Lauri Hohman is exhibiting at the Coho Cafe in Tofte.

Drury Lane Books reports that the West End Book Group is reading “Color: A Natural History of the Palette” by Victoria Finley.