Arts briefs: Needlework display coming to LeDuc Estate

Modern versions of historic needlework design will be featured this summer at the LeDuc Historic Estate in Hastings. The exhibit, at 1629 Vermillion St., debuts June 28 and will remain until mid-August.

On display will be entries chosen from a competition in which artists and needle workers based their work on designs taken from the historic collection of the Hastings Needle Work Company.

The firm was founded in 1901 by Alice and Florence LeDuc. More than 1,200 original patterns are housed today in multiple archives.

On opening day, there will be demonstrations from artists and a pair of lectures by Ann Braaten of North Dakota State University, who has done research on the Hastings Needle Work Company.

Reservations are required for the lectures: call 651-437-7055. Visit www.dakotahistory.org for further information.

Brian Miller and Randy Gosa will bring "Songs from the North Woods" to the LeDuc Historic Estate on June 29.

The event starts at 6:30 p.m. Reservations (call 651-437-7055) are required.

Miller sings and plays guitar, bouzouki, and harmonium, while Gosa adds mandolin, tenor banjo, and harmony vocals.

They will draw on 1924 audio recordings that Miller recently discovered of Irish-American singer Mike Dean, who worked and sang in Minnesota from 1885 to 1931.

The cost is $12 per person. Discounted tickets of $10 are available for members of Dakota County Historical Society.

The dance troupe Rhythmic Circus will perform for two nights at the Ames Center in Burnsville on July 25 and 26. The group, with a live band, sold out its last performance at the center (then called the Burnsville Performing Arts Center) in October, after a seven-week tour of China.

Tickets are available through the Ames Center Box Office, by phone at 800-982-2787 or through Ticketmaster.com.