Arts briefs: Octagon House Museum offers new hours, discounts

The Octagon House Museum in Hudson, Wis., is open for the season for tours and is offering both new hours and new discounts this year.

This year's theme is "Transitions: 100 Years of Change." It explores transitions from 1850 to 1950 in fashion, music, communication and other domains.

Changes for 2015:

• New hours: Walk-in tours are available Wednesdays through Sundays, from noon to 4 p.m. Hours have now been extended on Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

• New discounts: There's a new 20 percent discount admission price of $8 for seniors (65 and up), active military, groups of 10 or more, and AAA members. Regular admission is $10 for adults, $3 for students (ages 13—18), $2 for children ages 6—12, and free for kids 5 and under with an adult.

• Accessible necessities: There's a new handicapped accessible restroom.

The complex includes the Octagon House Museum; gardens; a Garden House with general store, blacksmith shop, domestic arts, and medical tableaux.

The St. Croix County Historical Society runs the museum. Information and a 2015 events calendar is at www.stcroixcountyhistory.org.

Advice on using Value Line Investment Reports is being offered this week at the Lake Elmo Library.

The program is Thursday, May 7, at 6:30 p.m. The library offers online Value Line reports free to those with its card.

Gene "Butch" Lang will help patrons learn how to better use and understand the data that is included for 1,700 firms.

Lang is president of the Northern Lights chapter of the National Association of Investment Corp./Better Investing, a nonprofit organization that provides investment information.

This week, an award-winning children's book author will read a book devoted to friendships between animals at the Lake Elmo library. At the same session, prizes will be presented to children who have reached different levels in the Read 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program, co-sponsored by Stillwater Elks Lodge 179 and Lake Elmo Public Library.

Catherine Thimmesh appears on Friday, May 8, at 10:30 a.m. The book is titled "Friends: True Stories of Unusual Animal Friendships."

The St. Croix County Historical Society will present its annual Willow River Cemetery Walk on Saturday, June 6, from noon to 4 p.m.

Volunteer actors are needed to portray the "spirits" of former Hudson residents at their grave sites. Scripts will be provided and the actors will preform a five-minute soliloquy several times during the day.

Singers are needed for a choir that will sing funeral hymns as part of the walk. And volunteers are needed for other functions.

If interested, contact Jacki Bradham at 715-386-3826 or e-mail rbradham@pressenter.com.

The walk is part of Yellowstone Trail Heritage Days. Information about that wider, weekend-long event is at http://tinyurl.com/pf2pmj2. You can also look for St. Croix County Yellowstone Trail on Facebook.

A discussion of the importance of history in shaping the future is on tap this month in the latest "Conversation of the Valley" in Stillwater.

The speaker is Steve Elliott, director and CEO of the Minnesota Historical Society. Elliott worked at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the New York State Historical Association and other institutions before 2011, when he began leading the state Historical Society.

The program is May 20 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Grand Banquet Center, 301 South 2nd St., Stillwater. The cost of a lunch and program is $17 and must be paid in advance. Reservations can be made online at www.scvfoundation.org/conversations-of-the-valley. The series is sponsored by the St. Croix Valley Foundation.