In 2011, one of Fargo’s most prominent and ambitious abstract painters, Marjorie Schlossman, formed a weekly class at the Museum titled the Plains School of Abstract Painting. Over the years, this group of emerging and professional artists has met weekly at the Museum and in our Center for Creativity, within a classroom environment modeled by renowned abstract painter Richard Irving Bowman.
The artists within the group exchange ideas, techniques, thoughts, critiques, and works of art; and encompass a thriving and collegial movement of regional, contemporary abstract painting. Plains School of Abstract Painting Annual Exhibition includes recent works of art produced by this group, and reveals the results of this extraordinary ongoing process of creativity and teaching.
Using acrylic paint on pasted paper, the mural Flight Without Fear explores the dangers of city windows, which kill over a billion birds each year in the U.S. alone. This window painting serves a dual purpose, both saving birds by disrupting the deadly reflections in the window and educating the public on the importance of bird-safe glass.
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This installation was created specifically for the atrium at Plains Art Museum as part of the exhibition Convergence: Health & Creativity. Inspired by Labovitz’s research on the psychological benefits of art, this piece celebrates the connection between art and well-being.
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The S.P.A.C.E. (Sculpture Pad Art Collaborative Experiment) project is a public art initiative led by Plains Art Museum in collaboration with NDSU, MSUM, and Concordia College. Sculptures are displayed for two years.
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To say that right now is the ideal time to make art that speaks directly to the people about social justice is an understatement. Because the very nature of art is to undertake or assume the role of a healer by shading light on the human condition.
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Community artist and school art teacher MeLissa Kossick, who guides youth classes at the Museum on art, gardens, and pollinators, has created an enchanting mosaic design in the Creativity Pathway in the Serkland Gallery called Bee in Flight.
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