Marjorie Schlossman, Funnies, 2010, Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches

Marjorie Schlossman, Untitled, 1981, Watercolor on paper, 18 x 24 inches, Courtesy of the artist

(Click images for full-size version)

Marjorie Schlossman Release (PDF)

FARGO, N.D. – Plains Art Museum will display a remarkable and comprehensive exhibition of work by Fargo artist Marjorie Schlossman June 7 – August 26.

The exhibition, A Symphony of Color, marks Schlossman’s first major exhibition in seven years. On display in two galleries will be 68 works representing a cross-section of her 20-plus year career. In addition to her abstract paintings, the exhibition will include a film on the artist, a hand-made book, and a large, mural-size Roberts Street Chapel paintings, and one of Schlossman’s Chaplets—small and artistically intentioned buildings commissioned by the artist and created by local architects. Curated as a multi-site exhibition, audiences can see Schlossman’s work at PAM, the Robert Street Chapel, the artist’s studio in downtown Fargo, and in a number of local parks.

A Symphony of Color was curated by Christina Schmid, an independent curator and faculty member of the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, to create visual vignettes that facilitate an overall meditation on color, movement, and emotion.

“The work of this noted artist is a direct reflection of creative tenacity and a commitment to national and international art trends. Schlossman has created a vast body of work that is informed by one of the greatest art movements of all time—abstraction. The multi-site nature of this exhibition will give our audiences a plethora of entry points into the mind’s eye of a spectacular artist,” said Megan Johnston, the Museum’s director of curatorial affairs and interpretation.

Art Jones, professor and the chair of the department of art and design at the University of North Dakota, explains, “Schlossman, like earlier Abstract Expressionists, attempts to free her mind of conscious thought and relies on intuition as she ‘impulsively’ makes initial marks on the empty canvas. Through this process, biomorphic shapes and other compositional elements begin to emerge as her painting comes to fruition. Her process of discovery during the act of painting may be likened to that of Jackson Pollock.”

A scholarly catalogue will accompany the exhibition with an introduction by Museum Director Colleen Sheehy and essays by Schmid and Jones. This exhibition is the second in the Museum’s Mothers of Invention exhibition series recognizing artists who opened up the art world to the work of women in the 1960s and 1970s.

About the artist: Marjorie Schlossman is a painter, musician and mother of seven children. Born in California and raised in Fargo, N.D., Marjorie graduated from Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., with a degree in literature. She married and moved to La Jolla, Calif., and then to the Palo Alto, Calif., area, where she studied art with Richard Bowman, an instructor at the Chicago Art Institute and Stanford University; and Kenneth Washburn, a retired Columbia University professor. Schlossman returned to Fargo with her family in 1992. She has served on numerous community boards of directors, including that of Plains Art Museum. She obtained a Master of Liberal Arts degree from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 2003.

Related events

• Opening reception, Thursday, June 7, 5:30 – 8 p.m. This reception is free for Museum members; $10 for nonmembers. Appetizers, cash bar, and music by Three Chaps and a Chaplet.

• Curator Conversation, Thursday, July 19, 7 – 8:30 p.m. Curator Christina Schmid and Marjorie Schlossman will discuss A Symphony of Color and how it fits into Schlossman’s career.

• Walking Tours, Thursday, July 26, and Thursday, August 9, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Two “walk and talks,” led by Schlossman, will begin at the Museum then visit Schlossman’s Roberts Street Chapel, her studio on Main Avenue, and local parks to view the artist’s Chaplets.

This exhibition and catalogue are supported in part by US Bancorp and the Fargo-Moorhead Area Foundation, with additional support from Russell Cowles and Josine Peters, and Juan and Annele Mondragon.

About Plains Art Museum
Plains Art Museum is a nonprofit, regional fine arts museum accredited by the American Association of Museums with plans to significantly expand its programs through the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center of Creativity, opening fall of 2012. Museum programs are made possible, in part, by major funding from members of the Museum, The FUNd at Plains Art Museum, the cities of Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo through The Arts Partnership, The McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, the North Dakota Council on the Arts through an appropriation by the North Dakota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. More information is available at 701.232.3821 or at www.plainsart.org.

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FARGO, N.D. – The iconic Luis Jiminez sculpture, Sodbuster, San Isidro, will temporarily return to public view in the exhibition The Return of Sodbuster: Luis Jimenez in Fargo at Plains Art Museum, June 2 to September 9. After a year-long public dialogue about details of the artwork’s reinstallation, the Museum is will host an exhibition that takes a deeper look at the artist, the sculpture, and that discussion.

The exhibition will encourage further conversation on the conservation and repair that Sodbuster, San Isidro needs while highlighting the resources and options available for it to return to public view. To facilitate this discussion, the exhibition will also include a number of visitor feedback options. The exhibition will also take a broader look at the role museums play in the preservation and conservation of works of art.

“We’re excited to extend the debate about what needs to happen to conserve this important public asset. Sodbuster is more than a work of art—it’s also about Fargo identity, pride, and community,” said Megan Johnston, director of curatorial affairs and interpretation at the Museum and curator of the exhibition. “The exhibition will embrace all opinions and inform the public on issues of creativity, restoration, and public art.”

Sodbuster, San Isidro, was Jimenez’s first public art commission in a long and distinguished career that spanned nearly 40 years before his untimely death in 2006. In celebration of the work, and in an effort to bring attention to its restoration needs, the Museum will be displaying Sodbuster, San Isidro alongside other Jimenez works in their collection, documentation of the commission and installation of the sculpture, and other conservation and collection information.

The sculpture is in need of substantial conservation work. It will be displayed in this state in order to bring attention to its conservation needs and to facilitate further discussions on its future display and what resources are available that can return it, permanently, to public view. In a related event, noted art conservationist Bill Kreysler will perform an assessment of the sculpture and will participate in a public discussion of the issues surrounding its conservation, building off of last fall’s “Sodbuster Summit,” a meeting held to assess public opinion about the future of the sculpture.

Sodbuster, San Isidro was originally commissioned by the Fargo Parking Authority in 1978 and formally gifted by the city of Fargo to the Museum in April of 1991. The name Sodbuster, San Isidro pays tribute to the early immigrant plains farmer. Its title also honors the patron saint of agriculture, a popular image throughout Latin America.

Related Events:

• Sodbuster Conserved. Thursday, August 2, 7 – 8:30 p.m. Hear a presentation by noted conservationist Bill Kreysler and participate in a public discussion about the conservation needs of our Sodbuster by Luis Jimenez. Kreysler will have spent a day examining Sodbuster and will report back.

About Plains Art Museum

Plains Art Museum is a nonprofit, regional fine arts museum accredited by the American Association of Museums with plans to significantly expand its programs through the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center of Creativity, opening fall of 2012. Museum programs are made possible, in part, by major funding from members of the Museum, The FUNd at Plains Art Museum, the cities of Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo through The Arts Partnership, The McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, the North Dakota Council on the Arts through an appropriation by the North Dakota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. More information is available at 701.232.3821 or at www.plainsart.org.

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FARGO, N.D. – Plains Art Museum will receive $50,000 in grant funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) through that agency’s Art Works funding program. The funds will be used to develop an environmental work of public art at the site of the now-defunct Moorhead Power Plant, part of the Museum’s Defiant Gardens for Fargo-Moorhead initiative.

Moorhead city officials, members of Moorhead’s Woodlawn neighborhood, the Moorhead Power Plant Study Group, and the Museum have all been involved in the process in creating a site plan to transform the grounds around the plant into a contemplative public garden space. The effort also involves two artists, Rob Fischer and Kevin Johnson of Brooklyn, N.Y. Fischer and Johnson are Minnesota natives who focus on environmental sculpture and the creation of meaningful spaces.

“We’re grateful to see this project move forward thanks to these funds,” said Museum Director and CEO Colleen Sheehy. “It’s such a worthwhile project for the beautification of a Moorhead neighborhood.”

“The arts should be a part of everyday life,” said NEA Chair Rocco Landesman. “Whether it’s seeing a performance, visiting a gallery, participating in an art class, or simply taking a walk around a neighborhood enhanced by public art, these grants are ensuring that across the nation, the public is able to experience how art works.”

Plains Art Museum is one of 788 not-for-profit national, regional, state, and local organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. The 788 Art Works grants total $24.81 million and support the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and the strengthening of communities through the arts.

The NEA received 1,624 eligible applications under the Art Works category for this round of funding, requesting more than $78 million in funding. For a complete listing of projects recommended for Art Works grant support, please visit the NEA website at arts.gov.

About Plains Art Museum

Plains Art Museum is a nonprofit, regional fine arts museum accredited by the American Association of Museums with plans to significantly expand its programs through the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center of Creativity, opening fall of 2012. Museum programs are made possible, in part, by major funding from members of the Museum, The FUNd at Plains Art Museum, the cities of Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo through The Arts Partnership, The McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, the North Dakota Council on the Arts through an appropriation by the North Dakota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. More information is available at 701.232.3821 or at www.plainsart.org.

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FARGO, N.D. – Plains Art Museum has named Brianna McNelly to the Museum staff as the new manager of youth programs. McNelly will coordinate educational programming in the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center for Creativity, opening fall of 2012. She will also oversee school visits, plan family events, coordinate classes, and create a teen after-school program.

McNelly previously worked as a museum educator at Dickinson Museum Center and has also worked as a paraprofessional for special needs students for the Battle Lake School District. She also has worked and volunteered for the education and collections departments at the Museum. She is a 2007 graduate of Concordia College in Moorhead, where she received dual bachelor degrees in art history and history, and a native of Battle Lake, Minn.

About Plains Art Museum

Plains Art Museum is a nonprofit, regional fine arts museum accredited by the American Association of Museums with plans to significantly expand its programs through the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center of Creativity, opening fall of 2012. Museum programs are made possible, in part, by major funding from members of the Museum, The FUNd at Plains Art Museum, the cities of Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo through The Arts Partnership, The McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, the North Dakota Council on the Arts through an appropriation by the North Dakota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. More information is available at 701.232.3821 or at www.plainsart.org.

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Symphony of Color marks Schlossman’s first solo exhibition in seven years and, by far, her most comprehensive. The 68 works here represent a cross section of her career, spanning nearly 20 years of work, and include paintings as well as several of the Roberts Street Chaplets she helped create in 2006.

PROJECT Flood Diversion Release (PDF)

FARGO, N.D. – Plains Art Museum is asking artists to find inspiration in an unlikely place—the issue of flooding in the Red River Valley. The Museum has commissioned a variety of “interventions” from artists in the region in response to the flooding in recent years. Their purpose is to pose questions and inspire discussion around the emotional, environmental, and social impacts of a disaster, using a variety of artistic expressions to do so.

“Communities undergo phenomenal changes during natural disasters, and we’re trying to find creative ways to discuss, debate, and unpack these issues through artistic interventions,” said Megan Johnston, the Museum’s director of curatorial affairs. “I want people who witness these projects to come away with a new understanding of what it means to go through these things and to better understand each other because of that.”

The projects are:

• April 11 – May 15. Jeff Knight, Wishbones. Knight created 150 small, carved wooden wishbones which will be packaged in graphically designed boxes that are artifacts meant to be broken as part of a wish for the future. They will be handed out to city workers and at specific locations in the Fargo-Moorhead area for those who have fought flooding over recent years.
• April 9 – May 12. Student Print Show. Students from Concordia College, Minnesota State University Moorhead, and North Dakota State University will display prints inspired by “diversion” and “water on the third floor of the PAM.
• April 9 – May 31. Stevie Famulari, Seed Project. Inspired by her interest in environmental art and engagement, Famulari will produce 100 small seed bags that will grow with daily watering and are available for the public to take. They will be displayed alongside Famulari’s The Green Project in the Museum atrium.
• April 12 – 14. Andrea Stanislav, Reflect. Stanislav’s Reflect is a site-specific interactive performance walk/sculpture. Two performers—a man and a woman—will walk from the Reflect site at the Museum, through downtown Fargo and surrounding locations, each wearing a garment entirely covered with thousands of mirrored circular buttons. As the performers walk, they will give away individual buttons to people they meet in exchange for their memories and observations about flooding in Fargo-Moorhead. The day after the walk, Stanislav will replace the mirrored buttons with photos of the participants, staging the walk again as a “remix” of the memories that were recorded.
• March 30, research day; April 28, final project and walking tour. Rebecca Krinke, Flood Stories. Flood Stories is a temporary work of public storytelling about floods in Fargo-Moorhead, with stories told by those who experienced them in the places where those stories happened. The aim is to celebrate these stories and use the opportunity of a spring without flooding to reflect on the bravery, neighborliness, and caring that comes out in traumatic times. Krinke will meet with high school students and various members of the public, finalizing the project with a walking tour along the Red River.
• Late April through May 15. Engage U: RISE (River Inspired Service Engine). Engage U, a social practice group based out of the NDSU Visual Arts Department, will launch the program R.I.S.E. (River Inspired Service Engine) as part of PROJECT Flood Diversion. R.I.S.E. will use guerilla marketing tactics to inspire residents to recognize the amount of effort that went into defending the city over the past three years of flooding and celebrate the fact that no such effort is required this year. R.I.S.E. will kindly challenge residents to take back the power from the flood by building the city through service projects rather than defending the city through filling and stacking sandbags.

About Plains Art Museum

Plains Art Museum is a nonprofit, regional fine arts museum accredited by the American Association of Museums, with plans to significantly expand its programs through the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center of Creativity, opening fall of 2012. Museum programs are made possible, in part, by major funding from members of the Museum, The FUNd at Plains Art Museum, the cities of Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo through The Arts Partnership, The McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, the North Dakota Council on the Arts through an appropriation by the North Dakota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. More information is available at 701.232.3821 or at www.plainsart.org.

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FARGO, N.D. – For the past three months, five dresses have been lovingly watered and cared for in a Fargo hot house so they would flower in time for a Plains Art Museum installation entitled The Green Line Series: Garden Parties. Artist Stevie Famulari has created five wearable garments made from plants that grow, flower, and reseed themselves.

The garments will be on display in the Museum’s Ruth and Seymour Landfield Atrium April 9 – May 28. For the display, Famulari has created five garments: an opera gown, an asymmetrical gown, a lawn coat, a wedding gown, and a plant-laced gown. Each of them is lined with a waterproof material to allow them to be worn. Each dress contains over 5,000 living blossoms.

“The piece is about sculpture, green design, installation, and environmental art. Moreover, the project is, in essence, about the temporality of ephemeral art,” said Museum Director of Curatorial Affairs Megan Johnston.

One garment, the opera gown, will be on display itself for the first three weeks of the installation and will be joined by the other four in time for the Museum’s Spring Gala on May 5. Famulari will also have 100 small seed bags available at the Museum for takeaway by the public as part of PROJECT Flood Diversion, a series of art interventions addressing the issue of flooding in Fargo-Moorhead.

Famulari, a native of New York, is assistant professor of landscape architecture at North Dakota State University and has received national attention for her environmental art landscapes, indoor and outdoor greening, and sculptures. Her work has been featured in hundreds of books, publications, and television programs.  Famulari is known for using unconventional, green and sustainable media in her art.  Her chocolate dress was a hit on the New York runway during chocolate conventions from 2004 through 2008 and was featured on Oprah, Good Morning America, and the NBC Evening News.

The Green Line Series: Garden Parties is the second in a series of temporary exhibitions, curated by Johnston, entitled Art As Process. This series highlights the artistic/audience process as the central issue within the work. Each exhibition evolves over the course of two months, allowing the viewer to interact visually and theoretically through time.

Related events:

• Thursday, May 10, 7:30 – 8:30 p.m. Lecture by Stevie Famulari. In this public lecture Stevie Famulari, a multi-sensory and environmental artist, will discuss her current projects The Green Line Series and The Seed Project, and her innovative and socially engaged practice, which converges ideas and theories found in the fields of art, landscape architecture, architecture, fashion, food, and environmental art. Pulling from examples in her own work and that of other artists, Famulari will delineate her cross-disciplinary approach to most of the most exciting original practices today, a practice that engages with the idea of creating designs that use plant materials in innovative settings. She will also discuss how the arts enrich people’s minds and the spaces where they live and work.

About Plains Art Museum

Plains Art Museum is a nonprofit, regional fine arts museum accredited by the American Association of Museums, with plans to significantly expand its programs through the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center of Creativity, opening fall of 2012. Museum programs are made possible, in part, by major funding from members of the Museum, The FUNd at Plains Art Museum, the cities of Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo through The Arts Partnership, The McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, the North Dakota Council on the Arts through an appropriation by the North Dakota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. More information is available at 701.232.3821 or at www.plainsart.org.

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FARGO, N.D. – Plains Art Museum is asking attendees to don their favorite headgear for the 16th Annual Spring Gala on Saturday, May 5.

The theme for this year’s Gala, “Hang On to Your Hats!”, celebrates the upcoming opening of the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center for Creativity, which will house studio and project spaces, a digital hub, and programs geared toward the development of 21^st century skills. It will offer services to thousands of area K-12 students and the region as a whole.

“We’re so thrilled for this new phase in the history of the Museum, we decided to pick a theme that would allow us to share that excitement while still offering the same Gala fun we have in the past,” said Joni Janz, director of development for the Museum.

The Spring Gala will feature a silent auction of art, the area’s largest wine tasting by Happy Harry’s Bottle Shops, food from Mosaic Foods, desserts by Nichole’s Fine Pastry, coffee by Dunn Bros. Coffee Co., music by Inside Out Strings, and dancing to Post Traumatic Funk Syndrome. The evening will also feature a new line of clothing and accessories from design house MeJeanne Couture and a number of specially designed garments by artist Stevie Famulari. Proceeds from the Gala will benefit Museum education programs.

Co-chairs Abigail Barber Burgum, James Burgum, Zack Dawson, and Kelly Dawson are providing volunteer leadership for this year’s Gala. Sally McCravey is spearheading the Gala logistics committee and Raul Gomez is leading the Gala marketing committee.

Tickets are now on sale at plainsart.org/visit. Tickets are $100, but can be purchased before April 20 for the discounted price of $90.

About Plains Art Museum

Plains Art Museum is a nonprofit, regional fine arts museum accredited by the American Association of Museums with plans to significantly expand its programs through the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center of Creativity, opening fall of 2012. Museum programs are made possible, in part, by major funding from members of the Museum, The FUNd at Plains Art Museum, the cities of Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo through The Arts Partnership, The McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, the North Dakota Council on the Arts through an appropriation by the North Dakota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. More information is available at 701.232.3821 or at www.plainsart.org.

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FARGO, N.D. – In a new installation at Plains Art Museum, glass blower Jon Offutt will display a selection of new work with a twist.

The installation, entitled Dakota Horizons, pays homage to the North Dakota landscape through a selection of glass vases that depict the state’s rolling terrain. When lit, the colors in the vases reflect the way sunlight changes the horizon, giving the effect of sunrise or sunset.

“These works reflect, in an unexpected way, the connection that many North Dakotans feel with their landscape. Anyone from this area will be drawn in to their contours and colors,” said Megan Johnston, Museum director of curatorial affairs.

Dakota Horizons will be on display April 6 through August 19 on the second floor of the Museum. The installation is part of a nationwide celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the U.S. Studio Glass Movement, an era characterized by the use of small, private studios to create functional and artistic glass pieces.

This exhibition is made possible by a grant through the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass.

Related events:

• Thursday, May 24, 7 – 9 p.m. Gallery talk by Ann Ruhr Pifer and Jon Offutt. Pifer, owner of the Grand Hand Gallery in St. Paul, Minn., and Offutt will discuss the history of American contemporary glass blowing and its influence on Offutt’s work.
• July 20 and 21, hourly between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Glass-blowing demonstrations by Jon Offutt. Offutt will set up his mobile glass blowing studio in front of the Museum during the Downtown Street Fair.

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Fargo, N.D. – Plains Art Museum, accredited by the American Association of Museums, presents a full slate of exhibitions, activities, and related events for early 2012. Please call (701) 232-3821 for registration or event details.

Exhibitions and Related Events

Ongoing through April 15. Birch Bark, Clay, Pixels, Paint. Since 2007, hundreds of works of art have been donated to the Museum, and several new pieces have been acquired through Museum purchases or commissions. Birch Bark, Clay, Pixels, Paint, will display 50 of these works, including the first digital art in the Museum collection, Minnesota State University Moorhead Professor Henry Gwiazda’s video piece Claudia & Paul, a doll’s house, consciousness. Other works include an innovative birch bark collage made by the father and son team Pat and Gage Kruse of the Minnesota Mille Lacs Reservation, showing an abstract starburst design.

Ongoing through May 6. Art on the Plains XI. With the exhibition Art on the Plains XI: A Regional Juried Exhibition, Plains Art Museum provides a valuable glimpse into the range of artistic talent currently being shown across the upper Midwest. Forty-eight established and emerging visual artists from North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska will be featured in the exhibition, particularly artists that exemplify the region’s contemporary practices in photography, sculpture, installation art, and other media.

April 3 – 9. Snack-sized Skyscrapers. Architecture students from NDSU face a unique challenge each year: constructing a tower entirely from Popsicle sticks that is equal to their own height. The results are meant to teach the students to mimic the balancing act that goes into the creation of a skyscraper, learning a valuable lesson in design and construction in the process. For the rest of us, the towers, on display for just a week, are a welcome bit of eye candy for the Atrium.

April 4 – May 31. PROJECT Flood Diversion: A Creative Artistic Intervention Series. The Museum has commissioned a variety of “interventions” from artists in the region in response to the flooding in recent years. Their purpose is to pose questions and inspire discussion around the emotional, environmental, and social impacts of a disaster, using a variety of artistic expressions to do so.

The projects are:

• April 4 – 7. Jeff Knight, Wishbones. Knight created 150 small, carved wooden wishbones which will be packaged in graphically designed boxes that are artifacts meant to be broken as part of a wish for the future. They will be handed out to city workers who have fought flooding over recent years.
• April 9 – May 12. Student Print Show. Students from Concordia College, Minnesota State University Moorhead, and North Dakota State University will display prints inspired by “diversion” and “water on the third floor of the PAM.
• April 9 – May 31. Stevie Famulari, Seed Project. Inspired by her interest in environmental art and engagement, Famulari will produce 100 small seed bags that will grow with daily watering and are available for the public to take. They will be displayed alongside Famulari’s The Green Line Series.
• April 12 – 15. Andrea Stanislav, Reflect. Stanislav’s Reflect is a site-specific interactive performance walk/sculpture. Two performers—a man and a woman—will walk from the Reflect site at the Museum, through downtown Fargo and surrounding locations, each wearing a garment entirely covered with thousands of mirrored circular buttons. As the performers walk, they will give away individual buttons to people they meet in exchange for their memories and observations about flooding in Fargo-Moorhead. The day after the walk, Stanislav will replace the mirrored buttons with photos of the participants, staging the walk again as a “remix” of the memories that were recorded.
• Late April through May 15. Engage U: RISE (River Inspired Service Engine). Engage U, a social practice group based out of the NDSU Visual Arts Department, will launch the program R.I.S.E. (River Inspired Service Engine) as part of PROJECT Flood Diversion. R.I.S.E. will use guerilla marketing tactics to inspire residents to recognize the amount of effort that went into defending the city over the past three years of flooding and celebrate the fact that no such effort is required this year. R.I.S.E. will kindly challenge residents to take back the power from the flood by building the city through service projects rather than defending the city through filling and stacking sandbags.
• March 30 research day; April 28 final project and walking tour. Rebecca Krinke, Flood Stories. Flood Stories is a temporary work of public storytelling about floods in Fargo-Moorhead, with stories told by those who experienced them in the places where those stories happened. The aim is to celebrate these stories and use the opportunity of a spring without flooding to reflect on the bravery, neighborliness, and caring that comes out in traumatic times. Krinke will meet with high school students and various members of the public, finalizing the project with a walking tour along the Red River.

April 9 – May 28. The Green Line Series: Garden Parties. In a Plains Art Museum installation entitled The Green Line Series, artist Stevie Famulari will display wearable garments made from plants that grow, flower, and reseed themselves. The garments will be on display in the Museum’s Ruth and Seymour Landfield Atrium April 9 – May 28. For the display, Famulari has created five garments: an opera gown, an asymmetrical gown, a lawn coat, a wedding gown, and a laced gown. Each of them is lined with a waterproof material to allow them to be worn.

Related events:

• Thursday, May 10, 7:30 – 8:30 p.m. Lecture by Stevie Famulari. In this public lecture Stevie Famulari, a multi-sensory and environmental artist, will discuss her current projects The Green Line Series and The Seed Project, and her innovative and socially engaged practice, which converges ideas and theories found in the fields of art, landscape architecture, architecture, fashion, food, and environmental art.

April 6 – August 19. Dakota Horizons, an installation by Jon Offutt. In an installation entitled Dakota Horizons, artist Jon Offutt pays homage to the North Dakotan landscape through a selection of glass vases that depict the state’s rolling terrain. When lit, the color in the vases reflects the way sunlight changes the horizon, giving the effect of sunrise or sunset. The installation is part of a nationwide celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the U.S. Studio Glass Movement, an era characterized by the use of small, private studios to create functional and artistic glass pieces.

This exhibition is made possible by a grant through the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass.

Related events:

• Thursday, May 24, 7 – 9 p.m. Gallery talk by Ann Ruhr Pifer and Jon Offutt. Pifer, owner of the Grand Hand Gallery in St. Paul, Minn., and Offutt will discuss the history of American contemporary glass blowing and its influence on Offutt’s work.
• July, 20 and 21, hourly between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Glass-blowing demonstrations by Jon Offutt. Offutt will set up his mobile glass blowing studio in front of the Museum during the Downtown Street Fair.

June 7 – August 26. Marjorie Schlossman: Symphony of Color. Symphony of Color marks Marjorie Schlossman’s first solo exhibition in seven years and, by far, her most comprehensive. The works here represent a cross section of her career, spanning nearly 20 years of work, and include paintings as well as several of the Roberts Street Chaplets she helped create in 2006. The exhibition was curated by Christina Schmid to showcase Schlossman’s work as a series of large-scale visual vignettes and to facilitate an overall sense of meditation on color. In addition to the two galleries at the Museum, Symphony of Color will spill over into Schlossman’s Roberts Street Chapel, her Fargo studio, and into parks throughout the city.

Related events:

• Thursday, June 7, 5:30 – 8 p.m. Opening reception for Symphony of Color. Free for Museum members, $10 for nonmembers.

Social/Activities/Education

Kid Quest. Saturdays, 10 a.m. – noon. This popular and free experience is perfect for families. Enjoy fascinating hands-on gallery activities. Preregistration is required. Register at plainsart.org/learn or call 701.232.3821 ext. 101.

• April 7 • Don’t Throw That Away! We’re going to party down with Mother Earth and celebrate Earth Day by turning our trash into treasures. Start collecting bottle caps to use in your own collage!

Art for Two. Workshops for an adult and a child (age 5 – 12) to enjoy creative time together. $22 for members, $25 for nonmembers. Call (701) 232-3821 or visit plainsart.org/learn to register.

• Your Own Storybook. Saturday, April 14, 2 – 4 p.m. You and your child will create his/her own version of a favorite story or fairytale in a one-of-a-kind art book.

June 11 – 14, 9 a.m. – noon. Summer Art Camp: Splish, Splash, Splatter. Camp leader: Jen Nelson. Fee: $110 nonmembers / $99 members. Campers will view Marjorie Schlossman’s bold and expressive artwork, learn about the work of several other abstract artists, and create their own collection of abstract work. They will build abstract sculptures with wood pieces, splatter and layer paint on canvas board, collage fabric, and dig into all kinds of neat art materials that will help them define their own expressive styles. This will be a fun and messy art camp experience! We will proudly display the campers’ artwork in the education gallery at the end of the Art Camp.

About Plains Art Museum

Plains Art Museum is a nonprofit, regional fine arts museum accredited by the American Association of Museums with plans to significantly expand its programs through the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center of Creativity, opening fall of 2012. Museum programs are made possible, in part, by major funding from members of the Museum, The FUNd at Plains Art Museum, the cities of Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo through The Arts Partnership, The McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, the North Dakota Council on the Arts through an appropriation by the North Dakota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. More information is available at 701.232.3821 or at www.plainsart.org.

Images available upon request.

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