Plains Art Museum Blog
Jeff Knight’s ‘Wishbones’
Stop in to the Museum in the next day or two to get one of these hand-carved, wooden wishbones created by Jeff Knight. Knight created these for PROJECT Flood Diversion, our series of interactive art works that pose questions, present ideas, and promote stronger community relationships around the topic of Red River flooding.
Knight created 150 wishbones and has been distributing them throughout the Fargo-Moorhead area, giving them to city workers and others who have fought flooding in the area over the past few years. A handful remain at our visitor’s services desk.
From the “Wishbone” custom packaging, also created by Knight:
The carved wishbone provides a challenge to the recipient while retaining its appeal as an emblematic art object. To satisfy the intent of the wishbone tradition (making a wish), one must break it, posing a dilemma that is in opposition of one’s desire to covet and protect a crafted object. Two people must engage in this activity, becoming active participants in the wishbone’s fate. I challenge those that take this wishbone to defy the social expectations and fulfill the wishbone’s destiny.
This year the people living in the Red River Valley are not distracted by the panic of preparing for an eminent flood. The flood will probably return in coming years and other natural misfortunes will occur, but this year the community has been given an opportunity to take a moment and reflect.
As the artist, I ask for your respone to the confrontation the wishbone provides. Think about community, and self, and how we interact in times of need and how we divide on issues of diversion. Maybe your wish isn’t flood related at all. Maybe you extend the wishbone as a gift for someone else to make a wish.
No matter what your wish, let us know the fate of your wishbone by sending a short response by completing and returning the enclosed card.
Hang on to your hats!
Around the Museum, the Spring Gala is an exciting time. Not only are we about to throw one of the F-M area’s biggest bashes, but we’re also getting ready to see months of planning and hard work come to fruition, with all of it benefiting the Museum in the process. This year’s theme, “Hang On to Your Hats!”, has provided the biggest charge to this year’s Gala planning. We’ve seen some good Facebook buzz already, with plenty of you preparing your own one-of-a-kind entries into what will most assuredly be a hat display to end all hat displays.
If this is your first time attending, or if you’d like a refresher on what goes on, here’s your field guide to the Spring Gala:
Expect plenty of art. The main event at each Gala, other than the fine folks you will meet and speak to, is our art auction. This year, we’ve outdone ourselves with over 100 works of art up for bid from 93 of our region’s finest and best-known artists, plus plenty of work from emerging talent. It’s a golden opportunity to add to your art collections, support the work of these artists, and support the Museum’s mission to provide critical arts education. Plus, you’ll get to take a look at new fashions from designers MeJeanne Couture.
Take a peek at the Gala art auction here.
Expect plenty of treats. This year’s menu reaches new heights of tastiness, with food by Mosaic Foods, the area’s largest wine tasting from Happy Harry’s Bottle Shops, coffee by Dunn Bros. Coffee Co., and desserts by Nichole’s Fine Pastry.
How about a photo of your special night? Did you work extra hard on that special hat? Is it like pulling teeth to get your significant other dressed up for a night on the town? Commemorate the evening with a special photo in our photo booth set up by our fine sponsors, Milestones Photography. Photos start at $10 for a couple, and you’ll get your choice of a print or a digital file. All proceeds will go to the Museum.
Get your groove on. We’re pleased to welcome the ear-catching tunes of Inside Out Strings as our first-floor entertainment this year. And, we’re already exhausted from dancing the night away with area favorites Post Traumatic Funk Syndrome.
Have a great time. We’ve provided the setting, the tunes, the good food, and the wine … but the Gala really comes to life in the conversations you’ll have and the camaraderie you’ll share with your fellow Gala-goers. Come prepared to have a good time, and you will.
Thanks, and see you (and your hats!) on Gala night!
Fargo-Moorhead: we want to hear your flood stories
Krinke, second from left, is working with West Fargo High School students under the direction of Eric Syvertson, left.
Sandbagging lines. Rising basement water. Price gouging for drain plugs. Bailing out a worried neighbor. The horror of having a sump pump breakdown.
All of us in the Fargo-Moorhead area have these stories from the past few years of Red River Valley flooding. They are a significant part of our shared history and surround an issue that continues to push buttons to this day. They also connect us in a way unique from that of your average community, and many of these stories illustrate those connections.
These narratives are the focal point of artist Rebecca Krinke’s project Flood Stories. Krinke, who teaches landscape architecture at the University of Minnesota, is collecting these stories as part of our PROJECT Flood Diversion series, and they will be read and displayed during a walk and reception event on Saturday, April 28, at 1 p.m. The walk starts at Dike West and will make its way to the Museum.
Do you have a flood story you’d like to share? They can be any length, and feel free to include text, audio, video, or photos. You can leave them, here, in the comments, post them to our Facebook page, tag us in a tweet, or email them to Rebecca Krinke at rjkrinke@umn.edu. Then, come out for the walk on the 28th to hear the stories of others.
Andrea Stanislav and Dean Lozow’s “Reflect”
This past weekend, Andrea Stanislav and Dean Lozow presented the transactional walking performance piece Reflect throughout Fargo-Moorhead this past weekend. You’d know if you saw them: they were dressed head to toe in silver outfits covered with small mirror buttons. On Friday and Saturday, they walked through downtown Fargo, through the student unions, and in and out of bars and galleries. While walking, they distributed the buttons in exchange for a photo from the recipient and a story. In particular, they were listening to stories about the issue of flooding in the Red River Valley, taking note of the ways in which the issue has defined our community by strengthening relationships.
Andrea and Dean then took the photos they took and made new buttons, each with the face of a mirror button recipient. Then, they again walked through Fargo-Moorhead, distributing the photo buttons to create a large-scale, yet intimate, shared community portrait of Fargo-Moorhead.
You can see a video of Andrea and Dean explaining Reflect here.
Reflect is a part of PROJECT Flood Diversion, a series of art projects whose purpose is to inspire discussion and encourage contemplation on the phenomenon of flooding in the Red River Valley.
Stevie Famulari’s garden fashion
Artist and NDSU landscape architecture professor Stevie Famulari (left, with intern Courtney Valen) puts the finishing touches on a long coat with from living greenery. The coat is completely wearable, and it will continue to grow, flower, and reseed itself over the course of time. The coat is one of five pieces Famulari is creating for The Green Line Series, a collection of garments made with like materials. One is on display as of today, and the others will be added just prior to our Spring Gala on May 5. The complete collection will be on display until May 28.
Famulari and her green fashion was featured last night on WDAY; you can find that here.
“Dakota Horizons” by Jon Offutt
Yesterday, the bright morning sun was pouring through the windows by our alcove on the second floor. And it caught these works, new glass pieces by Jon Offutt, just right, filling them with light for an undeniably cool effect.
It’s perfectly fitting for these works, too. Created as a multi-work installation, an important element of this new series is Offutt’s channeling of light, transparency of atmosphere, and the creation of depth found on the distant horizon. To accomplish this effect, Offutt added layers of glass powders that are rolled on to the hot glass surface. He then added the rolling prairie as a separate component, then inflated and shaped the vessel. “This collection enables me to present the prairie landscapes on a larger scale — a scale suitable for the massive prairie landscape that surrounds us.”
The installation, entitled Dakota Horizons, will remain on display through August 19.
Snack-sized skyscrapers
Yesterday, after two weeks with the Architecture for the Birds exhibition by NDSU architecture students, our atrium again became temporary home to some small-scale architectural wonders. Fifty Popsicle stick towers–created by second-year ALA students in NDSU’s architecture department, will be on display through April 10.
This short exhibition is the result of a unique challenge given to these studetns 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 are a welcome bit of eye candy for the Atrium.
Architecturally inspired birdhouses flock to the Museum
Birdhouses of a slightly different feather will be on display in the Museum atrium through April 1. The houses, created by architecture students at North Dakota State University, are part of an annual project called “Architecture for the Birds.” Students randomly choose a Pritzker-Prize winning architect and a species of bird or bat, then set to work on creating a work in the style of that architect that will suit that particular species. The resulting works offer a glimpse into the design and build process vital to the development of a budding architect–plus, they’re a lot of fun to look at. Stop in for a birds-eye view.
This project is overseen by Joan Vorderbruggen, assistant professor of architecture at NDSU.
The construction launch for the Center for Creativity
Museum Director Colleen Sheehy speaks in front of Museum supporters at the construction launch ceremony for the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center for Creativity. Photo by Britta Trygstad.
We had a gorgeous spring morning today, a perfect setting for a formal launch of construction activities at the future Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center for Creativity.
Before a group of approximately 100 donors and supporters, Museum Director Colleen Sheehy praised the support of foundations, individuals, and the community as a whole that went into our fund raising campaign, “There’s a Little Artist in All of Us.” Fargo Public Schools Superintendent Rick Buresh complimented the partnership between the school district and the Museum, noting that arts education lends an advantage to our nation’s children that leads to innovation. Museum board chair Arlette Preston thanked area donors, including the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Trust, the foundation whose donation-coupled with a challenge grant from the Burgum family-provided the final funding push to begin construction on the Center. And, area philanthropist Doug Burgum stressed the impact of creativity on the economic vitality of our region.
On top of that, we unveiled a super-sweet construction sign that will sit in the window of the future Center, a sign that got some color thanks to a group of fourth graders from Kennedy Elementary School:
Photo by Britta Trygstad
You’ll see the sign hanging in the windows facing 1st Avenue North sometime soon.
Construction is now in full swing over at the Center and will continue through the summer. A grand opening celebration is planned for Sunday, September 30, with a season of special events and programming in the works to kick off its inaugural year. Keep an eye on this blog for updates on the construction process and to learn more about this wonderful community asset.
Our apologies for our phone gremlins
If you’ve tried calling the Museum any time over the last week or so, you may have had a long hold time or you weren’t connected to your intended contact in a timely manner. We’re having some problems with our phones and we apologize for any difficulties you may have had.
Also, we blame gremlins (not this kind, the other kind).
We’re currently transitioning to a new phone system, a process that may take up to 30 days. In the meantime, we ask you to do the following:
Be patient. If your call is lost, please wait a couple minutes and call us back. If you experience long hold times, please hang up and try again.
Try email. If you’re trying to reach a specific member of the Museum staff, you can find their email over at our contact us page. If you’re not sure where to direct your email, you can use our general email address, museum@plainsart.org.
Don’t feed any Museum staffers after midnight. We don’t need this thing getting any worse.
Thanks again for your patience.
(Photo: greatvectors.com through a Creative Commons license)
