2020 January Press Releases

Plains Art Museum receives grants from Major Foundations for support of upcoming exhibition, High Visibility 

Press Release
For Immediate Release (January 2020)

Plains Art Museum is thrilled to announce grant support from National Endowment for the Arts for $50,000 and Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for $60,000 for the upcoming exhibition, High Visibility: On Location in Rural American and Indian Country. High Visibility is an exhibition and program series that aims to bridge the rural-urban divide through an attention to art-making in rural America and the social, cultural, and historical conditions which shape its expression. High Visibility is an ambitious and provocative exhibition that will be expansive in content and media. Consisting of installations, performance works, social practice artifacts, writing, audio works, as well as traditional two-dimensional pieces, this two-gallery exhibition and program series will open on October 22, 2020.

The funding from these tremendous organizations will allow Plains Art Museum to fully support the scope and programming for this project and insure the Museum’s and curator’s creative vision and message are truly realized.

National Endowment for the Arts has approved 1,187 grants totaling $27.3 million in the first round of fiscal year 2020 funding to support arts projects in every state in the nation, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The Art Works funding category supports projects that focus on public engagement with, and access to, various forms of excellent art across the nation; the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence; learning in the arts at all stages of life; and the integration of the arts into the fabric of community life.

In accordance with Andy Warhol’s will, the mission of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts is the advancement of the visual arts. The foundation manages an innovative and flexible grants program while also preserving Warhol’s legacy through creative and responsible licensing policies and extensive scholarly research for ongoing catalogue raisonné projects. To date, the foundation has given over $200 million in cash grants to over 1000 arts organizations in 49 states and abroad and has donated 52,786 works of art to 322 institutions worldwide. For more information, please visit warholfoundation.org.

Plains Art Museum is the largest art museum in the Dakotas and Western Minnesota. It is general admission free and educationally-focused thanks to strong and growing support from over 800 households and businesses. The Museum manages a permanent collection of over 4,000 objects, organizes and presents dozens of annual exhibitions, facilitates public art projects, and leads over 200 educational programs and experiences for all ages each year. The Museum, and its Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center for Creativity, is located at 704 First Avenue North in downtown Fargo. For more information about visiting or supporting your art museum, visit plainsart.org.

Plains Art Museum Announces Summer Art Institute

Press Release
For Immediate Release (January 2020)

Fargo, N.D. – Plains Art Museum, in conjunction with Circle of Nations School, is thrilled to introduce The Northern Plains Summer Art Institute (NPSAI) from June 14-26, 2020.

The Northern Plains Summer Art Institute (NPSAI) is a two-week intensive art program for Native American high school students seeking an art education that mixes fundamentals in art and a connection to their cultural identity. Students will spend two weeks with their peers learning from active Native American professionals in multiple disciplines of the art world. A part of the Museum’s Creativity Among Native American Artists Initiative, the program is free for all who attend, and will include housing, meals, coursework and all art supplies.

The majority of classroom instruction will take place at Circle of Nations School with daily instruction that includes a fundamental drawing course and a history lesson on Native American Art. The two week experience will incorporate additional art-based instruction and include a day trip to Plains Art Museum.

Eligible candidates for NPSAI are students entering the 10th -12th grade and college freshman in the fall of 2020, and who are dedicated students pursuing the visual arts and who are interested in their Native American culture. Students will be selected based on a submitted portfolio of their artwork, one letter of reference, and a signed guardian permission form. Applications are due by April 1, 2020.

For more information about NPSAI or to apply to participate, please visit: https://plainsart.org/native-american-artists/northern-plains-summer-art-institute.

For more information, please contact Joe Williams at jwilliams@plainsart.org.

Plains Art Museum is the largest art museum in the Dakotas and Western Minnesota. It is general admission free and educationally-focused thanks to strong and growing support from over 800 households and businesses. The Museum manages a permanent collection of over 4,000 objects, organizes and presents dozens of annual exhibitions, facilitates public art projects, and leads over 200 educational programs and experiences for all ages each year. The Museum, and its Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center for Creativity, is located at 704 First Avenue North in downtown Fargo. For more information about visiting or supporting your art museum, visit plainsart.org.

Circle of Nations School is an inter-tribal off-reservation boarding school, chartered under the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Oyate and funded by the Bureau of Indian Education. Circle of Nations School serves American Indian youth in grades 4 through 8.