Past Exhibitions

Architecture for the Birds is a popular annual exhibition presented in partnership with the North Dakota State University Department of Architecture & Landscape Architecture. The work is the result of a design challenge posed to participating students: to design and build a birdhouse based on the work of a Pritzker-Award-winning architect.

Fargo Moorhead Visual Artists (FMVA), North Dakota Arts Education (NDAEA) and the Plains Art Museum are coming together to promote and support our state and regional arts educators.

With a roster of over 95 established visual artists, poets, writers, musicians, activists and visionaries, Grupo Soap del Corazón, led by Dougie Padilla and Xavier Tavera, is one of the longest-running Latinx artist groups in the country.

Over her almost 70 year-long career, Hazel Belvo has been a prominent contributor to both the arts and feminist advocacy in the region. Hazel co-founded the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM), was Chair of the Fine Arts Dept. at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), and taught at the Grand Marais Artist Colony.

Born in Kansas City, W. Scott Olsen grew up in the north suburbs of Chicago. A pilot, traveler, adventure writer, photographer and professor of English at Concordia College, Moorhead, MN, Olsen is the author of eleven books, editor of several anthologies, and former editor of the national literary magazine, Ascent.

Below the Surface showcases pieces that can help teach about the principles and elements of art and design to a larger audience.

Returning for its fifth year, and again demonstrating power in quality, diversity, and strength, Plains Art Museum welcomes back the 2022 North Dakota Human Rights Art Exhibition.

Plains Art Museum will host the work of Ann Johnson in the exhibition Unseen Traces in the Work of Ann Johnson. Reflecting on her 2022 Lawndale Contemporary Art Center installation, See Me, Ann “Sole Sister” Johnson is matter-a-fact about the intent: “This is about being seen. Seeing the women in the shadows.”

Architecture for the Birds is a popular annual exhibition in partnership with the North Dakota State University Department of Architecture & Landscape Architecture. The work is the result of a design challenge posed to participating students: to design and build a birdhouse based on the work of a Pritzker-Award-winning architect.

Each year, Fargo Moorhead Visual Artists (FMVA) presents the Studio Crawl—a popular, free event that gives the community access to professional artist studios. The Studio Crawl is an opportunity for people to meet artists, see demonstrations, and purchase their work.

This exhibition celebrates the vision, ingenuity, and talent of North Dakota teen artists. Since 2015 Plains Art Museum and the Red River Valley Writing Project have partnered to serve as the state affiliate for the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.

The Fargo Moorhead Visual Artists (FMVA) Constraint exhibition challenges participating member artists to produce new artworks that fit within a given theme.

School Spirit: Celebrating Youth Art Month, now in its 20th year, showcases the talents of regional K-12 art students from area schools in a variety of media. This exhibition celebrates our region’s emerging artists and promotes awareness of the vital work done by art educators.

This exhibition highlights two different bodies of work by painter Britta Anderson. On view will be her traditional water scapes paired with a multimedia series Anderson calls the Comfort Collection.

Museums hold in their collections vast numbers of artworks and objects that rarely go on display. On average, museums only exhibit about five percent of their collection at any given time, and Plains Art Museum typically exhibits even less than five percent of the artwork it holds.