Generation

Women Artists in the Plains Art Museum Collection

June 4, 2019 - March 23, 2020

Jane L. Stern Gallery

Despite decades of critique, direct activism, and multiple waves of feminist art movements, artworks in the collections of art museums around the world – including Plains Art Museum – are proportionately dominated by men. This year’s permanent collection reinstallation will explore the Museum’s acquisitions of artwork by women since our inception as the Red River Art Center in 1965. Weaving socio-political movements and regional trends through the museum’s collecting history, we reflect on gender disparities while pledging support to encourage and accelerate gender equity. In addition, we will highlight important artistic achievements – some known and many under-recognized. Featured artists include Hazel Belvo, Catherine Mulligan, Maria Cristina Tavera, Gail Kendall, Louise Nevelson, Hollis Sigler, and Kay WalkingStick.

Plains Art Museum is home to over 4,000 national, regional, and local works of art and is focused on collecting modern and contemporary art in a variety of styles, with strengths in regional art, American and European Modernism, and Native American work. This current exhibition also acknowledges donations from private collectors and gifts from businesses, attesting to the artistic awareness and support from those residing in the Upper Midwest and afar.

Plains Art Museum thanks our generous members and donors for their support. Additional support provided by The McKnight Foundation, Bush Foundation, The Arts Partnership, The FUNd at Plains Art Museum, and the North Dakota Council on the Arts, which receives funds from the North Dakota Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Women Artists Panel
Thursday, March 19, 6 – 7:30 PM
Free

This panel discussion with Generation artists Maria Cristina Tavera, Gail Kendall, and Laura Youngbird, moderated by Professor Anna Arnar, will explore issues of gender, representation, and legacy.

Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon
Saturday, March 21, 10 AM – 2 PM
Free

Wikipedia’s gender trouble is well-documented. In a 2011 survey, the Wikimedia Foundation found that less than 10% of its contributors were women. While the reasons for the gender gap are up for debate, the practical effect of this disparity is not: content is skewed by the lack of representation from women.

Let’s change that. Join us for a communal updating of Wikipedia entries on subjects related to gender, art and feminism. We will provide tutorials for the beginner Wikipedian, reference materials, lunch and refreshments. Bring your laptop, power cord and ideas for entries that need updating or creation. For the editing-averse, we urge you to stop by to show your support.

We invite people of all gender identities and expressions to participate, particularly transgender and cisgender women. Please create a Wikipedia account before the event.

  • cover: Helen Otterson, Lepidoptera, Porcelain and glass, Permanent Collection
  • Betty Woodman, Pompeian, 1992, 11 color relief print on Rives BFK, Ed of 15, 30 x 35 in.

Ongoing Exhibitions

No Time For Despair

Ongoing
No Time For Despair

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.

View Exhibition

Bee in Flight

Ongoing
Bee in Flight

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.

View Exhibition

S.P.A.C.E.

Ongoing
S.P.A.C.E.
Kaleidoscope

The S.P.A.C.E. (Sculpture Pad Art Collaborative Experiment) project is a public art initiative undertaken collaboratively between Plains Art Museum, and the college art departments at North Dakota State University, Minnesota State University Moorhead, and Concordia College.

View Exhibition

The North Dakota Mural

Ongoing
The North Dakota Mural

Drawing on his childhood memories of the Great Plains, he created a work that speaks to the wide open spaces, huge vistas, and ocean-like skies of the region.

View Exhibition

Fragile Preservation

Ongoing
Fragile Preservation
A Tallgrass Community

While the Tallgrass Prairie is a community made up of a great diversity of species, Fragile Preservation represents a selection of them.

View Exhibition