Arts

A Marvel-ous world of superheroes heads to The State Museum

May 16th, 2024

By David L. Newell

history@nd.gov

If your Spidey senses are tingling, it may be because Marvelocity: The Art of Alex Ross is coming to the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum. The traveling exhibition, developed by the Bess Bower Dunn Museum of Lake County, Illinois, will bring the gravity-defying world of Marvel Comic illustrations to Bismarck from March 16 through June 9, 2024.

The exhibition includes more than 50 original illustrations, including cover art, storyboards,…

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The Rourke interprets ‘Omnipotence of Dream’

May 16th, 2024

By Sabrina Hornung

sabrina@hpr1.com

The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum was established June 18, 1960. This year, June 18 marks the 65th annual Midwestern Art Invitational at the Rourke in Moorhead — and consequently renders the exhibition one of the longest consecutively running invitationals in the country. Since its inception, The Rourke has been a jewel in the crown of Fargo-Moorhead culture.

We had the opportunity to chat with Jonathan Rutter, Director and Curator at The Rourke Art…

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​May the art be with you: Plains Art Gala celebrates with sci-fi theme

April 18th, 2024

By Sabrina Hornung

sabrina@hpr1.com

There’s no exaggeration when we say that this year’s Plains Art Gala is going to be out of this world, with a sci-fi theme inspired by a painting housed in the Plains Art Museum’s permanent collection called “Toward the Sun”by John Berkey. Berkey was an acclaimed North Dakota born sci-fi artist. He created art for “Dune,” “Star Wars,” National Geographic, NASA and a number of sci-fi books.

“I think that worked out really well…

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​What in Hel’s Fury is going on at Brewhalla?

April 18th, 2024

Something exciting is brewing between Amarok Tattoo Studio and Drekker Brewing Company

By Sabrina Hornung

sabrina@hpr1.com

It’s no secret that Drekker Brewing Company and Athena Funk, proprietor of Amarok Tattoo Studio, have collaborated on events before such as Fooler’s Ball and DrekkerFest. But they’ve had an even bigger idea brewing for some time. Though it was put on hold due to COVID, and paused with the opening of Brewhalla — good things — we dare say wicked good things come to…

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​The 55th Annual UND Writers Conference

February 15th, 2024

In the 20th and 21st centuries, the pursuit of knowledge has directed humankind to new horizons – the ocean depths, the infinite reach of space, and the hidden secrets of cells and microbes…or to Artificial Intelligence, which while spawned from the minds of humans, has no humanity at all. Or has it in fact become sentient? 

The language of discovery has infused most disciplines, whether one speaks of public health “moonshots” to end cancer or the effort to “chart” the human…

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Art as a Catalyst: Indigenous Expressions in North Dakota

January 18th, 2024

By Alicia Hegland-Thorpe, Arts Midwest

 The Sacred Pipe Resource Center, a Native community center in Mandan, North Dakota, empowers Native artists to become catalysts for change to help heal their communities.

Nestled along the banks of the Missouri River, the communities of Bismarck and Mandan, North Dakota bear witness to a complex tapestry of history, culture, and resilience. The cities are only 45 miles north of the Standing Rock Nation, where water protectors defending the…

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The Arts Center raises the bar in Jamestown

January 18th, 2024

By Sabrina Hornung

sabrina@hpr1.com

Located in the heart of downtown Jamestown, North Dakota, The Arts Center is a hub of activity. Whether you spend a summer afternoon enjoying live music and an art market at the Arts Park, or whether you opt to take a pottery class, a Ukrainian Pysanka class, or learn how to assemble a charcuterie board, there’s certainly something for everyone.

Lately The Arts Center has been working on a series of fundraising efforts to expand by securing and…

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Art for all: Plains Art Museum welcomes New Executive Director

January 18th, 2024

By Sabrina Hornung

sabrina@hpr1.com

High Plains Reader had the opportunity to chat with Erin Shapiro, the new Executive Director at the Plains Art Museum. A native of upstate New York, Shapiro has worked at a number of museums throughout the Midwest and even Honolulu, Hawaii, at the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives. In addition to her museum experience, she has a background in sculpture and a strong passion for “art for everyone.”

High Plains Reader: In my research I…

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Exhibition Honoring Scandinavian Folk Art Opens at ND Heritage Center & State Museum

December 10th, 2023

By Maddie Robinson

maddierobi.mr@gmail.com

Pieper Bloomquist, an artist and oncology nurse based out of Grand Forks, has been interested in art since she was a child living in Regal, Minnesota, a town of less than 50 people. Stretching back to her school days in a one-room schoolhouse, she would spend her spare class time using the art supplies in the “library,” (a table in the back by the bookcases.)

She delved into folk-art styles later in 1993 when she started learning…

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Art Imitates Life in Wing, North Dakota

November 17th, 2023

By Sabrina Hornung

sabrina@hpr1.com

A trio of Burleigh County artists are making their mark in Wing, North Dakota, to promote local foods and are quite literally painting the town, or at least the newly acquired Wing City Government building. The building was a bowling alley in a past life and proved to be the perfect space for public art.

Molly McLain of Bismarck, Ella Swanson, and Allie Hein, both of Wing, joined forces to paint a mixed media mural incorporating both glass mosaic and…

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