October 23rd, 2019
By Jill Finkelson
jsfinkelson99@gmail.com
From October 4 to November 3, the Rourke Museum’s upstairs gallery becomes the Art Ghoullery: Black Cats and Vampire Bats. It’s the perfect backdrop for a masquerade party. Costumes are encouraged but not required for this fun event at the beautiful Moorhead museum. The collection features creepy cats, halloween masks, whimsical witches and more. The artists are competing for “Best in Show” and “Audience Choice” to be given away on…
September 25th, 2019
By Lonna Whiting
lonna@lonna.co
Not long ago at a North Dakota nursing home located in Nelson County, a storyteller from The North Dakota Council on the Arts helped an elderly woman express in writing an important milestone from her long life as part of the Art For Life program.
In the story, the elderly woman described details about leaving the family farm to her adult son.
A few days later, the son came for a visit just when the facility’s activities coordinator planned to read the…
September 25th, 2019
Shared passions can lead to lifelong partnerships, and that is certainly the case for Cameron Peterson and Annette “Nettie” DuBord. The two are not only husband and wife as well as MSUM alumni, but each are talented and successful printmakers in their own right, whether working together or striking out on their own. DuBord’s most recent undertaking is the art show “It’s Always Something”, currently on display at the Rourke Art Gallery and Museum until October 13, where…
September 25th, 2019
By Kim Jondahl
Sometimes the curious, behind-the-scenes stories of museum artifacts are as intriguing as the actual pieces. In the little-known story of a painting of Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull hanging in the State Museum, the art, the subject, and the artist all share remarkable roles.
I’ve walked past this 1890 oil painting of Sitting Bull, or Tatanka Iyotanke, hundreds of times during my museum career. I’ve squinted behind the glass case at the amateur painting and the…
September 25th, 2019
In early October 2018, I had the opportunity to participate in a two week Hinge Arts Residency in Fergus Falls Minnesota. The application wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be but I still sweated my way through it. Naturally I was pleased as punch when I found out my proposal was accepted. As part of the residency I stayed in a beautifully renovated apartment just off the grounds of the former Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Center also known as the Kirkbride. Resident artists…
September 25th, 2019
By Kristin Gruber
perriex1@gmail.com
"Art is a nation's most precious heritage. For it is in our works of art that we reveal to ourselves and to others the inner vision which guides us as a nation." - Lyndon Johnson
It's only a matter of time before Fargo-Moorhead lands on the "Best Cities for Arts and Culture" lists, and the annual Studio Crawl, now in its 16th year, is part of the reason.
Growing every year, the Studio Crawl reaches north, to Hillsboro, and south to Christine. It exists…
August 28th, 2019
By Kris Gruber
perriex1@gmail.com
The High Plains Reader spoke to Plains Art Museum Executive Director Andy Maus about “Symphony of the Cosmos,” the upcoming improvisational, live performance with artists Aida Shahghasemi and Nima Hafezieh. Andy discussed the facility’s “pride in doing something that is adventurous and unique” that to his knowledge, “hasn’t been done to this extent before.” Speaking of the interconnectedness of the performance and exhibition, he said that…
July 17th, 2019
The US Postal Service recently released a set of stamps celebrating the New Deal era post office murals that were federally commissioned during the Roosevelt administration, though the mural that graces the walls of the New Rockford Post Office titled “Advance Guard of the West” wasn’t featured on any of the stamps, it provides a shining example of the Roosevelt administration’s depression era public art program.
According to its registration form for the National Register of…
June 26th, 2019
High Plains Reader: Your watercolor work is currently on view at the Red Raven Espresso Parlor, common themes within your pieces are elements of horror imagery, mini monsters, clowns etc. Eyes and lips are another common theme. What draws you to this imagery? Some of your pieces remind me of the Nickelodeon show "Aaaaah! Real Monsters… Did you ever watch that as a kid?
Shelby Tagestad: Growing up, my favorite book series was “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.” That’s truly where…
June 24th, 2019
BISMARCK – Six months of preparation boiled down to eight seconds. There were wet plate photographs to capture, a well-known Congresswoman from New Mexico to pick up, reporters to please, and… wait… Representative Debra Haaland’s flight was cancelled? The forecast was for rain? Who was arranging refreshments for the book signing ceremony?
Shane Balkowitsch paced back and forth in his natural light wet plate studio, the only one of its kind in the United States, sometimes…