NDMOA November 2008 Newsletter

North Dakota Museum of Art ANIMALS: THEM AND US AT THE MUSEUM THROUGH JANUARY 5, 2009 PUBLIC RECEPTION: Saturday, November 22, 5 - 7 pm Music, wine, hors d’oeuvres, Vivienne Morgan lecture at 6 pm The biological definition of animal refers to all members of the kingdom Animalia, including humans who are only one of the nine or ten million species of animals that inhabit planet Earth.

In curating the exhibition, Museum Director Laurel Reuter searched for art that exhibits contrasting and conflicting visions, points-of-view, assumptions, assertions, and historical remembrances of other members of the kingdom Animalia, and human relationships with them. The exhibition includes monumental and miniature paintings, drawings, sculpture, videos, objects, and an array of photographs. Artists included:

Henry Horenstein, COWNOSE RAY, from the Animalia Series, 1995-2001, C-print, 34 x 26 inches

Cecelia Condit, ALL ABOUT A GIRL, 2004 Video, 5.25 minutes

Thomas Allen, Coloma, MI — Albert Belleveau, Puposky, MN Barton Lidice Benes, New York, NY — Kim Bromley, Fargo, ND Thomas Brummett, Philadelphia, PA — Cecelia Condit, Shorewood, WI — Don Gahr, Springbrook, WI Lynn Geesaman, Edina, MN — Vance Gellert, Minneapolis, MN Guillermo Hart, Buenos Aires, Argentina — Henry Horenstein, Boston, MA — Susana Jacobson, Salt Lake City, UT Kate Javens, New York, NY — Frank Kelly, Grand Forks, ND Adam Kemp, Grand Forks, ND — Stuart Klipper, Minneapolis,MN Chris Pancoe, Winnipeg, MB — Roberta Paul, Newtownville, MA Ingrid Restemayer, Minneapolis, MN — Amy Ross, Boston, MA Tim Schouten, Petersfield, MB — Mary Sprague, St Louis, MO.

Animals: Them and Us was created as a holiday gift to the Museum’s audience. The exhibition is supported by Museum friends, Whitey’s Cafe, and the North Dakota Eye Clinic, with additional funding from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the North Dakota Council on the Arts, and the City of Grand Forks through the North Valley Arts Council.

Stuart Klipper, EMPEROR PENGUIN, SEA ICE EDGE, MCMURDO SOUND SEA ICE, ROSS SEA, Antarctica, 1999, C-print, 12 x 38 inches

TAKING ART AS FAR AS 400 MILES

FROM THE

MUSEUM

ELLENDALE, ND. Citizens of this small town have renovated a small portion of the historic opera house for theater and visual arts. In the two weeks Snow Country Prison was there, 340 people viewed it and two schools canceled because of the first winter storm of the season. Since the program began, exhibitions have gone to forty-two rural communities, schools from 216 communities have participated for a total of 16,558 visitors. Numbers small? The towns are even smaller!

Ellendale, October 29 – November 11, 2008 Snow Country Prison: Interned in North Dakota

RURAL ARTS INITIATIVE booking information: Contact Matt Wallace 701 777-4195 mwallace@ndmoa.com

MUSEUM CONCERT SERIES: ETA3 TO PERFORM SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2 PM, IN THE MUSEUM GALLERIES. Repeat Concert Monday at Mayville State University, 7:30 pm Named after a luminous and spectacular star-forming Nebula in our galaxy, ETA3 is a classical trio comprising American flutist Emily Thomas, Japanese Pianist Tomoko Nakayama and Russian Clarinetist Alexey Gorokholinsky. Formed at The Juilliard School during spring of 2006. The Trio was recognized by Juilliard as one of three prominent emerging chamber music groups of 2006 leading to their Alice Tully Hall debut.

SAVE THE DATE: Museum Benefit Dinner and Silent Auction February 7, 2009

Thanks to you who are including us in your yearend giving, and to all of you who have renewed your memberships—despite the current economic downturn. We as a community are grateful.

MARY LUCIER: THE PLAINS

OF

SWEET REGRET CONTINUES TOUR

The Museum’s commissioned video installation filmed in western North Dakota and at the Devils Lake Roughrider Rodeo is currently showing at the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, November 15 - February 15, 2009.

EDUCATION PROGRAMMING

ANIMALS: THEM AND US Kate Javens, NAMED FOR OSCAR NEEBE, 2000 Oil on theater muslin, 96 x 126 inches Courtesy of Schmidt Dean Gallery

November 22-23, Animal Mask Making, two-day workshop, Ages 12 and older, 1 - 3 pm November 22, Vivienne Morgan lecture, 6 pm December 6, Masks and Totems workshop, Ages 6 and up, 1 -3 pm December 27, Art Party for adults and children of all ages. 10 - 4 pm with music and food. All materials provided.

Sue Fink, Museum Curator of Education Call 777-4195 for information.

ART DOES MATTER THE DISAPPEARED OPENS CHILD WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN BORN IN MAY 1977 Mother: María Teresa Trotta Father: Roberto Castelli The couple was abducted on February 28, 1977, in Merlo, San Luis, María Teresa was six-and-a-half months pregnant.

She was seen by survivors at the clandestine detention center known as 'Sheraton' in the police station in Villa Insuperable.

The couple and the child that must have been born in captivity remain disappeared.

August 2008, the child was found in Argentina. The photographs of the parents will be removed from Identidad before the show opens next.

IN

WASHINGTON, DC

The Museum’s exhibition,The Disappeared, opened in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, November 19, at the Museum of the Americas, an entity within the Organization of American States. Ambassadors from most Latin American member countries attended the evening events. The University of North Dakota Alumni Association and Foundation cosponsored the opening. At noon on opening day, Laurel Reuter conducted a public and press tour of the exhibition. On November 17, George Washington University sponsored a day-long symposium on torture in conjunction with the exhibition.

Identity is a collaborative work made by thirteen Argentine artists shrinks in size as found children are removed from the work of art. In all, ninety-two children have been identified by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. The two children identified left were removed from the exhibition in Bogota, Colombia, this past summer.

NORTH DAKOTA MUSEUM OF ART RECEIVES $65,000 TO EXTEND THE RURAL ARTS INITIATIVE TO SCHOOLS IN WEST MINNESOTA

IDENTITY installed at the North Dakota Museum of Art, April, 2005

GIRL BORN IN MID-1980 Mother: Silvia Dameri Father: Orlando Antonio Ruiz In the first months of 1977, Silvia, Orlando and their son Marcelo Mariano took exile in Switzerland, where a second child, María de la Victorias, was born. In the first months of 1980, they returned to Argentina and their families stopped receiving news from them. All four of them were seen by a witness in the clandestine detention center at the Navy Mechanics School. There, Silvia had a baby girl she named Laura. The young parents and their daughter Laura remain disappeared. Marcelo and María de la Victorias were found and recovered their identity.

May 2008, Laura Ruiz Dameri was found and linked by DNA testing to her biological parents. The photographs of the parents will be removed from Identidad before the show opens in Washington.

NORTH-

NEW YORK, November 17, 2008 - MetLife Foundation today announced the grant winners of its 2008 Museum and Community Connections program. The grants, totaling $1,000,000, were awarded to sixteen museums for exhibitions, artist residencies, and other programs that extend their reach into diverse communities and make art a part of people’s lives. The goal of the competitive program is to broaden arts programming and promote museums as centers of education without boundaries. Winners were selected on the basis of their potential to engage diverse populations in the arts, creativity and innovation, and commitment to community.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: New staff member Miriam Clapp is seeking volunteers for both the holiday season and for regular shifts. Your gift of time is as valuable as your gifts of money.

THE CHINESE ARTIST XU BING continues his long relationship with the North Dakota Museum of Art. He is completing a new project in Kenya which connects the written word, calligraphy, and art into one process.

Students from local primary schools create drawings of trees using forms of writing from a variety of cultures and historical periods, spanning ancient Chinese pictographs, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Cuneiform script, Arabic, English and more. The drawings may be purchased through the Internet. Every two dollars you spend will be converted into 10 newly planted seedlings. To learn about Xu Bing’s new project, or to buy drawings, visit www.forestproject.net.

VIVIENNE MORGAN: A SENSE OF PLACE AT THE MUSEUM THROUGH JANUARY 5, 2009 RECEPTION FOR THE ARTIST Saturday, November 22, 5 - 7 pm.

Morgan will lecture about her work at 6 pm.

June 1at 6:10:29

June 25 9:02:32

August 15 at 7:34:18

After living in the United States for nearly thirty years, I still define myself as English. I almost live in two worlds, watching BBC television, listening to BBC Radio 4: all my news and sense of America is filtered through those sources. It keeps me happy to remain connected, but when I leave my house the whole wild wooded landscape of Northern Minnesota tells me plainly: I'm not in England anymore. Of all things English, my identity is most closely tied to the English landscape. This series of photographs is part of my conscious effort to become connected, to feel truly present in my local landscape.

I walked in Minnesota along a part of the Continental Divide, an area where I hope to live some day, and through a field close to my house.

The grasses grow wildly at the edge of the forest and the fields transform into pastoral hayfields. I went out every day, often in the gloaming, watching the rapidly shifting light, soft mists, or swift clouds change the sense of space. At this time of day, everything hidden in the shadows is slowly revealed. Standing in this light, I could almost be anywhere in the world. There isn't much color in the gloaming—only forms—but there are sounds as the world wakes up. For a few moments as the sun hits the horizon everything turns golden, filled with transcendental light. I feel a sense of connection, a sense of being present in the world. The sweet light moves quickly. The only thing that keeps me in the same frame of mind—an acute awareness of being alive and present—is the weather. Foggy mornings are quiet and shrouded, paring the world down to what is underfoot. There is a sense of intimacy in the fog, which falls away when the sun burns through. Only that moment when the sun sits in the fog is the land filled with a transcendental light.

During this exploration of the American landscape I felt akin to the nineteenth century, European–influenced Barbizon painters. Like them, I look for tranquility, familiarity, and intimacy in the wild wooded landscape around me. Like those painters I saw how much light transforms the sense of place.

—Vivienne Morgan

Vivienne Morgan created this splendid body of work for our North Dakota Museum of Art exhibition. The sublime, the romantic, and the gorgeous are seldom found in contemporary art. Come and celebrate with us. It is the goal of the Museum to place these photographs of our own place in private and public collections and to make sure it is seen by audiences far beyond our own.

— Laurel Reuter, Director North Dakota Museum of Art September 31 at 6:20:46