CALENDAR

 Aberdeen Wings

JAN

INDOOR SOCCER TOURNAMENT January 8 -10 PC Dome

 Enjoy a soccer match, or two, at the Geffdog Winter Invitational. Games are played indoors at the Presentation College Dome. www.hubcitysoccerclub.com

BROOM SNAPPER BONSPIEL January 9 - 10 Anchors Away on Richmond Lake

 Three-division, outdoor curling tournament presented by the Aberdeen Curling Club. Sign up to play by January 4, or come out and watch! www.curlaberdeen.com

 Bonspiel

BINGO FUNDRAISER January 11, 3:00 PM ARCC Library Auditorium $.25 - $.50/card

 A special bingo event open to the public and hosted by the Aberdeen Area Senior Center. Gift card prizes!

FREE SKATE DAY January 15 Odde, Lincoln, and Manor Ice Rinks

 Ice skate for free in Aberdeen! Skate indoors at the Odde Ice Arena from 3:45 - 6:15 PM with free admission and skate rentals, or outdoors at the Lincoln and Manor Outdoor Ice Rinks with free skate rentals and hot chocolate (open 4:00 - 9:00 PM).

 Free Skate Day

WINGS HOCKEY GAMES Jan. 16, 22 & 23, 7:15 PM Feb. 5, 6, 19, 20 & 23, 7:15 PM Odde Ice Arena

 Pick a date from this lineup of home games and support the Aberdeen Wings during their regular 2021 season. Tickets at www.aberdeenwings.com.

SD JAZZ FESTIVAL CONCERT January 21, 7:30 PM Jewett Theater, NSU For tickets, call 605-626-2497

 Enjoy an evening of live, nationally acclaimed jazz music. For performance details, watch aberdeencommunityconcerts.org.

 Taking Root Exhibit

FREE THROW CHAMPIONSHIP January 24, 2:00 PM Roncalli Elementary Gym Free admission

 A free throw competition for boys and girls ages 9 - 14. Win prizes and the chance to compete at the state free throw shoot. Registration starts at 12:30. Contact 605-225-5389 with questions.

YOGATHON 2021 January 29 - 30 Profiling Beauty Health & Wellness

 Choose from a variety of yoga challenges and help raise donations for SPURS. Follow the Yogathon’s Facebook page for more info.

CRACKER BARREL SESSIONS Jan. 30, Feb. 6 & 13 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM Jewett Theater, NSU

 A chance for legislatures from Districts 1, 2, and 3 and their constituents to publicly discuss important business, civic, and social priorities.

FEB

TAKING ROOT EXHIBIT Through February 19 JFAC Gallery, NSU Free admission

 Soak up an art exhibit that explores common human conditions by NSU alumna Becky Grismer. The JFAC Gallery is open Monday - Friday from 7:30 AM - 9:00 PM.

QUEEN OF HEARTS DRAWING Every Wednesday, Jan. - Feb., 5:30 PM Yelduz Shriners $1/ticket or 25 for $20

 Play the Queen of Hearts game every Wednesday night for your chance to win cash prizes. Doors open at 5:30, winner draws at 7:00. Burger meal and bar available.

PC NURSING THROUGH THE YEARS Through January 29 Wein Gallery, PC Free admission

 See how far nursing and nursing education have come through this exhibit that highlights our region’s rich history in the field. The Wein Gallery is open Monday - Friday from 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM.

WINTER FUN DAY February 6, 1:00 - 4:00 PM Manor Park Free

 Embrace winter with an afternoon of ice skating, cross country ski lessons, curling, and free hot chocolate. Activities for kids and adults.

WINTER BIG BOY TOY SHOW February 13 - 14 Dakota Event Center Free admission

 Start dreaming of summer by browsing boats, campers, ATVs, and more at this event by Hub City Radio. Details at www.hubcityradio.com

THEATRE PRODUCTION - GOD OF CARNAGE Feb. 18 - 20, 7: 30 PM, Feb. 21, 3:00 PM JFAC, NSU

 NSU Theatre presents Yasmina Reza’s dark comedy, God of Carnage. The piece follows two sets of parents who meet to settle a fight between their children and wind up acting childish themselves.

 PC Black & White Ball

OPEN POOL TOURNAMENT February 25- 28 Best Westerrn Ramkota

 Dust off your cues and compete or come as a spectator to this four-day singles and team pool tournament. For information, contact the Aberdeen Cue Club on Facebook.

PC BLACK & WHITE BALL February 27, 5:30 - 11:30 PM Dakota Event Center For reservations, call 605-229-8454

 Help raise scholarship funds for PC students. This evening out includes a cocktail hour, dinner, silent and live auctions, and entertainment by The Synergy Twins and The Barstool Prophets.

HUB CITY RADIO BRIDAL SHOW February 21, 12:00 - 3:00 PM Dakota Event Center Free admission

 For couples planning their big day, check out a selection of local wedding vendors and professionals for everything from attire, cake, photography, and more.

 The Synergy Twins

WHITETAILS UNLIMITED BANQUET February 27, 5:30 - 10:30 PM City Lights Bar Tickets $10 - $40

 Head out to City Lights for a night of games, food, and prizes, including the giveaway of over 20 guns. Call 605-290-3685 for details.

AUCS CONCERT February 27, 7:30 PM JFAC, NSU Free admission

 The Aberdeen University-Civic Symphony brings a free concert that will immerse you in the world of fairy tales. Fairy Tales Can Come True is a show for adults and kids alike. Tickets at the door on a first come first served basis.

THE SYNERGY TWINS LIVE February 28, 2:00 PM Aberdeen Community Theatre Tickets at the event’s Facebook page

 A high-energy electric violin show! Featuring music from all genres, including country, Celtic, ̓80s hits, and American top 40.

ABERDEEN WINGS

JAN/FEB 2021 SCHEDULE

FRI., JAN. 1 VS. BIS SAT., JAN. 2 VS. BIS FRI., JAN. 8 @ MNW SAT., JAN. 9 @ MNW THURS., JAN. 14 @ MNT FRI., JAN. 15 @ BIS SAT., JAN. 16 VS. BIS FRI., JAN. 22 VS. MNT SAT., JAN. 23 VS. MNT FRI., JAN. 29 @ AUS SAT., JAN. 30 @ AUS

FRI., FEB. 5 VS MNW SAT., FEB. 6 VS. MNW FRI., FEB. 12 @ MNW SAT., FEB. 13 @ MNW FRI., FEB. 19 VS. MNT SAT., FEB. 20 VS. MNT TUES., FEB. 23 VS. MNT FRI., FEB. 26 @ AUS SAT., FEB. 27 @ AUS

Red denotes home game

*Schedule subject to change. Follow AberdeenWings.com for more information.

Get your tickets online at tickets.AberdeenWings.com!

(605) 725-4232

2020 8th Ave NE, Aberdeen, SD 57401 WWW.ABERDEENFLORALS.COM

 NSU alumna Becky

Grismer’s Taking Root exhibit is on display at the JFAC Gallery through

February 19. Pictured is a ceramics/mixed media piece from her collection.

CELEBRATING ROOTS by KAYLYN DEITER South Dakota artist Becky Grismer revisits where her career as an artist began with her Taking Root exhibit at the JFAC Gallery.

he first time Becky Grismer attended a ceramics class at Northern State

TUniversity, she knew she would one day be an artist. Grismer was born in Aberdeen and grew up in the small towns of Hosmer and Henry—building forts in the trees and doing grade school art projects. She said she never realized that being an artist was a realistic option as a full-time job until she almost quit school before embarking on her current career path.

“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do that first semester,” Grismer said. “My second semester, I decided to take one class from each field that sounded interesting to me. If I didn’t find a direction, I would take a year off, and that’s how I ended up in ceramics. It was my favorite class, and I met a lot of people that I had things in common with. I felt like this was where I fit; this was where I belonged.”

That initial class led to Grismer spending her sophomore year immersed in all the foundational art courses Northern had to offer. When an art department trip took her to Minneapolis - St. Paul to tour various art studios and galleries in the city, Grismer knew she had found her calling.

“That was the thing that made me realize I could actually do this for a job—it clicked,” Grismer said. “Seeing that people were making a living doing this every day, seeing an example of what that looked like, I knew then that working as an artist was something I could aspire to.”

After graduating from Northern in 2002, Grismer moved to Minneapolis. Here, she met her husband, and the two eventually relocated to Spearfish, where she now works as a full-time artist. But even though she lives half a state away from the university that first introduced her to art, Northern still has a role to play in Grismer’s professional journey.

At the end of last year, Grismer’s exhibit, Taking Root, opened at Northern’s JFAC Gallery and will remain up until February 19. The exhibit’s title, Grismer said, has a dual meaning—both a

What better outlet is there to start a conversation than art?”

 Artist Becky

Grismer graduated from

NSU and lives in Spearfish.  Taking Root explores what it means to lay down roots in a place. Photo by

Troy McQuillen

reference to her use of materials like tree bark and leaves and the concept of laying down roots in a place and allowing yourself to grow and change in that new environment.

“It’s also a little bit of a nod to NSU and coming back here,” Grismer said. “This is where I learned the foundation for everything I do today, where I first learned that it was possible to become an artist and do this every day. This is where all of that knowledge took root in me.”

The work featured in the exhibit isn’t your typical landscape paintings and self-portraits, either. Grismer isn’t necessarily a painter, a sculptor, or printmaker. Instead, she’s all three and more, a true mixed media artist who enjoys working with everything from eco-dyed paper and wax to hundred-year-old photographs and charcoal.

“I have a hard time focusing on one specific media,” Grismer said. “I’m interested in a lot of different things, experimenting and combining materials in new ways, and I’ll gradually learn more about all the materials I work with along the way.”

In that vein, Taking Root is a true representation of Grismer’s diverse way of creating art. The larger installations are mainly made from tree material and ceramic, including pieces like “Adorn”—a half-tree, half-woman creation decorated with Christmas lights, representing the ways we choose to adorn our bodies.

Then there’s “Abscission,” which depicts a tree losing its leaves due to stress or the changing seasons. Humans also experience this outward shedding through the natural life cycle of hair growth and a condition called alopecia that results in hair loss under duress.

 Taking Root sculptures blend natural and human elements together, showing special parallels between people and trees.

 Grismer incorporates all kinds of media into her art, including encaustic painting and tree bark (shown here).

“When a tree endures stress from drought or flooding, it can drop its leaves,” Grismer said. “I went through a time of stress where my dad, my dog, and two close friends all passed away over a short period of time, and I experienced a form of alopecia from the stress.”

That blending of natural and human elements is a theme Grismer continued throughout the Taking Root exhibit. She created some of her 2D pieces using photos spanning back decades to when her family immigrated as part of the 1800s Homestead Act.

The sculptures and photos combine in ways that integrate both the history found in the images and the tree parallel Grismer threads throughout this collection of pieces.

“I combined a photo of my grandma with a photo of the bottom half of one of my sculptures,” Grismer said. “It ended up being a piece about my grandma putting down her roots on their homestead. The pieces are about my own family, but they are also about the general migration of “Germans from Russia” to the area, and the parallel connections we have to trees, too.”

In a time when art, as we used to experience it, is becoming harder to enjoy in person, Grismer said she believes art is maybe more vital now than ever before.

“We’ve had to reinvent the wheel a bit when it comes to how we make art happen with COVID,” she said. “Being in quarantine, people need art—movies, books, music, photos—for their mental health. Art is so easy to take for granted, but it’s so necessary.” While enjoying the art of live music and theater may be difficult at the moment, Grismer points to the accessibility— and safety—still available when experiencing art in a gallery like the Johnson Fine Arts Center. Visitors can take in each of the pieces while social distancing and wearing masks, plus this kind of art hasn’t been solely relegated to an on-screen experience like so many other art forms have in the past year.

But Grismer believes all art is vital right now for another important reason. Empathy.

“What better outlet is there to start a conversation than art?” she said. “When you’re standing in front of a painting, or really, experiencing art in general, it serves as a ‘lead-in’ to talk about the subject or topic that is in front of you. Art is a way to connect to another human being that’s not so confrontational. When you start talking with another person, you begin to find things you might have in common with them. You find shared experiences with them through the art you’re experiencing together.”

After a year that’s been almost anything but unifying, an artist who stumbled upon her career through a ceramics class in the town where she was born still thinks art can be a way toward rediscovering the humanity that unites us all.

“You just hope that your work and your service make a positive impact somehow,” Grismer said. “If it makes someone feel good, if it sparks a conversation that maybe wouldn’t have happened otherwise, you can’t fail at your goal. Even if you impact someone on the smallest level in a positive way, that goes really far in making what you do seem worthwhile.” //  Becky Grismer’s Taking Root exhibit is open inside the JFAC Gallery at Northern through February 19.

Local Art Galleries

WEIN GALLERY Presentation College

 1500 North Main Street  605.229.8349  Mon-Fri 8 AM-5 PM

PRESIDENT’S GALLERY, JFAC GALLERY AND STUDENT CENTER GALLERY Northern State University

 1200 South Jay Street  605.626.7766  President’s Gallery: Mon-Fri 8 AM-4:30 PM, JFAC Gallery: Mon-Fri 8 AM-4:30 PM, Student Center: Mon-Fri 7 AM-4:30 PM and weekends 1-9 PM

LAMONT GALLERY Dacotah Prairie Museum

 21 South Main Street  605.626.7117  Tues-Fri 9 AM-5 PM, Sat and Sun 1-4 PM

ARTWORKS CO-OP GALLERY Aberdeen Mall

 3315 6th Ave SE Suite #48  605.725.0913  Thurs-Sat 11-6 PM & Sun 12-6 PM or by appointment

JANE WEST GALLERY Capitol Theatre

 415 South Main Street  605.225.2228  Open during events, call ahead for additional hours of operation

ARCC GALLERY Aberdeen Recreation and Cultural Center

 225 3rd Ave SE  605.626.7081  Mon-Thurs 9 AM-8 PM, Fri 9 AM-5 PM and Sat 10 AM-12 PM

RED ROOSTER COFFEE HOUSE GALLERY

 218 South Main Street  605.225.6603  Mon-Thurs 7 AM-7 PM, Fri 7 AM-9 PM and Sat 8 AM-9 PM Sun 9 AM-2 PM