FEE: Free

Color Improvisations 3

Dates: March 28 – August 23, 2026
Location: William and Anna Jane Schlossman Gallery, Plains Art Museum

Color Improvisations 3 features 42 vibrant, large-scale quilts that explore the expressive possibilities of color in contemporary textile art. Curated by acclaimed artist Nancy Crow, the exhibition includes work by 38 artists from the United States, Canada, and New Zealand.

Each piece was created specifically for this exhibition, highlighting a wide range of artistic voices united by innovation, bold composition, and masterful craftsmanship. Visitors will experience dynamic color palettes and inventive approaches that push the boundaries of quilt-making as an art form.

Following its international tour in Germany and North American debut in Nebraska, the exhibition continues its tour across the continent through 2029.

Exhibition Tour:
Thursday, April 9, 6:00–6:45 PM (Free)
Join a curatorial team-led tour exploring contemporary quilt-making and the ideas behind the exhibition.

FEE: Free

George Pfeifer 60th Anniversary Retrospective

May 22 - August 9, 2026 | On view in the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum and Gustavian Galleries
The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum

George Pfeifer: A 60th Anniversary Retrospective celebrates six decades of work by Fargo-born artist George Pfeifer, marking the 60th anniversary of his first solo exhibition at The Rourke Art Gallery in 1966, when he was just 19 years old.

The exhibition features 60 works spanning Pfeifer’s career, including early hard-edge color field paintings and screen prints influenced by gallery founder James O’Rourke, as well as later realist landscapes known for their vivid color and precision. Works are drawn from The Rourke’s Permanent Collection, Plains Art Museum, private collections, and include both historic and recent pieces.

Pfeifer has presented more than forty-five solo exhibitions across venues including The Rourke, Plains Art Museum, The Fargo Gallery, M State Fergus Falls, Jamestown Art Center, North Dakota State University, and others. His work is also held in numerous public and private collections nationwide.

The exhibition is presented in the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum and Gustavian Galleries, Archive & Reading Room, and 2nd Level Hall at The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum, with support from Rich & Nancy Callender and Darren & Jane Leno.

Public Viewing Hours

3 to 7 p.m. on THU
1 to 5 p.m. on FRI, SAT, & SUN

FEE: $12 Adults | $11 Seniors | $10 College Students | $8 Youth 5-17 & Children under 5 are Free.
HCSCC members get in free | Admission is also free every Tuesday night 5-8pm.

Rocks and Hard Places:
Emigration through the Lens of Knud Knudsen

June 12 - September 27, 2026
Hjemkomst Center

The exhibit provides viewers with 30 stunning framed black and white photographs taken between 1870 and 1900 that capture the toil and challenging topography that drove so many people to emigrate, many to Minnesota. In addition to Knudsen’s photographs, exhibit panels explore and contextualize the political, economic, and family pressures that led to above-average emigration from the region.

These immigrant stories from the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries give us a more nuanced understanding of our immigrant neighbors today and the pressures that lead them to leave their homelands.

This traveling exhibit is organized by Vesterheim, the national Norwegian-American Museum and Folk Art School, with support from Lars and Martha Alsaker on behalf of Dan Alsaker and his sister Pam (Alsaker) Hemingway; Alsaker Corporation, and the Hanson Family Foundation.

This exhibit is supported in part by The Arts Partnership with support from the Cities of Fargo, Moorhead, and West Fargo; the Alex Stern Family Foundation, and the Fargo-Moorhead Area Foundation.

FEE: Preview: $15 Members / $30 Non-Members | Anniversary Dinner: $50 plus tax, tip & beverages | Luncheon: $45

The 67th Midwestern: The Pursuit of Happiness

Exhibition on View: June 18–September 6, 2026 | The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum, Moorhead, MN

The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum presents the 67th Midwestern, The Pursuit of Happiness, one of the region's longest-running and most respected juried exhibitions of contemporary art. Featuring work by artists from across the Midwest, the exhibition explores interpretations of happiness, fulfillment, and the human experience through a wide range of artistic media and perspectives. The exhibition will remain on view through September 6, 2026.

Thursday, June 18, 2026

The 67th Midwestern Preview
The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum

• Doors Open: 5:00 PM

• Celebration in the M. Dorian Clemedtson Sculpture Court with music by The Cropdusters: 5:30–6:30 PM

• Awards Ceremony: 6:30 PM

Admission:
$15 Members | $30 Non-Members

Tickets available for pre-purchase at the museum and at the door.

The 66th Anniversary Dinner
Rustica Eatery & Tavern

• Social Hour: 7:00 PM

• Dinner Served: 7:30 PM

Limited seating. Reservations required.

Cost: $50 per person plus tax, tip, and beverages, paid at Rustica Eatery & Tavern.

Friday, June 19, 2026

The Midwestern Luncheon (at The Rourke Tavern)
The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum

• Social Hour: 11:00 AM

• Luncheon Served: 11:30 AM

Very limited seating. Reservations required.

Cost: $45 per person, prepaid through the reservation form.

For reservations and additional information, contact The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum.

FEE: Free

Threads of Offering | Thương Hoài Trần

June 27, 2026 – January 24, 2027 | The Ruth and Seymour Landfield Atrium & Xcel Energy Gallery at Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND

Threads of Offering presents the work of interdisciplinary Vietnamese American artist Thương Hoài Trần, whose creative practice explores identity, family history, displacement, memory, and diasporic connection through processes of weaving and unweaving.

Bringing together two major bodies of work — Ông Bà and Made in Vietnam — the exhibition examines the emotional and cultural complexities of immigration, generational disconnect, and labor. In Ông Bà, Vietnamese for “grandparents,” Hoài Trần creates monumental woven portraits honoring their family members. Each strand of yarn is hand dyed before being woven into large-scale portraits and partially unraveled, symbolizing fragmented memories, unspoken histories, and complicated familial relationships. Standing between seven and eight feet tall, the works evoke the presence of ancestors towering over viewers in the Ruth and Seymour Landfield Atrium.

Displayed in the Xcel Energy Gallery, Made in Vietnam features garments labeled “Made in Vietnam” that the artist collected, altered, and investigated through various material interventions. One featured work documents Hoài Trần painstakingly disassembling garments thread by thread over more than 24 hours, condensed into a one-minute video critiquing the hidden labor and exploitation embedded within fast fashion production. The work also functions as a self-portrait reflecting on diasporic identity and cultural inheritance.

Born in Tây Ninh, Vietnam and raised in Emporia, Kansas, Thương Hoài Trần holds degrees from Emporia State University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Their work has been exhibited nationally at institutions including the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, The Center for Craft, and the Studios at MASS MoCA.

Gallery admission is free every day of the week.

Generous support is provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program; the North Dakota Council on the Arts; the Arts Partnership; the McKnight Foundation; The FUNd at Plains Art Museum; Giving Hearts Day donors; Spring Gala sponsors; and Plains Art Museum members.

FEE: Museum Admission

Americana: Objects that Reflect Us

July 4, 2026–January 3, 2027

Explore 250 years of American history through the stories told by everyday objects in Americana: Objects that Reflect Us. This exhibition examines how Americans have understood their nation, communities, and identities through themes of democracy, conflict, opportunity, belonging, and culture.

Featuring artifacts that reflect the evolving American experience, the exhibition invites visitors to consider how ordinary people have helped shape the nation's history and culture over the past two and a half centuries.

This exhibition was made possible through a donation from Stenerson Lumber of Moorhead and the generous support of museum members.

Location:
Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County
Hjemkomst Center
202 1st Avenue North
Moorhead, MN 56560

FEE: Free to Apply

Call for Public Art – Interactive Movable Sculpture

Proposal Deadline: Friday, September 4, 2026 | 10:00 AM

The City of Moorhead is seeking proposals from artists to create an inspirational, movable public art installation that can be displayed at various locations throughout the city. Artists are encouraged to incorporate interactive elements that invite community participation and create engaging public experiences.

The City is looking for proposals that:

• Encourage public interaction through creative or kinetic elements

• Promote creativity and youth engagement

• Are safe and accessible for all ages

• Are durable enough for outdoor display in Minnesota's changing weather

• Inspire people to gather and connect

Examples of interactive elements may include kinetic sculptures, tactile components, or digital features that encourage exploration and play.

Proposals will be reviewed by the City's Artist Review Team (A.R.T.), with recommendations advancing to the Art and Culture Commission and ultimately the Moorhead City Council for final approval.

Application Deadline:
Friday, September 4, 2026
10:00 AM

FEE: See Program Fees page here

Shrek the Musical Kids! Youth Theatre Program

Shine Onstage in the
Trollwood Children’s Theatre Production of
Shrek the Musical Kids!

Trollwood Children’s Theatre offers 5th and 6th grade students a summer opportunity to be onstage performers, experience theatre, and gain confidence. This four-week, theatre program involves students in the creation and public presentation of a full-fledged children’s musical where students are the cast and crew.  This year’s selection is the family favorite Shrek the Musical Kids!  Theatre and elementary education professionals guide the students through this exciting creative process.

Grades:  5th & 6th (all grades refer to 2025-2026 school year)

Dates: July 20 – August 11, Monday – Friday

Time: 8:00am – 12:00pm

Location:  Discovery Middle School, 1717 40th Ave S, Fargo

Auditions:  Auditions will be held the first day of class for role assignment only.

Performances: August 11th at 2:00pm and 7:00pm, Discovery Middle School

Fee: See Program Fees page here

FEE: Free

Clear as Mud | Annie Lee-Zimerle and Brian Zimerle

August 1 – November 29, 2026 | Starion Bank Gallery at Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND

Clear as Mud brings together the work of Annie Lee-Zimerle and Brian Zimerle, two artists whose practices explore memory, materiality, and the quiet complexities of everyday life while reconsidering the promises and contradictions of the American Dream.

Drawing from backgrounds in printmaking, book arts, painting, drawing, and ceramics, the artists create works that reflect on domesticity, cultural mundanity, memory, and transformation. Annie Lee-Zimerle’s narrative-driven pieces examine her experiences growing up between South Korea and the American Midwest, while Brian Zimerle’s sculptural ceramics investigate the fragility of meaning through replicated objects shaped by history and material change. Together, their work invites viewers to consider what is preserved, altered, or lost over time, offering a layered meditation on belonging, cultural inheritance, and collective identity.

Annie Lee-Zimerle received her BFA and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is held in numerous public and private collections. Brian Zimerle holds an MFA in Ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art and has exhibited nationally while collaborating with archaeologists and institutions on historically informed ceramic recreations.

Gallery admission is free every day of the week.

Generous support is provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program; the North Dakota Council on the Arts; the Arts Partnership; the McKnight Foundation; The FUNd at Plains Art Museum; Giving Hearts Day donors; Spring Gala sponsors; and Plains Art Museum members.

FEE: $12 Adults | $11 Seniors | $10 College Students | $8 Youth 5-17 & Children under 5 are Free.
HCSCC members get in free | Admission is also free every Tuesday night 5-8pm.

Bearing Witness Art Quilt Exhibit

October 10 - December 27, 2026
Hjemkomst Center

Opening Oct. 10, Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County will display 40 art quilts called Bearing Witness, produced by Studio Art Quilts Association. The theme of the exhibit is “deliberate attempts to eradicate specific populations due to differences of culture, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender expression, and race. Often motivated by those in power, collective trauma and tragedy are part of our past and present.

This exhibition will educate viewers about the perils of antisemitism, racism, homophobia, sexism, and inequity. Our challenge is to remember and learn from the history of The Holocaust and other global genocides and to amplify our shared humanity. Preserving our humanity is at the center of all diversity, equity, and inclusion work, invoking the core of our experiences” (SAQA website).

The exhibit will show at the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead Oct. 10 through Dec. 27, 2026. This exhibit will no doubt startle viewers who may be expecting their grandmother’s traditional quilts. Images and artist statements share the artists’ reflection on global atrocities in an art form that expands the tradition of quilt making to include found objects, sculpture, photo transfer, embroidery, and beadwork.

This activity is funded in part by Joe and Muriel Richardson, the FM Quilters (thank you!), the voters of Minnesota through grants through MN State Arts Board and Lake Region Arts Council from a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, the FM Area Foundation, Alex Stern Family Foundation, and The Arts Partnership with support from the Cites of Fargo, Moorhead, and West Fargo.