Plains Art Museum and NDSU are presenting "Defiant Gardens for Fargo-Moorhead," which includes a symposium and artist-community collaboration. The symposium is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 11, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on the fifth floor lecture hall in Renaissance Hall, 650 NP Ave. It is free and open to the public and seating is limited.
A reception and book signing will follow from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Landfield Atrium of the Plains Art Museum with artists and Kenneth Helphand, professor of landscape architecture at the University of Oregon-Eugene and author of "Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime." This event also is free.
From 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, the public also is invited to attend an additional portion of the symposium called "Reflections and Observations on Defiant Gardens for Fargo-Moorhead" on the fifth floor lecture hall in Renaissance Hall. The artists involved in the project will spent Saturday touring the metro area to identify sites where defiant gardens might be built.
"Defiant Gardens for Fargo-Moorhead" uses ideas from Helphand’s book to inform these discussions. His book examines how gardens made under adverse wartime conditions can serve as useful models for gardens that defy difficult conditions in our urban settings today. Ideas developed in this symposium will form the basis of future gardens in Fargo-Moorhead.
Speakers for the symposium are Kinji Akagawa, artist and professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design; Christine Baeumler, artist and associate professor in the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; Jack Becker, founder and executive director of Forecast Public Art, St. Paul, Minn.; Mark Dion, artist based in New York City and Pennsylvania; Stevie Famulari, environmental artist and assistant professor, and Kathleen Pepple, artist and assistant professor, both from the NDSU Department of Architecture and Landscape Architecture; Rob Fischer and Kevin Smith, Brooklyn-based sculptors; Fritz Haeg, multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles; Seitu Jones, sculptor, public artist and landscape architect, St. Paul; Dario Robleto, Houston-based sculptor; and Diane Wilson, writer and master gardener based in Schaefer, Minn.
With the Defiant Gardens symposium, Plains Art Museum launches a multi-year public art project to create surprising gardens throughout Fargo-Moorhead, working with a roster of outstanding regional and national artists. This event brings together artists, landscape architects, writers and public artists with the local community to discuss the concept of a “defiant garden.”
Defiant Gardens is presented by the museum and NDSU with support from an NDSU Community Projects Award. Major support also is provided by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, based in Chicago. Additional support also is provided by the Department of Art at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn., and the Department of Art and Design at Minnesota State University Moorhead.
Defiant Gardens is part of PlainsInsideOUT, launched by the museum in June. PlainsInsideOUT takes art and audiences out of the museum building and into the neighborhood in downtown Fargo. This series of programs use the arts to offer opportunities for fresh perspectives on our urban spaces and places. It aims to give audiences experiences of new art forms; opportunities to meet and work with artists and designers from local, regional and national arenas; and new insights through participatory art events about our town and cultures. For a complete schedule of the Defiant Gardens symposium, go to plainsart.org.
NDSU’s Departments of Landscape Architecture and Architecture are working with their students to develop ideas for spaces in Fargo, which can be utilized to bring out interesting stories for gardens. “Developing progressive gardens in this area and working with the community are areas that the students and faculty are both proud and excited to be a part of,” says Famulari of her project with the third-year landscape architecture students. Famulari practices the larger project of designing and implementing interrogative places in Fargo and plans to continue working with Plains Art Museum and the community for the long term.
NDSU is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Established in 1890 as a land-grant university, NDSU now offers a reputation for research excellence and a vigorous emphasis on graduate-level education. It boasts an enrollment of more than 13,000 students. The NDSU architecture program is a five-year professional course of study, leading to a master of architecture degree. It is nationally accredited and recognized by all state architectural licensing boards. The NDSU landscape architecture program provides outstanding professional education in landscape architecture with a strong regional focus that fosters understanding of the global context of landscape architecture. The program prepares students for innovative professional practice and for advanced graduate education in the discipline.
Plains Art Museum, 704 First Ave. N. in Fargo, is accredited by the American Association of Museums. For more information, call the museum at (701) 232-3821 or visit the Web site at plainsart.org. PlainsInsideOut is made possible, in part, by major funding from members of Plains Art Museum, The McKnight Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The program also is funded by Bremer Bank.