North Dakota Human Rights Art Festival in Gallery I & II

The 5th Annual North Dakota Human Rights Arts Festival will open in Williston at The James Memorial Art Center on Tuesday, September 6th. The exhibition, which features the work of over 60 artists, will be on display through September 30th.

 An Artist Reception will be held on Friday, September 16th beginning at 7 p.m. Artists will be on hand to speak about their motivations and the inspirations behind their work.

 The festival includes the work of 2D, 3D, and live performance artists and animators and experimental filmmakers from around the world. Each artist explores human rights, civil rights, or social justice issues through their respective mediums. In addition to paintings, mixed media works, and photographs, a series of experimental videos are also a part of the festival. Certain works in the exhibition may be purchased via the exhibition’s online store. The festival features regional artists and artists from Albuquerque, Kentucky, and Missouri. International filmmakers from Colombia, Mexico, and Serbia are also included.

 The North Dakota Human Rights Arts Festival’s mission is to educate, engage, and facilitate discussion around local and world-wide human rights topics. The festival was founded and is managed by The Human Family is a non-partisan 501(c)(3) based in North Dakota founded to change communities through art.

 The North Dakota Human Rights Arts Festival is supported in part by a grant from the North Dakota Council on the Arts which receives funding from the state legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts, and in part by The Arts Partnership with support from the Cities of Fargo, Moorhead, and West Fargo.

August Exhibits

Come meet both artists! Please join us for an artist reception on Friday, July 8th from 7-8:30 PM

Doug Engberg "Leather Burning Art" in Gallery I

Doug was born and raised in Williston, ND and worked in the oil field for 30 years.

Doug says, “Loving to draw all my life there was nothing I wouldn’t try in the art world mediums. I have done oil paint, pencil drawing, and burning on wood. I decided to try burning leather to see how that will work, and now I’m hooked on it. 

With each art piece I can see the small details that will work from burning deep for the bison fur to the light shading of the tee-pee smoke.  It takes time and patience to do this as once the hot tip touches the leather, there is no turning back.

In my early work, I just did the burning on the leather, and now I have been adding color from soft tints to heavy coats to bring them out or adding a color to their eyes. I starting to like this a little bit more to give the extra WOW factor.” 

Faded

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Linda Beard "A Little Bit Alcohol, A Little Bit Water" in Gallery II

Linda says, “Working with alcohol ink and watercolor on small pieces were fun to do.   The free flow of the media on each piece makes you wonder what the art will become.  Learning to manipulate the alcohol ink through air force, either using a straw or an air brush to create the image.

Along with watercolor using different methods to achieve the effect that you need.   The use of salt, plastic wrap or even alcohol, having fun with the paints and let your imagination go.

Not wasting any watercolor paper, small pieces can be used to float the art on the mat and that’s where the framing talent comes in to play making something out of a small piece of scrap.

Along with the alcohol ink, I tried different surfaces from glass shelves, washers (necklace), PVC pipe, mosaic tile, and a mask.  Trying the different color combinations and adding gold to the mixture to give it the rich look.

I’m always looking for new and different ways to do each medium and how to frame each for a different look.”