JANUARY 2-26 IN GALLERY I & II

NORTH DAKOTA JURIED STUDENT ART SHOW

in GALLERY I & II

Each spring, teachers of K-12 in North Dakota schools select student art work to enter in the North Dakota Juried Student Art Show, which is juried at the Taube Museum of Art in Minot.

Of the 527 entries for this year, jurors selected three pieces for the Governor’s Award, to be hung in Governor Doug Burgum’s office, four for the State of the Arts Award, sponsored by Senator Kevin Cramer, four for the Northern Visions Award, sponsored by Senator John Hoeven, and five for the Congressional Art Award, sponsored by Rep. Kelly Armstrong. These Selections will be hung in their offices the following year.

An additional 100 selections, including the Taube Museum of Art award winners, the People’s Choice, and Spotlight award winners, become a traveling exhibit for the following year.

Jurors for 2023-2024 were Arvin K. Davis Jr., artist and educator, and Shelly Saylor, artist and owner of Nodakian Pottery Studios.

DECEMBER 4-29 IN GALLERY I

ARTIST + MUSE

WOODCUTS BY CHARLES BECK

FROM THE TIMOTHY MURPHY COLLECTION

in GALLERY I

CHARLES BECK

(b. 1923 - d. 2017, Fergus Falls, MN)

Charles Beck was born in 1923 in Fergus Falls. Beck began drawing in grade school where he would trade his works for candy and marbles. He attended Concordia College in Moorhead in the 1940s where he studied art under Cyrus Running, graduating in 1948 after taking time off to serve as a pilot in the Naval Air Force. Beck continued his education at the University of Iowa where he received his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1950 and then returned to Fergus Falls where he worked as a sign painter.

In 1953 Beck enrolled at the University of Minnesota where he studied under Cameron Booth, Walter Quirt, and Malcolm Myers. It was here that Beck was first introduced to woodcut prints, and he completed his first print The Holy Family. Beck joined the faculty at Fergus Falls Community College (now Minnesota State Community and Technical College or M State) in 1960 where he taught for 27 years. Concordia granted Beck an Honorary Doctorate in 1980, and in 2006 M State honored Beck by naming the new gallery after him.

Throughout his life, Beck’s primary subject was the landscape and nature of Otter Tail County. Instead of an exact representation, he worked to create an interpretation of his own experiences and vision.

THE COLLECTION

Poet Timothy Murphy was an admirer and friend of Beck and derived both enjoyment and inspiration from his friend’s artwork. Murphy’s poem SNOW GEESE references and gives direct attribution to Beck’s iconic landscape of the same name:

SNOW GEESE

for Charles Beck

The flock is whorled like a translucent shell and intricate as the tubing of a horn,

its embouchure, the soft foot of a snail lighting on sand, except the sand is corn,

chisel sloughed and left to build the soil from which indebted farmers have been torn.

I catch one note—a wild, wayfaring cry as snow geese splash into a glacial mere.

Framed by moraines under a nacreous sky, they echo in the chambers of my ear.

How does an ear rival your artist's eye that sees what I can only hope to hear?

This exhibition is sponsored in part by the North Dakota Art Gallery Association (NDAGA), a statewide service organization for non-profit museums & galleries, and 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.

DECEMBER 4-29 IN GALLERY II

WILLISTON HIGH SCHOOL ART STUDENTS

in GALLERY II

Students enrolled in an art program during the Fall Semester at Williston High School were invited to showcase their talent during the month of December.

Over 40 artists have submitted artwork in a range of mediums including pencil, paints, digital, marker, pastels, and more.

In addition to the juried awards, there will be an additional People’s Choice award so be sure to vote by 7:30 PM on December 8th!

NOVEMBER 6 - DECEMBER 1 IN GALLERY I

MARILYN NIEWOEHNER

“ADROIT ENCHANTMENT”

in GALLERY I

Marilyn Niewoehner is an artist who is well-known for her works in many mediums, but it is her expressive modern art paintings in watercolors, oils, and pen and ink that bring out some of her most dynamic creations.

Drawing on her home economics BS, she first started her artistic journey BY playing with color and texture on her sewing machine, thereby turning textiles into works of art.

In 2013 she picked up a paintbrush and started experimenting with watercolor, acrylic and pastel. She finds her greatest freedom of expression with watercolor and pen and ink.

Her early introduction to creating art for the pure pleasure of it was from her mother. Her mother was an artist, and Marilyn would come home from school to see a wondrous painting her mother had created that day. In her experience, she thought that’s just what all mothers do. It wasn’t until high school that she learned not all mothers paint in the afternoon!

With a nod to her mother, Marilyn continues to bring beauty to the world with her avant-garde touch. 

This exhibition is sponsored in part by the North Dakota Art Gallery Association (NDAGA), a statewide service organization for non-profit museums & galleries, and 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.