North Dakota Museum Of Art | Rural Arts

The Rural Arts Initiative, an educational outreach program, works to encourage and empower rural school students and their teachers to actively participate in learning through the arts. The Rural Art Initiative came about in direct response to feedback from educators and families working in rural areas. Major challenges such as inadequate funding for art education, few museums and great distances have not allowed the visual arts to flourish in rural areas as much as other forms of art such as music and theater, which accompanied early settlers as they moved west.

Museum Visits
Two major exhibitions will be selected for the program. Throughout the school year, teachers and their students will visit the Museum to see and discuss exhibitions. Financial support for travel expenses is available for qualifying schools.

Tour exhibitions
The Museum will organize touring exhibitions of art, relevant to the local communities, that are integrated into school curricula and that can withstand less-than-optimal conditions and handling. Each exhibition targets specific age groups within the K-12 spectrum but all class levels are encouraged to visit and participate in the exhibition. Each host organization must provided a secure facility and staff for the duration of the exhibition. Exhibition times vary depending on location.

The Museum will deliver and install the exhibition
As part of the program Museum staff will train docents on the exhibition and program. In addition, Museum staff will return to pack up the exhibition when it closes. There is never a cost to host organizations. Past exhibitions, Snow Country Prison, Self Portraits, Shelterbelts, Marking the Land, and Animals: Them and Us, have been installed in buildings such as bank basements, Masonic temples, empty store fronts, school gymnasiums, etc.

If you are interested in learning more about the Rural Arts Initiative or would like to book an exhibition, please contact Matthew Anderson at manderson@ndmoa.com or 701-777-4195.

Uff Da: The Folk Art of Emily Lunde

2022 - 2023 Booking Season is Open

Emily Wilhelmina Dufke Lunde was born in northern Minnesota and, as she says, "with a handle like that you had to have a sense of humor." Laurel Reuter says of this North Dakota folk artist: "Were the people of North Dakota to name their treasures, Emily Lunde would certainly be among them. She is one of the state's eminent folk artists and unofficial cultural historian." As both artist and author, Mrs. Lunde has recorded the life of Scandinavian immigrants settling the prairies and small towns of the Red River Valley during the early 20th century.

Emily Lunde was born in rural Minnesota in 1914. Her father died when she was five years old, and Emily and her two sisters were raised by her immigrant grandparents on a farm. Memories of those days are the inspiration for much of her work. Emily left home at the age of 18 and went to work as a maid in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Although always interested in art and painting, Emily married and raised four children before beginning to paint seriously in 1974.

Mrs. Lunde’s work is included in a number of important private and public collections in the United States. Paintings by Emily Lunde can be found in U.S. Embassies around the works under the Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies Project. Dr. Robert Bishop, the late Director of the Folk Art Museum in New York City, has included Mrs. Lunde and her work in his book on American folk art and painters. Dr. Bishop also donated over forty of her paintings to the Art in Embassies Project.

Exhibition Information	Suzzanne Kelley Article

Uff Da by Emily Lunde	Skal by Emily Lunde

Lesson Plans

Click Here to see: PDF Image List of Exhibition

For more booking information please contact manderson@ndmoa.com or call 701-777-4195

Exhibition locations:

Spirit Roon, Fargo
December 15, 2021 - January 14, 2022

Heritage Center, Devils Lake
January 24 - February 18, 2022

Growing Small Towns, Oakes
May 9 - June 10, 2022