Arts News
Fiddle Tunes, Fiber Folk & Prairie Prints Featuring Jeanne O’Neil and Erin O’Neil
The Northwest Minnesota Arts Council Announces
Fiddle Tunes, Fiber Folk & Prairie Prints
Featuring Jeanne Griffin O’Neil and Erin Jeanne O’Neil
Northwest Minnesota Arts Council Gallery
NCTC in Thief River Falls through April 2024
Artist Reception Wednesday, April 24 at 6 PM — The O’Neil Family Band will perform
The Northwest Minnesota Arts Council (NWMAC) is pleased to announce the opening of Fiddle Tunes, Fiber Folk & Prairie Prints Featuring Jeanne Griffin O’Neil and Erin Jeanne O’Neil. This exhibit is open through April at the NWMAC Gallery at Northland Community and Technical College in Thief River Falls.
East Grand Forks Artist Jeanne O’Neil explained, “The focus of this show is the celebration of Erin's recently completed book, Twenty of Plenty, in which twenty of her original fiddle tunes are transcribed. We are both folk musicians and visual artists, and it is fitting to bring these forms of artistic expression together, as the tunes and art are both inspired by the rural landscapes we live in.”
The newest prints in this show come from a series of sketches made over the past summers on Jeanne’s land. “Walking the fields and pathways every day, year after year, the colors, contrasts, textures and lines of trees, grasses, sky, river are impressed in my mind, creating an accumulated knowledge of these places. The making of each print creates a deeper knowing and a stronger connection to that knowing.”
Jeanne’s daughter Erin O’Neil learned to play the fiddle by the age of seven. Erin plays by ear and the Twenty of Plenty tune book project was an effort to get some of her tune compositions transcribed so that they could be introduced into wider circles of musicians who read music. With a grant from the Northwest Minnesota Arts Council through funding from the McKnight Foundation, she collaborated with a folk musician originally from Norway. The descriptions and illustration throughout the book offer insight into the meaning of the compositions. The cultural influences for these tunes include French Canadian, Irish, Scandinavian, Scottish traditional fiddle music, New England Contra Dance music, Old Time Appalachian music, and Metis fiddle tunes.
Erin also has Rag Folk pieces in this exhibit. The Rag Folk represent preservation of what has been used in everyday life and creating new lives out of old scraps and rags. The Rag Folk contain memories and essences of what has passed, and the joy of childhood carried forward and honored in adulthood. Erin started creating these pieces with a passion for recycling and reducing waste and a desire to connect with others.
Jeanne and Erin both play in the O’Neil Family Band. Erin plays the fiddle and feet, while Jeanne plays the banjo and concertina. The band holds many community dances in our region.
Watch this video featuring Erin’s music for a virtual tour of the exhibit at https://youtu.be/8lZbCEPmtik.
An artist reception at the gallery will be held at Northland Community and Technical College on Wednesday, April 24 at 6 PM. Everyone is welcome to join us for this free event. There will be refreshments and live music by the O’Neil Family Band.
Most of the pieces in the exhibit are for sale. You can purchase at any time and pick it when the exhibit is over.
The NWMAC Gallery is located at Northland Community and Technical College in Thief River Falls. The gallery hours are Monday-Friday from 8:30-5 PM and at other times when events are held at the college. Enter through Door B, which is right next to the gallery. Visitor parking is free.
For more information about this exhibit our website at www.NWArtsCouncil.org, or if you are an artist interested in exhibiting a body of work with NWMAC, please contact Trey Everett at (218) 745-8886 or email NWArtsCouncil@gmail.com. Please sign up for our e-newsletter on our website home page to see the latest news and grant announcements. Email director@NWArtsCouncil.org or call 218-745-8886 to reach our office during regular business hours.
2024 McKnight Fellowships in Fiber Arts — Apply by Dec 4
Attention Textile and Fiber Artists!
There is an open call for the 2024 McKnight Fellowships in Fiber Arts.
Two $25,000 UNRESTRICTED fellowships will be awarded in support of mid-career Minnesota artists who use textile and fiber arts materials, processes, histories, traditions, and/or sensibilities in their artistic and creative practice throughout the conception, execution, and resolution of their work. Mid-career, for the purposes of the application, refers to anyone who has practiced fiber art for 8 years and has received recognition for their work from their community and the larger creative community in our state, region, and nationally (not including work done in an academic higher-education program).
The deadline for application is December 4, 2023, at 5PM.
Info sessions are being scheduled over the next two (2) months across Minnesota and on Zoom, to provide potential applicants the opportunity to learn more about the specifics of these fellowships and the application process. The application details are available on the Textile Center website:
https://textilecentermn.org/mcknight/
The application portal is on Submittable, and can be accessed here:
https://textilecenter.submittable.com/submit
The work will be reviewed by three (3) jurors of national recognition with expertise in the field, and the winners will be selected by the end February for a fellowship period that runs from March 1, 2024 – February 28, 2025. Reach out to Tracy Krumm, Director for Artistic Advancement Program Director, McKnight Fellowships for Fiber Artists, McKnight Visual Arts Fellow at 612-436-0464, 3000 University Ave. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414. www.textilecentermn.org
Experience Fiber Art by Aliza Novacek-Olson exhibited outside of NCTC Gallery
Fiber art created by Roseau Artist Aliza Novacek-Olson is displayed in one of the display cases outside of our NWMAC Gallery at Northland Community and Technical College in Thief River Falls. Aliza’s work will be displayed until the end of the year. Novacek-Olson’s work joins Artists Cindy Kolling and Kate Hammer in the display cases at the college.
Fiber Works and Rosemaling Exhibit featuring Cathy Forgit and Jean Honl 2019
The Northwest Minnesota Arts Council (NWMAC) is excited to present the Fiber Works and Rosemaling Exhibit featuring artists Cathy Forgit and Jean Honl.
Cathy Forgit (Fertile, Minnesota) shares pieces that harken back to the “olden days”: coverlet patterns from the past, hides from primitive sheep once used to keep the sleeping warm, striking block patterns, and one wool rug spun from the wool of her own sheep.
Jean Honl (Roseau, Minnesota) not only decorates functional pieces with rosemaling, she constructs those pieces herself. She has her own woodshop where she builds pieces such as the chair on display in the gallery. And then she adorns them with rosemaling, a traditional Norwegian style.
Working in these different mediums, Forgit and Honl have brought the bright and bold colors many of us have been missing this time of year! Come visit the Fiber Works and Rosemaling Exhibit at the NWMAC gallery now through May 11. The gallery is located at 211 DeMers Avenue, East Grand Forks, MN 56721 (located within the Riverwalk Artists Gallery.) The gallery hours are Friday–Saturday, 2:00–8:00 P.M. and Sunday, 2:00–5:00 P.M. (But before you go, please double check to make sure the gallery is open.) Details on the artists reception will be forthcoming.