FARGO MOORHEAD VISUAL ARTISTS
Fargo Moorhead Visual Artists was established in 2003, when several local artists and art supporters gathered together to form the nonprofit. Robert Kurkowski and Jon Offutt penned the bylaws for FMVA, and a year later, Kurkowski became the first president of FMVA. FMVA took on the task of creating a community art event – the Studio Crawl. FMVA’s first Studio Crawl was 2004 with 24 studios opening their doors to the community. Growing every year, the Studio Crawl has become a regional art event under FMVA Studio Crawl Director Jon Offutt. More information – Studio Crawl
FMVA is run by dedicated volunteers. The board of directors has an executive committee (president, vice-president, treasurer and secretary) and the board is composed of 5 to 8 additional volunteer board members. On the third Saturday of October every year, FMVA hosts its annual member meeting to review the previous year and share the vision and goals for the next year. The FMVA board meets every month and the directors lead 4 committees composed of volunteers: Communication, Education, Programming and Membership. The volunteers are a major part of operations, and are the key to the growth and future of FMVA.
Every year, FMVA continues to grow as it adds art events and exhibitions. In 2006, the Big Art Exhibition became an annual exhibition. For the last several years, over 60 FMVA members have presented their art. In 2007, the Little Art Exhibition was established as an annual event, and hosts about 30 FMVA members’ work in the atrium at Essentia Health in south Fargo, ND. After the 2010 annual meeting, a small group of members met and initiated the idea of an exhibition with a theme (constraint), and FMVA established the Constraint Art Exhibition. In 2011, “Play with Proportion” Constraint Exhibition was held at Spirit Room. In the following years, “It’s all in the Game”, “Political Animal”, “Time Warp”, “X”, “Antiquity”, “Label” and other constraints have been explored by our members. Another exhibition is the Art Educators’ Exhibition, (now called the Art Advocates’ Exhibition) which was first held in 2013 to showcase local and region art instructors. The Constraint Art Exhibition and Art Educators’ Exhibition alternate years and are held at various locations. More information – Exhibition tab
Along with exhibitions, FMVA hosts many events for our members and the FM community. FMVA programming and education committees alternate FMVA events and continue to implement new events. Some of the alternating events are: The Art Burn, Critiques, Draw Ins, Meet & Greets, Visual Talks, and Artists Visiting Artists’ Studios.