November 2015

Welcome to e-Prairie Arts! This electronic newsletter supplements our printed newsletter, Prairie Arts, which is published three times per year. e-Prairie Arts will be distributed during the months of February, March, April, June, July, August, October, November and December. If you know of anyone else who would like to receive e-Prairie Arts, please e-mail comserv@nd.gov. Those wishing to unsubscribe, may send an e-mail to comserv@nd.gov as well.

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**How has the North Dakota Council on the Arts benefited you and/or your community? We would love to know!
Send your comments to amschmid@nd.gov.**

STATEWIDE NEWS

NDCA appoints Vice Chairman
The North Dakota Council on the Arts is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Lana Schlecht of Ellendale as Vice Chairman of its Board. Schlecht has been serving on NDCA’s board of directors since August 2012. For more visit www.nd.gov/arts/sites/default/files/PDFs/PressReleases/newvicechair-boardofdirectors2015_0.pdf. The NDCA's board consists of nine members - one from each of the state's regions, and one member-at-large, each of whom is appointed by the governor for a five-year term. Additional information on each of the board members, as well as the regions they represent, is available on the NDCA’s web site at www.nd.gov/arts/about-us/board-of-directors.

NDCA announces the North Dakota State Tree Lighting Ceremony to take place December 8th
NDCA, along with the Governor’s Office and Facility Management, invites the general public to the Lighting Ceremony for the 2015 North Dakota State Christmas Tree. The ceremony will be conducted by Governor Jack Dalrymple and First Lady Betsy Dalrymple on Tuesday, December 8 at 5:00 p.m. in the Memorial Hall of the Capitol Building in Bismarck. Live entertainment will be provided, and the ceremony is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served following the ceremony.

Volunteers for State Christmas Tree decorating needed
Have some fun and find your holiday spirit! NDCA is seeking volunteers to help decorate the North Dakota State Christmas Tree on Tuesday, December 1, 2015. If you are interested and willing to volunteer, please email Amy at amschmid@nd.gov. Tree decorating will start at 10am and run through 3pm. You can volunteer for 15 minutes, 1 hour, all day, or anything in between. Volunteers must be state employees, or contracted through Serve YES!. It is easy to become a member of Serve Yes! – just contact Mary Siverson at www.rsvpnd.org (For more information, visit http://rsvpnd.com/do-good/volunteers). Feel free to stop by in the afternoon for some cookies, coffee, or hot chocolate. Thank you for your time and consideration!

Reminder, ornaments for the State Christmas Tree are due November 10th
NDCA invites artists and crafts people to provide handmade ornaments for the North Dakota State Christmas Tree. The tree will be on display in the Memorial Hall of the State Capitol, and Governor Jack and First Lady Betsy Dalrymple will participate in a lighting of the tree ceremony. The tree lighting ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday, December 8, 2015, at 5:00 p.m. Submitted ornaments can vary from traditional to contemporary arts. Items that are commercially produced or made from kits are not eligible. This year’s motif is bell ornaments, but ornaments can also be of any shape or medium of the designer’s choosing. Ornaments must be received in the NDCA office no later than Tuesday, November 10, 2015. The ornaments become the property of the NDCA, and may be hung on the state tree in ensuing years. Mail ornaments to: NDCA, 1600 E. Century Ave., Suite 6, Bismarck, ND 58503-0649. The full press release is available via this link.

Fundraising and Advanced Storytelling Workshop in Moorhead, MN
Lori L. Jacobwith of Ignited Fundraising is presenting a Fundraising and Advanced Storytelling Workshop in Moorhead, Minnesota on Wednesday, November 4, from 9:00 am CDT to 3:30 pm CDT. For additional information or to register, visit http://bit.ly/moorheadworkshop or call 612-567-2105.

North Dakota’s Art Story
In collaboration with the North Dakota Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) looks at the arts and culture of North Dakota. Check out the video the NEA produced for North Dakota. The NEA made one video for every state. The North Dakota video can be found at https://www.arts.gov/50th/stories/north-dakota-council-arts.

Public art project proposals wanted
The City of Fargo Arts and Culture Commission is inviting artists and arts organizations to propose public art projects in Fargo. The proposals can involve new or existing projects. Request for proposals (RFP) are not limited to local artists only. The submission deadline is November 4, 2015. A copy of the RFP and more information is available at www.cityoffargo.com/artsandculture. Please feel free to contact Maria Olson, Assistant Planner with any questions. Office (701) 476-4152 e-mail: mdolson@cityoffargo.com.

2015 ND Governor’s Photo Contest Winners’ works exhibited at State Capitol thru December
NDCA, along with the offices of Governor Jack Dalrymple, First Lady Betsy Dalrymple, and Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, will exhibit the works of the 2015 Governor’s Photo Contest winners at the Capitol Building in Bismarck through December. Their works will be on display in the Governor’s ground floor and first floor offices, the First Lady’s fourth floor office, and the Attorney General’s first floor office. This exhibit is part of an ongoing program between the NDCA and the offices of the Governor and First Lady.

Call to teaching artists
NDCA is looking to expand and enrich its Artist in Residence Program through collaborations with teaching artists. Are you a professional artist, musician, writer, actor, director, dancer, media expert, storyteller, folk, traditional or multicultural artist who has experience teaching your chosen medium? Do you want to take an active role in shaping and inspiring the creative capital of tomorrow? Do you celebrate the transformative power of artistic self-expression as a means for creating a higher quality of life for all? If so, please consider joining NDCA to help make the arts central to education in North Dakota and to support and expand arts education opportunities for all citizens within our schools and communities. For more information visit www.nd.gov/arts/sites/default/files/PDFs/callteachingartists.pdf.

NATIONAL NEWS

November is Native American Heritage Month
What started at the turn of the century as an effort to gain a day of recognition for the significant contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the U.S., has resulted in a whole month being designated for that purpose. In 1990 President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 "National American Indian Heritage Month." Similar proclamations, under variants on the name (including "Native American Heritage Month" and "National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month") have been issued each year since 1994 (information courtesy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior). To learn more visit www.nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/about.

Using Research to Build Audiences
Taking Out the Guessswork: A Guide to Using Research to Build Arts Audiences is a new resource for arts organizations from The Wallace Foundation. It is based on the experiences of groups that participated in The Wallace Foundation's audience development initiative. The paper describes effective audience research methods and offers tips for effectively applying the results of them. A number of case studies illustrate the recommendations The Wallace Foundation puts forth. http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/audience-development-for-the-arts/strategies-for-expanding-audiences/Documents/Taking-Out-the-Guesswork.pdf.

Doodle 4 Google young artists call for entries
From cave paintings to selfies, artists have always found creative ways of expressing themselves. Now, with the Google homepage as their canvas, Google is asking students to do the same. Young artists can doodle with any materials to show what makes them unique, and the winner’s artwork will be featured on their homepage for a day. For this year’s contest, students can create a doodle that tells the world “What makes me…me.” Kids have all kinds of things that make them unique, so they can use all kinds of materials to create their doodles, from crayons, to clay, to graphic design, even food and video games. Students in grades K-12 are invited to take part in the 2015 Doodle 4 Google contest. Like all Google Doodles, each doodle must incorporate the letters G-o-o-g-l-e. One national winner will also receive a $30,000 college scholarship. The contest deadline is December 7, 2015. To learn more visit https://www.google.com/doodle4google/index.html.

Bush Foundation's Community Innovation Grant Program
The Bush Foundation is now accepting applications through November 5 for the Community Innovation Grant Program. Community Innovation grants support efforts to develop breakthrough solutions to challenges faced by communities in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and the 23 Native nations that share the same geography. Eligible organizations can apply for grants between $10,000 and $200,000. Their team is available to answer questions and offer support throughout the application period by phone at 651-379-2266 or by email at CommunityInnovation@BushFoundation.org. Visit the website for more information https://www.bushfoundation.org/grants/community-innovation-grants.

NEA celebrates 50 years
September 29 was the 50th anniversary of the signing of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965, which created the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. To better recount the story of the NEA and the arts in America, the NEA wants you to share your story of how the arts have influenced your life. The NEA has launched a "share your stories" section on their web site to capture stories from across the nation. As of September 29th, the NEA began posting these stories on their web site and will promote them across social media. Join the celebration of the NEA's 50th anniversary by sharing your story of how the arts have influenced your life.

EVENT AND EXHIBIT CALENDAR, ARTS OPPORTUNITIES

**Check out upcoming Events and Exhibits listed on NDCA's calendar. If you have events, exhibits or artist opportunities that you would like included on the NDCA web site, please email them to comserv@nd.gov. Check out the other current Arts Opportunities available on the NDCA web site! Post your art activities on Tourism’s web site as well. The arts bring a great deal to tourism within the state of North Dakota and both NDCA and ND Tourism can benefit from joint efforts to market the arts within ND. NDCA encourages studios, organizations, schools and universities to list their art activities on the Tourism web site. The broad reach of Tourism's web site offers an extremely effective way of promoting your art activities. Here is the link to a tutorial on how to enter your activities: http://screencast.com/t/emJIJkyI. For assistance, contact Scooter Pursley at spursley@nd.gov, or 701-328-2874.

The Northwest Art Center’s Americas 2016 Paperworks is accepting works in any medium, on or of paper, traditional or experimental, including photographs. All works must be original. Deadline (postmark) for submitting entries is November 2, 2015. The prospectus is available at www.minotstateu.edu/nac/pdf/pw_2016.pdf; e-mail: nac@minotstateu.edu; or call (701) 858-3264.

Sanford Health is investing in the health and well-being of the patients and communities that it serves, through the acquisition of regional artwork designed to enhance the healing environment at the new Sanford Medical Center Fargo. Oland Arts Consulting, on behalf of Sanford Health, is seeking responses to this Call for Artists (CFA) and will assist in managing the art procurement for this project. The CFA is open to artists residing in the Sanford geographic footprint (ND, MN, SD, portions of Montana, northwest Iowa and northeast Nebraska) whose works meet the required criteria, with priority consideration given to artists residing in the region served by the new medical center, located in Fargo, ND. Submission deadline is November 9, 2015. For more information visit http://olandarts.com/sanfordfargo.

Join the Spirit Room in celebrating a visual representation of Miguel de Cervantes’novel Don Quixote. They invite visual artists, poets, and performance artists to enter. This event is part of a series of a cultural celebration honoring Cervantes, a contemporary of Shakespeare, and the 400^th year anniversary of the publication of the second book of Don Quixote. The prospectus is online at www.spiritroom.net or directly at www.spiritroom.net/pdf/DonQuixoteFntryForm.pdf. Entry fee: $5. Deadlines: Visual, literary and performance art entry registration forms are available on-line and by mail and must be submitted by Wednesday, December 30, 2015. Contact: Gisselle Tipp at Gisselle@ideaone.net or call 701-237-0230.

Artists Celebrating Christ is calling artists to enter their Christian themed art before February 15, 2016. Event date: April 14-17, 2016 hosted by University of Mary. For more information visit www.accartshow.com, email info@accartshow.com or call 701-400-2815.

DID YOU KNOW ...

Childhood creativity leads to innovation in adulthood
Researchers link arts and crafts in childhood to financial success in adulthood. A new study from Michigan State University found that childhood participation in arts and crafts leads to innovation, patents, and increased the odds in starting a business as an adult. The researchers found that people who own businesses or patents received up to eight times more exposure to the arts as children than the general public. To learn more visit http://bit.ly/1GBrlkH.

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