Plains Art Museum

10/27/2026

Aaron Coleman: Come, Go Back, Child is on view seven days a week with free general admission.

"I don't hate white people. I love white people. But I do think that there's a history that I need to confront," the artist said.

10/27/2026

More Than a Member
You're part of the Museum.

One of our favorite member events is our Member Mornings at the Museum.
Before the Museum opens to the public, members enjoy coffee, connect with one another, and get a behind-the-scenes look at what's happening at Plains Art Museum.

At our most recent Member Morning, members met artists Annie Lee-Zimerle and Brian Zimerle while they were installing Clear as Mud. They heard the stories behind the artwork, asked questions, and experienced the exhibition before opening day.

These are the kinds of exclusive experiences that come with your membership at Plains Art Museum.

If your membership has lapsed, we'd love to welcome you back. Renew today and continue enjoying special experiences like Member Morning while helping keep art accessible for everyone in our community.

👉 https://plainsart.org/membership/

10/24/2026

Join us Saturday, November 7 from 11:30-2:30 pm for Kid Quest: Paper People. Design your own paper person and create what you want them to wear! A FREE fun activity for all ages. Explore the Museum together and engage with the exhibitions and art making in new and exciting ways.

November is all about Paper People based on Annie Lee Zimerle's Dancer, no. 1 - no. 7 featured in the Clear As Mud exhibition. The Dancers are inspired by the traditional Korean fan dance, Buchaechum, where groups of female dancers use large, brightly painted fans to create moving, visual shapes. The artist refers to her versions as dolls, and changes these 7-foot-tall figures positions and clothes each time they are displayed in a new space.

👉 Register today! https://plainsart.org/programs-learning/

Community Engagement programs are made possible with funding from Xcel Energy Foundation, Alex Stern Family Foundation, Otter Tail Corporation Foundation, and Kiwanis Club of Fargo.

10/23/2026

More Than a Member
You inspire learning.

One of the most meaningful parts of sharing exhibitions is hearing what visitors take away.

After visiting Know Your Treaty, one guest wrote:
"Wíwahokičhiyapi and the pictographs of Indigenous leaders signing those treaties was eye-opening… I am learning a LOT through this exhibition."

Your Plains Art Museum membership keeps exhibitions like this free for everyone. Thank you to every Plains Art Museum member who helps bring exhibitions, conversations, and new perspectives to our community. 💙

👉 https://plainsart.org/membership/

P.S. Plains Art Museum is the first visual art museum to host this national traveling show. Thank you to our members for creating this unique opportunity in our region.

10/22/2026

Join us on October 23 & 24 for the Smithsonian National Youth Summit!

How have Americans pursued, upheld, and expanded access to life, liberty, and happiness?

Teens ages 12-18 are invited to participate in the Smithsonian National Youth Summit and use their creativity, knowledge, and voice to answer this question. We will be lead by historical inquiry, youth perspectives, and civic dialogue to consider how these ideals have shaped the nation’s past and what they might mean for its future. With Smithsonian collections and artwork currently on view at Plains Art, participants can expect to connect with their peers, participate in reflective dialogue, and express themselves through artmaking.

👉 Free with registration. https://www.hisawyer.com/plains-art-museum/schedules/activity-set/2052740

🟣 Summit Social / Friday, October 23, 4-6 pm

This an opportunity to meet fellow summit attendees, and meet someone new to sit with the next day. While HIGHLY encouraged, if you cannot attend the social, do not let it keep you from registering for the event.

🔵 Regional Youth Summit / Saturday, October 24, 10 am - 2 pm

• 10 AM – Welcome!
• 10:30 AM – Summit Sessions & Guided Discussions
• 12 PM – Lunch
• 1 PM – Summit Response & Art Making
• 2 PM – Closing

10/21/2026

🎃 Raku Halloween Party! Join us on Friday, October 30 from 4-8 pm for our third annual Raku Halloween firing! Choose a premade pot and decorate it with a variety of glazes. Witness the magic of fire and ceramics and take home a piece of it. This Halloween we will have a selection of multiple spooky items to choose from!

💀 There are a few spots open. Don't wait, register today (if you dare).
https://www.hisawyer.com/plains-art-museum/schedules/activity-set/1999034

Designed for adults 18+
$75 / $60 members

10/20/2026

More Than a Member
You create community.

At the start of one of our teen programs, we asked participants:

"What is community?"

One student answered, "It's a lot of things."

Three months later, after creating art together, sharing ideas, and building friendships, we asked the same question again.

This time they said:

"Community is a group or place you choose to love... It's where you can feel like you belong and matter."

That program may have ended, but the connections didn't. The teens wanted to keep creating together, which led to the Teen Creatives Collective.

Moments like this happen because people like you believe art can bring people together.

When you renew your membership, you're helping create opportunities for people of all ages to learn, connect, and find a place where they belong. ❤️

P.S. Renew or join our membership program by October 31 and receive our exclusive 2026 Plains Art Museum sticker, so you can show your Plains Art support wherever you go.

👉 https://plainsart.org/membership/

10/19/2026

Join us on October 23 & 24 for the Smithsonian Regional Youth Summit! Our Deputy Director of Visitor Experience, Alatera McCann, joined North Dakota Today to talk about this engaging summit! Admission is free with registration at plainsart.org

https://www.valleynewslive.com/video/2026/10/16/north-dakota-today-plains-art-museum-national-youth-summit/

recurring recording of North Dakota Today on KVLY

10/17/2026

Plains Art Museum is open seven days a week with free general admission—stop by and explore.

👀 Now on view:

🔴 Come, Go Back, Child is an exhibition of recent work by multidisciplinary artist Aaron S. Coleman whose art practice examines the entangled histories of race, religion, and power in the United States. Coleman’s densely layered prints, sculptural assemblages, and mixed-media installations explore contemporary Black experiences and critique systems of white supremacy. Artwork: Aaron Coleman

🔴 Know Your Treaty / Wiwahokichiyapi: They Promised Things to Each Other provides an overview of treaties in the United States, with a focus on those connected to our region. This exhibition is developed in collaboration with the National Museum of the American Indian and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. The Plains Art Museum partnered with Lakȟóta Archeologist Tyrel Iron Eyes and Giiwedinnong Treaty Museum’s Logan Monroe, Don Wedll, and Winona LaDuke. Their research and expertise informed and shaped the creation of this exhibition. Artwork: Jim Denomie

🔴 Clear as Mud brings together the work of Annie Lee-Zimerle and Brian Zimerle, two artists whose practices navigate memory, materiality, and the quiet complexities of everyday life to reconsider the promises and contradictions of the American Dream.

🔴 Thương Hoài Trần (she/they) is an interdisciplinary Vietnamese American artist whose immigrant experience informs their identity and creative practice. Their work often incorporates family photographs using processes of weaving and unweaving to help them connect to their heritage and reconcile the gaps and barriers experienced by those in diasporic communities, displacement, loss of language, and generational disconnect.