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State Symbols

The official state symbols represent the cultural heritage and natural treasures of each state or the entire United States

North Dakota Symbols

North Dakota State Art Museum

The North Dakota Museum of Art

Grand Forks

Adopted in 1981.

The North Dakota Museum of Art is the official art museum of the State of North Dakota. It is a private not-for-profit institution managed by its own Board of Trustees. The North Dakota Museum of Art Foundation manages the Museum's endowment. It was adopted in 1981.

The North Dakota Museum of Art was founded in the mid-1970's as the University of North Dakota Art Galleries, a temporary exhibition space primarily for the benefit of university students. In 1981 the North Dakota State Legislature designated the University Galleries as North Dakota's official art museum. With its expanded mission came a new name: the North Dakota Museum of Art.

The first task was to find an appropriate and permanent home. A building fund, established in the late 1970s from private sources, had grown to $1 million. The staff and the Friends of the North Dakota Museum of Art, a non-profit organization established in 1985, raised an additional $400,000. The University of North Dakota agreed to give the Museum a 1907 gymnasium if the Friends raised the additional money needed for the renovation. In September 1989 the building, designed by Harvey Hoshour, an MIT graduate who worked for Mies van der Rohe before establishing his own firm in New Mexico, opened to great public enthusiasm. Artists participated by designing the public restrooms (neon artist Cork Marcheschi), the gift shop and the donor wall (Barton Benes), and the sculpture garden (Richard Nonas).

The North Dakota Museum of Art collects contemporary, international art in all media starting with the early 1970s (the founding of the Museum) onwards. It collects the visual history of the region. It is also assembling a survey collection of contemporary Native American art, starting with the early 1970s when the movement emerged. This does not preclude the acceptance of collections that are outside this focus if they would enrich the visual life of our audience, i.e. a historical textile collection.

Admission

Free and open to the public

Mailing Address

PO Box 7305
Grand Forks, ND 58202-7305

Phone

(701) 777-4195

Fax

(701) 777-4425

E-mail

ndmoa@ndmoa.com

Accessibility

The Museum, Museum Gift Shop, and Museum Café are wheelchair accessible.

State Symbols

State symbols represent things that are special to a particular state.

symbol \ˈsim-bəl\
noun

Etymology:
in sense 1, from Late Latin symbolum, from Late Greek symbolon, from Greek, token, sign; in other senses from Latin symbolum token, sign, symbol, from Greek symbolon, literally, token of identity verified by comparing its other half, from symballein to throw together, compare, from syn- + ballein to throw — more at devil
Date: 15th century

1: Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention, especially a material object used to represent something invisible.