Rourke Art Museum executive director Jonathan Rutter with raku pottery by Richard Gruchalla and Carrin Rosetti and, in the background, a weaving by Rosetti. Both pieces are among the 114 works in the 64th Midwestern Invitational at the Rourke Art Museum. (Photo/Nancy Hanson)
Nancy Edmonds Hanson
The Midwestern Invitational Exhibition of Fine Art – the Rourke Art Museum’s annual celebration of the best of regional art – has been a Moorhead tradition since 1960, when James O’Rourke opened his very first show in the fledgling gallery that stood roughly where the Center Mall ramp will soon be demolished. He moved a year later to the Fourth Street home best remembered as his base of operations, then expanded into its present location in the former Moorhead post office on Main Avenue in 1997.
That’s where the 64th annual Midwestern Invitational opened last Sunday … the same date, June 18, when the gallery founder welcomed visitors to his inaugural exhibition. It’s been going strong ever since.
Over six-plus decades, the Rourke’s major show has extended invitations to as many as 150 artists every winter, among them painters, sculptors and other talents, some with local ties, others from further afield.
Four of the stalwarts over the years, who submitted their work throughout their careers, passed away in 2022. They’re being honored in the exhibit that opened last weekend with a quartet of prestigious awards saluting their excellence with winners from those who are following in their footsteps.
The 2023 awards bear names familiar to the region’s art aficionados, says executive director Jonathan Rutter, who has taken on the reins of assembling the big show for most of the past eight years. The exhibit’s theme, “Outside the Lines,” is in part a tribute to them.
“We have called this year’s top award the James VerDoorn Staff Choice Award,” he explains. VerDoorn, who died in December, was young O’Rourke’s first gallery assistant in the early 1960. Its recipient: Mitchel Hoffart’s painting “Along the Trail.”
Two other names memorialized in prizes are the Gretchen Kottke Gallerist’s Choice Award and the Milton Yergens Wit and Whimsey in Art Award. The first was presented to Kary Janousek’s “The Sun Maiden.” Trygve K. Olson’s “My Life as a Turkey” received the “wit and whimsey” prize.
The fourth prize honors Joel Hegerle, but its recipient won’t be named until Aug. 12, three weeks until the exhibition closes Sept. 3. The People’s Choice Award will be chosen by … the people who come to view the show.
Rutter, who says his current position is his “fourth time around” with the gallery, notes that many other familiar long-time exhibitors are no longer on the scene, citing Philip Thompson (a classmate of O’Rourke’s at Concordia College), Charles Beck, Robert A. Nelson and Yvonne Butzon, who submitted her watercolors every year from the very first show until her death in 2019. Other perennial entrants’ work is featured in this year’s show, including George Pfeifer, Richard Gruchalla and LeRoy Aasland.
At the same time, he adds, “Young artists seem to have an unusually high participation” – the next generation, perhaps, of the region’s artistic talents.
A total of 114 artworks are displayed in the museum’s main and east galleries and the lobby. The exhibition is open to the public at no charge from 1 to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Private tours can also be arranged by appointment on Wednesday and Thursday by calling (218) 236-8861.
