BY RACHEL LEINGANG
Editor
The Fargo-Moorhead Visual
Artists (FMVA) Studio Crawl
offers students, faculty and
the community at large, a true
behind-the-scenes experience.
Attendees have the
opportunity to visit the studios
of 39 working visual artists from
all types of backgrounds and
media specializations, entirely
free of charge.
Entering its seventh year,
the crawl includes artists of
all varieties, from ceramicists
to painters to glass blowers to
quilters.
Jon Offutt, executive director
of the FMVA, said the event is
primarly educational in nature.
“We want to show the public
how many high quality, prolific,
taxpaying artists we have in
town,” he said.
Among the studio crawl’s
participating artists are two of
MSUM’s own art professors,
Carl Oltvedt and Zhimin Guan.
Both have been involved with
the crawl since the beginning.
One of the main purposes of
the crawl, according to Oltvedt,
is that “it lets people know
what artists do, specifically
what each of us individually
do…maybe to take a lot of the
mystique out—that we have
trials and errors, we experiment
with color charts, with different
pigments, that it’s an ongoing
process of inquiry.”
The idea of the public seeing
a work in progress is a point of
resonance for Guan as well.
“It’s a very unique experience
to have such a close observation
of artists,” Guan said, “to see
their studio setting and some
unfinished pieces instead of
polished, finished pieces.”
At Oltvedt’s studio, visitors
can see his current work with
oil pastels, soft pastel and
watercolor, as well as some
pieces that will be a part of his
upcoming Minneapolis show.
Guan’s studio offers visitors a
glimpse at his small and large
landscapes on canvas and metal,
as well as some nude studies,
all with a bit of an international
perspective. At Offutt’s
workspace, visitors will see
glass-blowing demonstrations
and get a 3-D experience.
Each of the studio crawl
artists provides a different
experience for visitors. Since
there are 39 artists and only
two days, making it to all of
the studios is a real challenge.
The Plains Art Museum has
a studio crawl preview show
featuring one piece from each
of the participating artists.
Offutt recommends visiting
the preview or looking at the
brochure to find some artists
that pique your interest in order
to narrow the number down to a
more managable size.
The importance of the crawl
continues to grow and fosters a
true cultural experience in the
F-M area, which is important
for students to see.
Leingang can be reached at
leingara@mnstate.edu

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