it is whole.

WHOLE CITY

FARGO-M

OORHEAD

8/18/2

014 -

8/22

/2014

PLAINS ART MUSEUM

WORKS PROGRESS STUDIO

Red River of the North, looking East into Moorhead. Photo by Fargo-Moorhead Convention & Visitor’s Bureau.

“In tropical parts of the country, your blood is boiling and it makes you want to get out and do things. In the cold, people close off indoors. So whoever is indoors with you, you’re going to get along with. It’s an indoor life.”

“People keep talking about how it’s so friendly, but it’s not - it’s superficial.”

“There used to be more than 5,000 Kurdish people in Fargo, but as soon as winter hit they were like ‘What the hell?’ We have winters, but not like here! It’s just flat here, you know? It’s normally just 40 below, but when the wind comes it’s like 100 below! So a lot of people ran away.”

“It’s not exactly a beautiful city, it does have its charms, but what makes people live here is this sense of a community goal and vision.”

“Disasters break down barriers. Anybody that’s done sandbagging has spent hours with all kinds of people.”

One thing that I think makes us whole is our love-hate relationship with the river. Everyone experiences it in one form or another. The danger and the beauty. I think of those things as joining us together rather than dividing us.”

When we arrived at the Plains Art Museum to begin working on this project it was our first visit to Fargo-Moorhead. We’ve been through town before on a train headed west, but even if you manage to stay awake, there isn’t much to see from a train window at 3 in the morning. A few people climb off and shuffle down the platform, a few others climb on and quietly tuck into an empty seat, and suddenly you’re rattling across the great plains, barely discernible from the nighttime sky above.

This time we drove a car from our home in Minneapolis and saw the Red River Valley from a different vantage point. It was less a valley than we’d imagined, with fields of

sugar beets and wheat punctuated by small towns, mile-long trains carrying oil from the Bakken formation, and then a cluster of cities on a river - with highways and railways shooting out into the west.

We arrived, and then a few days later, we left.

How do you begin to form a picture of a place you’ve never been before? Who can you ask about what it means to live there? What do you ask them, and why would they share anything with a stranger who will be gone soon? As artists who sometimes work in communities where we don’t live, we see our role not only as creators of objects and experiences, but as outsiders who

can ask naive questions and get unguarded answers. From there, we can listen for patterns that might not be as visible from within. We can reflect what we hear, and hopefully provide an opportunity for people to see their own place in a new light.

The questions we began with - “What makes us whole?” And, “What kind of place are we making together?”- are purposefully broad, and filled with assumptions that quickly rise to the surface: Who is the us and who is the we? What is meant by “making” a place and who ever said anything about doing this together?

Red River of the North, just north of Fargo-Moorhead. Photo by Sharon Mollerus.

A VISITOR’S GUIDE TO THE WHOLE CITY

Building a sandbag levee alongside the Red River of the North on April 6, 2011. Photo by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Over the course of four days we discussed these questions and many other topics with more than forty people from a range of professional and cultural communities. We met with people because we were curious about their work, because others recommended it, or occasionally because of a chance encounter. One woman suggested that to really see the city, we should take a ride on the bus, so the next afternoon we joined her on her daily commute to the edge of the city.

Throughout all of it we kept the recorder rolling. This newspaper contains direct quotes transcribed from nearly ten hours of recorded conversations. Where appropriate, and with permission, we’ve included

an index of the locations we visited on the last page.

Our four days in Fargo-Moorhead amounted to a patchwork picture of a place that is rapidly changing in many different directions all at once, and a place that is and understandably unsure of what it all means. It’s a place experiencing the growing pains associated with an economic boom, and a city that, like many in America, is filled with dominant narratives as well as stories that provide an alternative picture of what is important to the people here.

This publication is, of course, incomplete. As one of the people we interviewed said, “I can’t think of

the whole as static... It’s constantly moving and shifting, going through ups and downs, energizing and deflating, going off in other directions. Constant change.”

To each person who was generous enough to share their home with us, we thank you. We hope that by sharing what we’ve gathered from our time together, we offer yet another window through which to see Fargo-Moorhead.

Shanai Matteson & Colin KloeckerCo-directors, Works Progress StudioWednesday, September 3rd, 2014

I wanted to go to the [Twin Cities] and be awesome. Fargo just got its hooks in me. It was like, stop being nice! Stop giving me opportunities! Yes, I’ll put work in that show... Thanks!”“I moved from Chicago. I came to Fargo on Friday. That same night I drove back to Chicago and rented a moving truck. I paid my bills and everything and then moved back to Fargo in 3 days. I’ve been here for 9 years now.”

“We live in a metro area that has over 200,000 people in a state that doesn’t even have 700,000 people. We have great access to civic participation.”

“Fargo has the same footprint as Manhattan, but a different density. So those encounters aren’t going to happen throughout unless they’re facilitated. Downtown and Broadway Avenue is really the one place in the community where you can run into people unexpectedly. Otherwise, you know who you know, and you know who you’ll see throughout the day. There isn’t really an opportunity or any impetus for encounters that you haven’t set up in advance.”

“One of the things that makes this community whole is that people here are creative and they want to share their creativity.”

2. Trollwood Performing Arts School, located at Bluestem Center for the Arts, provides high quality arts education, community

1. The Hjemkomst Center is a multi-use facility operated by Moorhead Parks and Recreation. It is home to the Hjemkomst Viking Ship, Hopperstad Stave Church replica, and organizs the annual Pangea cultural celebration.

“The biggest job growth area for women in North Dakota is sex work. So you think about the uneven distribution of this new wealth across gender lines, and then you think about how it’s primarily native women. It’s just really stunning.”

“The dominant story here is about the booming economy. Lots of jobs. People coming rather than leaving.”

“A lot of people are excited about bringing people to Fargo, but we don’t have a clear path forward.”

“A place that begins to know wealth begins to buy into the idea that we have a right to this money and that in fact, we are worth this money. I don’t believe that. At all. We are just drinking our own Kool-Aid that way.”

“A lot of different communities feel like their conversation doesn’t matter to that circle because no one is inviting them. A lot of especially young people from my community are like, ‘Why should I do that? People don’t want to hear my story?’”

“Wholeness can’t be exclusive. Wholeness, by nature, has to be inclusive. I think that can be a bit of a challenge here in the city.”

“It’s hard to put your finger on. There are events where our new American community will come tell their story but those often don’t include many mainstream. And then the mainstream will host events, and the new American community won’t be there. And I don’t know what that magic event is that would really bring people together.”

“There’s a lot of people who are phobic of somebody that’s different. But they’ll have that mentality until they introduce themselves or I introduce myself.”

“I’m surprised by how nervous people are just talking to people who are not from the US or even Fargo. Just generally, what do I say? What do I talk about? Anything! Your family, food, art, anything!”

The story that’s being told right now about Fargo is very much focused on this downtown community as the epicenter. Which is great, but it also leaves people out. I’ve been thinking about how the communities that aren’t given voice tell our story just as much as the people that are loud and brazen.”

Is it really necessary for us to try and pull everybody into everything that we do? Don’t people naturally just gravitate towards what attracts them, and they’re not generally interested in everything that comes up?”

Herd About the Prairie is a 2006 Fargo public art project, inspired by similar projects across the country, comprised of bison statues painted by local artists. This bison statue is in Fargo City Hall.

entertainment, and space for community events. Trollwood’s outdoor spaces provide a unique venue for theater arts and music.

As soon as you say racism or white privilege, people here are out of the door because it sounds so foreign to them, even though those systems are integrated throughout our culture.”“The foundation of America is rooted in inequality based on race. We have two philosophies going on: All of us believe in equality, but we’ve laid a foundation of inequality. And we’ve allowed some individuals to manipulate our government and lay a foundation driven by hate, insecurity, and the thought that if we set up our country in a way that is equal to all of us then that’s not going to benefit those in power. To believe in the truth but live a lie is a big problem.”

“With a lot of the arts funding I’ve been reading about in Minnesota, you can’t influence legislature or use it for anything political. But at their base, our lives are political. But I guess if you have white privilege, you’re not forced to look at it.”

“People here live and breathe the religion of comfort. They say, ‘I just want to be comfortable,’ and really live that. Some of the communities around here are slow to change.”

“There’s a lot of opportunity here and the people are nice, but you’re not going to be one of them.”

“The cultural diversity in Moorhead is not recognized as a plus.”

“This region does not deal well with confrontation.”

We have a racial problem here. It’s in the mentality of people. We do it to ourselves.”“Creative placemaking is the biggest whitewashing event ever. These are social systems that white people are comfortable with that they will continue to do whether or not there’s money for it. I don’t need to put a table in a public square and invite a bunch of young white people to sit at it to say “Oh, I’ve activated it!” There’s no access for people that don’t fit the look. In this country, different classes have different cultures. When they come into that space, people will stare at them, people will track them, people will look at them funny, and that means you’re not welcome here.”

“The mentality here is still blue eyes equals better. If you go back, dad and mom, granddad and grandma, it’s still the same. But maybe in 30 years it will be different. But it will still remain. Our tribes in Africa have mentalities that go back thousands and thousands of years. And it still exists there.”

“This generation, they change very fast. Parents stay the same but the younger ones are very different.”

“Collectively we have to come up with a wisdom that preaches and calls for equality. We have the law, but we have not put it into a wisdom that is understood by the average person. We have to come up with something like that and also confess that our foundation was laid on false pretenses and ideology that was corrosive and poisonous. When that is confessed then the new wisdom can come in and say what we’ve been doing is not working. Then we can say we are whole. But aside from that, we can’t really do it.”

Downtown Fargo looking East. Photo by Ron Reiring.3. The Spirit Room is a community center for creative, contemplative and healing arts in downtown Fargo. It holds multiple galleries and performance/workshop spaces, a free public sauna, and affordable studio space for artists. Photo by Jessica Jasperson.

It’s getting harder and harder for young entrepreneurs to find space in the downtown bubble.”

Living downtown has been eye-opening for me because there are people going through your garbage every day in the alley. Our condo association sent notes out saying, ‘If you see them be sure to tell them to leave.’ And I was like, ‘We brought them sandwiches and talked with them and asked them their names because they’re people. Not vermin we want to scare away.’ That’s one of the downsides to having such a vibrant downtown is the gentrification, it’s extremely expensive to live here.”

“It’s weird to see gentrification happening in a place like this.”

“There is this notion that downtown Fargo arrived because you can buy a 9 dollar martini. Really? It’s good. I want young people to want to be here. But there are so many people here that are homeless, living in poverty, working 3 retail jobs... 9 dollar martinis are the least of what our downtown should do for us. Let’s see outside of our bubble to who these other people are and how can we do stuff with and for them?”

“Artists who worked to open a business down here and now they can’t afford to have a business down here. But they worked to make that happen.”

“There’s this huge need for housing and developers are building these beautiful townhomes and row houses and last week we had one who said it’s going to help with affordable housing because the rent will only be $1400 a month. I about fell out of my chair! That’s affordable? Affordable housing is one of the conversations that’s coming to the city.”

“Hearts and minds are changing. We are getting to a place of social justice. But I don’t think there is a will for that to become policy and I don’t think any of this is going to hold unless we make it policy. Begin to shape the number of units that are affordable in the community.”

4. The Red Raven Espresso Parlor is a worker owned and operated coffee shop/performance venue that fosters emerging artists through art exhibitions, live music and performance, and community gatherings. The building is also home to artist studios (Seagrave Studios). Photo by Jessica Jasperson.

“I am in a bubble. I’m so focused on the bubble of just downtown that I rarely get out of it. So I’m surrounded by folks who have the same world outlook and the same economic status. I’m constantly forgetting that there is a whole other way of thinking. Fargo is pretty progressive, but there are a lot of other elements, religious beliefs or political beliefs, that don’t line up with the bubble I’m in. So I’m missing out on a lot of those views. That’s a challenge that I have to figure how to navigate.”

“Great looking downtown, but it’s all a bunch of businesses and start-up tech companies. There’s bars and cool new restaurants that are expensive... But there’s no place to democratically gather.”

“There are these entities and individuals that are very active. The same ones really engaged with a lot of things. Those organizations may be interactive, but you go 32 blocks south and you’re kind of lost down there. Do those people come downtown? Are they involved in these organizations? That’s part of the double entity of who we are, is like, ‘Who are they? What do they do? How do they live?’”

“Downtown Fargo is good, but it’s not for everyone. Especially for different cultures. When ethnic kids say they want to go downtown, their parents say, ‘No way! You can’t go there!’ They think they’re just going downtown to cause trouble, they don’t understand that it could be more than just bars Downtown Fargo needs a cultural center.”

“If you want to see the city, take a ride on the bus.”

You downtown Fargo people, you operate in a bubble.”

Fargo is so ‘cool’ now, they’re basically suggesting to suppress Moorhead as an identity and just roll it into Fargo. I’m not happy about that! I live in Fargo and Fargo has plenty of PR, but Moorhead is this little gem of a community with some special features and great potential in terms of a downtown.”“People get pushed out. Every city has this. People want to live where the culture is, and as that becomes desirable, these spaces are developed and become out of reach... Moorhead has a lot of potential. For the young artists who want to create and play, maybe Moorhead could be the next jump?”

“We had our first gated community come forward to the planning commission. We’re talking million dollar homes, gate with a security guard. I’m so glad it didn’t pass. That is not what Fargo is about.”

“What makes us whole and why we’re not whole so often is that we don’t share the same space. And frankly, what makes us whole is when we can get past all the rhetoric of division and just breathe together and talk.”

5. The Plains Art Museum connects art, artists, and audiences to foster creative, resilient, and welcoming communities. Photo by Kris Kerzman.

6. The Fargo Project is transforming an 18-acre stormwater detention basin into a neighborhood commons through a participatory community process.

Related to our city, the one thing that we are missing significantly is a place to be in fellowship together. Not more restaurants or parks. It’s about a safe democratic space that inspires us to be together.”“There are ways to design space to help us connect that you don’t even realize.”

“Until this space was called out to me, I just thought it was ugly, a dead space. But to find out we can change it... How do we go about it? And with the community, there was a whole conversation about bringing awareness that they could claim that space. And how do we integrate that into our daily practice?”

“We should have more forums where people come and talk and express their ideas in the open. We can learn a lot of things from other’s experiences and stories.”

“[Consensus decision making] gave me a lot of tools in my own life to make decisions with myself and people close to me. And it allows people to take ownership of a space, put into it as much energy as they want and help steer the ship.”

“What makes you whole that in fellowship with a group of people, there are these moments with such a beautiful give and take. I feel whole when I’m really connected with someone else intellectually. This feeling that you’re both there and present, two human beings sharing the same air. Two human beings sharing the same space. And it doesn’t matter if you disagree or agree, you’re there and present.”

Opening your home is the best thing you can do.”“Neighborliness is an idea that I’ve been chewing on a lot over the past few years. What it means to be neighbors. How that is part of the community, but not necessarily the community in and of itself.”

“When describing the city, I’d want people to have the same feeling as describing their home. Like they couldn’t tell the difference between the city and their home.”

“I’ll show you how to get from here to there, but I won’t show you where my home is.”

“When you sit down for dinner with somebody different from you, you have to be a real person, you can’t be the person on the other side of the counter who is giving food, you have to join somebody in that you’re sitting at the table too.”

“How do we become neighbors? We’re in a society now where you don’t know your neighbors. We’re very closed in. With technology and everything, you don’t have to talk face-to-face.”

“Building community means building neighborhood back in.”

“When I call Fargo home, there will still be people say, ‘No, you’re not from here.’ I’ve lived here 16 years!”

7. In The Chips is a woodcarving workshop and gathering place led by artists Larry Longtine and Ruth Severson, who started the project as a place to gather, teach, learn and create around their love of woodcarving arts. Photo by In The Chips.

Art can transform lives.”“It allows you a way to escape. Not from reality, but from your stress for the day. There were a lot of nights I’d come home at midnight after working and the family would be sleeping and I’d go down and start carving and suddenly it’s be 4 in the morning and I’d still be working on something. There were some nights that I had a stick and all I did was make chips. Never carved a thing.”

“Slow art... allows the project team members to build relationships, learn how we work, find alliances and complementary practices. And as a result we’ve been able to build some deep partnerships that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.”

“When I have my day to day conversations with certain agencies or organizations, if I’m so and so representing the city of Fargo I’m going to get a different viewpoint than if I say, ‘Let me introduce you to this artist, she has some questions for you.’ I can literally watch the guard get dropped.”

“With Moorhead, I’m pressing for a public art project that brings people to the downtown. Even one piece could bring the community together, at least in outrage, if nothing else!”

“Do we need a public art master plan? No! This work will happen the way it’s supposed to happen! When you have a plan, you’re going to be working outside of it anyway.”

“People want to do public art but they don’t know how to get approval to do it. We want to make sure that there’s a clear process and that we have a funding stream so that the city is investing in public art. For the last 5 years they’ve set aside 10,000 dollars for public art, which is a good start, but we’d like to increase that.”

It’s in our DNA to try and do the right thing by somebody who is struggling, whether or not their politics are conservative or liberal. Some of that is about Christian charity, but I think some of that gets bogged down by Christian charity because it means that somebody is always the giver, and somebody is always the receiver, and there is an inherent inequity in that.”“Churches are losing members and fraternal organizations are closing their doors on a daily basis. People don’t necessarily want to belong to those kinds of clubs any longer, they want things that speak to them more directly.”

“There is a large and growing element of this community that is about social justice.”

“Wholeness has something to do with balance and meaning. For every person there is something at their core that brings them balance and meaning.”

A collaboration between City of Fargo planners, residents of Fargo, and artist Jackie Brookner. Photo by The Fargo Project.

1. The Hjemkomst Center 202 1st Ave N, Moorhead, MN(218) 299-5511hcscconline.org

2. Trollwood Performing Arts School801 50th Ave S, Moorhead, MNtrollwood.org

3. The Spirit Room111 Broadway, Fargo, ND(701) 237-0230spiritroom.net

4. Red Raven Espresso Parlor916 Main Ave, Fargo, ND(701) 478-7337redravenespressoparlor.com

5. Plains Art Museum704 1st Ave N, Fargo, ND(701) 232-3821plainsart.org

6. The Fargo Project4315 18th Ave SW, Fargo, NDjackiebrookner.com

7. In The Chips303 21st Street N, Moorhead, MN(218) 233-6000

8. ART LABMoorhead Center Mall510 Center Ave, Moorhead, MNfacebook.com/artsthinkingstrategy

9. Plants for PatientsRed River Women’s Clinic512 First Avenue North, Fargo, NDredriverwomensclinic.complantsforpatients.com

10. Churches United for the Homeless 1901 1st Ave N, Moorhead, MN(218) 236-0372churches-united.org

11. Growing Together For information, contact Jack Wood:(701) 238-4028

WHOLE CITY FARGO-MOORHEAD INDEX

9. Plants for Patients is socially-engaged project started by ceramic artist Meg Roberts. Women who have had abortions are given a plant in a handmade ceramic planter and a handwritten note of support as they leave Red River Women’s Clinic. Photo by Plants for Patients.

8. ART LAB strives to find creative, compassionate interventions for pressing community and social needs. Housed in the Moorhead Center Mall, ART LAB is organized by artist Heather Zinger and offers exhibitions, art classes, workshops and other arts education.

I work with community grant programs that are supposed to help with development and it’s all statutory, you have to work within these confined spaces we have to make things happen. The truth is that change and growth really happens outside of that confined space, when we do things that we didn’t think possible, things that don’t fit in the box.”“We’re very crisis driven and I wish we weren’t. We could be more pro-active. What can the city do to make systemic change?”

“How do we change the practice of community building?”

“You’re taught to picture a place in 100 years and the responsibility of that is a lot more than 15 or 5 years. But on the market a lot of times, the return on investment is what matters. How do you quantify the return on a long term view of investment.”

“Everyone has leadership qualities, but most people don’t get asked to lead.”

I want to ask my neighbors what do they see downtown Fargo looking like in 10 years? What are their big dreams, even what they’d never imagine being possible... But also, what are they doing to help it along?”“If I were to look 1,000 years into the future, I’d want to see everyone engaged in some way. And to have an easy way for people to get in and out of that engagement. It should be fun, and engaging, and exciting.”

“We have no place to go but up. Some of us in the community believe that it is the arts that will at least ignite the spark that will bring downtown Moorhead back into existence. A rich and beautiful diverse community!”

“We can always all learn. I certainly don’t know everything yet. I always tell carvers, ‘I hope you never make the perfect piece, because what will you do next? Then you’re done!’ I haven’t made the perfect piece yet.”

11. Growing Together is a partnership between First United Methodist, Olivet Lutheran, and new American families, bringing Christians, Muslims and Hindus together for friendship and gardening. Photo by Erin Rae.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThis newspaper was created by Works Progress Studio (Minneapolis, MN) in collaboration with the Plains Art Museum (Fargo, ND) and participating individuals. It is the result of a week-long residency that Works Progress Studio undertook at The Plains in conjunction with Living As Form (The Nomadic Version), an exhibition of socially-engaged artwork co-organized by Creative Time (New York, NY).

All photographs are by Works Progress Studio, unless otherwise noted. The paper was designed by Works Progress Studio and printed at Legal Ledger in Minneapolis, MN with support from The Plains.

Thank you to Colleen Sheehey, Karis Thompson, and other staff of the Plains Art Museum for their advice and support! And thank you to everyone who shared their time and thoughts with us, including attendees at the Tuesday Lunch Launch program, Jane Alexander at Churches United for the Homeless, Jack Wood at Growing Together Community Gardens, City of Fargo Commissioner Melissa Sobolik, Kevin Brooks of Giving + Learning, Betsy Birmingham, Larry Longtine and Ruth Severson at In the Chips, Joan Hruby, Newzad Brifki at Kurdish Community of America, Karen Olson and Courtney Quist at Venture Youth Alliance, Dawn Morgan and

Giselle Tipp at The Spirit Room, Nicole Crutchfield and Dan Mahli with the City of Fargo Planning and Development Department and The Fargo Project, Maureen Jonason of The Hjemkomst Center, Michael Strand at the NDSU Department of Art, Meg Roberts and her Plants for Patients project, artist Heather Zinger at ART LAB, Kon Majok with the Community Outreach Program at First Sudanese Lutheran Church, Veronica Michael and her colleagues at Trollwood Center for the Arts, Mohamed Yasser and friends at Afro-Latino 18 Cuisine, Joe Curry at Red Raven, and Hari and Sumitra Lamitare.

10. Churches United for the Homeless advocates for affordable housing in Moorhead and the surrounding area. The organization also provides shelter and support to homeless individuals and families. Photo by WDAY.