Visual artist Pete Driessen is pleased to announce his solo exhibition, Migratory Wing/Prairie Wildflower Bed, featuring the in-process research-based prototype project at the Kaddatz Building, Fergus Falls, MN. An opening reception will take place at the Kaddatz Building Community Room on Friday, March 17, 5-7 p.m.

About the Exhibit:

The Migratory Wing/Prairie Wildflower Bed is an in-process, public art prototype project based in visual, cultural, and historical research at the historic Kirkbride Building, former MN State Hospital, in Fergus Falls, MN. The interdisciplinary project combines the rectilinear forms of vintage hospital beds with traditional garden beds to develop and generate a prospective community native prairie wildflower garden mirroring the flight patterns of the many pollinators and wetland waterfowl species that travel through the western Minnesota prairie lakes regions.

With a simple series of staggered garden plots that reflect the V-shaped avian migration patterns, the historic metal hospital beds used by former government institutions, along with the monumental Kirkbride architecture, the scalable garden beds would house native prairie wildflowers and deep-rooted prairie grasses that once nurtured and cultivated the past state hospital ecosystem. Communities can self-implement and co-strategize their individual or collective bed sites, seed broadcast and plant cultivation, and volunteer garden maintenance.

A goal of the wildflower garden bed public art project is to offer an open-ended idea for a collaborative rural city project where citizens can cooperatively share skill sets to generate healthy ecological stewardship together. The creative objective initiates and reflects upon notions of healing and caretaking humans, nurturing and growing a diversity of native plant life, cultivating civic and cultural pride, and creating a sustainable prairie wetland ecosystem for all species and communities to coexist, thrive, and flourish.

For the exhibition, the artist presents a small installation of two vintage-style metal twin beds, with market-style dried wildflowers in galvanized vases, along with framed historical photo reference and presentation drawings within the alternative communal space. With a participatory market-style community exchange, the artist shares the dried flowers and vases, prairie wildflower and grass seed mixtures, and other installation materials with the public.

Gallery Info & Community Exchange:

A community exchange and gallery hours with the artist will take place in the Community Room of the Kaddatz Building on Saturday, March 25th, and Tuesday, March 28, 3-5 pm. The exchange offers a free market where the artist shares a limited number of dried wildflowers in galvanized vases and watering cans, diverse prairie wildflower and grass seed mixtures in small mason jars, framed historic photos, two twin metal beds, and other installation components with the community. Flowers and materials will be on a first-come-first-serve basis. Please sign up for available items at the opening and during regular gallery hours.

The public exhibition runs from Tuesday, March 14th to Tuesday, March 28th with gallery hours Tuesday through Saturday 12-5 pm, Thursday 12-7 pm, and by appointment. The Kaddatz Building and Kaddatz Gallery are closed Sunday & Monday.

Please email the gallery at info@kaddatzgalleries.org to confirm open hours or to make an appointment. The Kaddatz Building Community Room is located at 111 West Lincoln Avenue, Fergus Falls, MN USA 56537. For further information, please visit the gallery website at www.kaddatzgalleries.org, contact the gallery at info@kaddatzgalleries.org, by phone (218)-998-4405, or the artist via pete@petedriessen.com.

Image: Pete Driessen © 2023. Untitled/Prairie Wildflowers. Colored pencil & graphite on paper. 22 x 30 inches. Courtesy the artist.

Pete Driessen is a fiscal year 2022 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the creative voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature; and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Research and activity for this project was generously assisted and/or sponsored by Minnesota State Arts Board, Fergus Falls Public Library, Friends of the Kirkbride, Kaddatz Building, Kaddatz Gallery, Otter Tail County Historical Society & Museum, Prairie Wetlands Center, Springboard for the Arts, and many kind individuals.