Pete Driessen © 2021. Prairie Burn at Prairie Wetland Learning Center, April 2021, Fergus Falls, MN. Courtesy the Artist.
Special thank you to writer/actress Sheila Regan for her thoughtful write-up of my prototype show, Migratory Wing/Prairie Wildflower Bed, now open in the Kaddatz Building, Fergus Falls, MN. Link below:
Pete Driessen © 2023. Untitled/Prairie Wildflowers. Colored pencil & graphite on paper. 22 x 30 inches. Courtesy the artist.
Migratory Wing/Prairie Wildflower Bed opens at Kaddatz Building, on March 17, 2023.
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Kirkbride Building, MN State Hospital, Fergus Falls, MN. Source: Otter Tail County Historical Society & Museum.
This past January, I received an MSAB Creative Support for Individuals grant to investigate and create a potential community Migratory Wing/Prairie Wildflower Bed via my past research at the historic Kirkbride Building, former MN State Hospital, in Fergus Falls, MN. This unique public art project, in conjunction with my past Hinge Residency with SpringBoard for the Arts in April 2021, will allow me to engage and collaborate with rural Minnesota communities by creating a prospective accessible, site-specific Minnesota-native prairie wildflower garden bed project reflecting the former healthcare ecosystem at the Kirkbride Building.
Specifically, I will be combining the forms of hospital beds with garden beds to develop and produce a prototype community garden bed mimicking the flight patterns of the many waterfowl and wetland species that travel through the western Minnesota prairie lakes regions. With a series of garden plots that reflect the monumental Kirkbride architecture, and based on the historic metal hospital beds used by former government institutions, the garden beds will house native prairie wildflowers and traditional grasses that once nurtured the past hospital residents.
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.