The Fine Arts Club of Fargo, ND, a non-profit organization for men and women, has been in existence for 100 years!  It was organized in 1911 and incorporated in 1927.  Since 1930, Fine Arts members have been meeting in their own clubhouse to study, learn about,  and enjoy many  areas of interest along with enjoying the fellowship of other men and women.

Currently, there are eight sections whose members meet once or twice a month, usually September through May, to explore, appreciate, and enjoy specific areas of interest (click to learn more):

Art | Book | Creative Living | Drama | Garden | History | Investment | Sports

Membership is open to interested individuals.  Dues are $50 per year for one section and $5 for each additional sections.  Each section also has a small fee which varies with the section.  For membership  or information about the Fine Arts Club, please call the club house at 235-6264 or use the contact link.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is Fine Arts Club?

A. Organized in 1911, the Fine Arts Club is a membership organization based in philanthropy which creates an environment for learning. Today, nearly three hundred members continue the tradition of the club through study sections that promote increased understanding of community and world issues. In addition to History, Investments, and Sports, our sections include Art, Books, Drama, and Gardening.

Q. How much does it cost to be a member?

A. Annual club dues are fifty dollars ($50) for Active Members and twenty-five dollars ($25) for Associate and Sustaining Members. Sections may levy additional dues as indicated in their bylaws. There are no initiation dues.

Q. Who can be a member of the club?

A. Any individual over the age of 18 may become a member of the club. New members are welcome at any time throughout the year.

Q. What is the history of the clubhouse?

A. The Fine Arts Club owns the historic home at 601 4^th Street South in Fargo, just south of Island Park. Built in 1916 for an insurance agency, the house was later used as the Fargo College Music Conservatory before it was donated to the club by Lizzie Watson. It has been the Fine Arts Club House since 1930. The first two floors accommodate meetings rooms for club activities and programs. The upper level is a private apartment for the full time, Resident Manager who maintains the building and grounds.

Q. How can I join the club?

A. Call the clubhouse at 701.235.6264 or contact any member. Interested people are invited to attend one section meeting or one general meeting before dues are required.

Q. Does someone live in the house?

A. The house is the residence of a full time Resident Manager and their family.

Q. Is the house available to rent for private parties?

A. With the approval of the Board of Directors, the house is available to be rented for private events for members only.

Q. Is this a club for people interested in music?

A. The answer is yes and no. Certainly many members have music as an interest – they may belong to the “Art Section” of the club. This is just one of eight sections of Fine Arts Club. Overall, the club is much more than a music group – members are involved in a book club or “section,” an investment group, drama, gardening, sports, history or creative living sections.

November 2011 Newsletter

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2011      10:00 AM – 4 PM

601 4TH STREET SOUTH, FARGO

Area jewelry and purse designers, unique jewelry and accessories.  Come and shop for that someone special or for yourself.  $5.00 admission includes coffee and dessert.

September 2011 Newsletter

Hopefully when this issue arrives, we can see signs of spring, and the threat of floods will be behind us.

Even though it has been a long and harsh winter, there has been much activity at the Fine Arts House. All of the sections have met on schedule with many interesting programs, and committees have been meeting behind the scenes to keep the wheels rolling. The Search Committee, headed by Betty Kerns, spent many hours going through applications and interviews, and eventually selecting our new Resident Manager, Mona Arnold. She begins her duties on April 1st. Please give Mona a warm welcome when you meet her. And that means we must say farewell to Paivi Young, who has served us so admirably for the past 4 years. Be sure to come to the General Meeting on April 13th, so we may send Paivi off to new endeavors with our thanks for making the house our home, as well as becoming our good friend.

Annette Ingulsrud, House Committee co-chair, has been hard at work making the transition between managers go smoothly, and preparing the apartment with carpet cleaning and bathroom upgrades.

Rhonda Hoge and Rose Gallagher have spent countless hours researching and preparing for our 100-year celebration which will be kicked off with a luncheon in September. Please thank them for their hard work.

Here is an update—there WILL be a Bargain and Book Sale this spring. So bring your contributions to the house and sign up to work before and during the sale on May 6-7. The Board made this decision, knowing that dollars are always needed to keep the house in good condition, and the back room is filling up. We all know how much work it is, but if we all pitch in it will go smoothly as always.

This is the time of year where new officers are chosen for the Fine Arts Board, as well as within each section. Thanks to all who have stepped up to take on these responsibilities and a hearty thank you to all who have served this year. You continue to amaze me with your willingness to step up when asked.

ALL FOR ONE, one for all

Sections of Fine Arts operate independently but together, they jointly promote the goals of the club.They unite in sharing the work and celebrating its success. To describe Fine Arts Club, it is a bit like the proverb of the blind men describing an elephant. One man touches the tail and describes an elephant as long, sleek, and floppy. One who touches the ear, tells of a flat beast.

Similarly, describing Fine Arts only through the lens of one section is simply not a story of the whole club. With eight sections, the range of our member’s interest is immense. Capturing the essence of the club may become just a little easier as we begin to celebrate its 100th birthday this fall. Some members belong to more than one section. Others do drop in to participate in other section events. But if you’ve ever wanted to visit another section and see what they are doing, this birthday year will give you extra incentive. Each month in the new year, a section will be featured. They will have an opportunity to highlight their mission and offer special programs or design their regular programming around this historic year.

• Featured month assignments are:
  October 2011 – Drama
  November 2011 – Art
  January 2012 – Book
  February 2012 – History
  March 2012 – Sports
  May 2012 – Creative Living
  June 2012 – Investment
  July 2012 – Garden

Fine Arts Club is a union of individual, distinct sections. Together, they have built an organization that has been in existence for one hundred years. United, they have shaped a club that reflects the vibrancy of its members. Fine Arts Club may be defined in many different ways, but its members are joined in a tradition of service to our community.

• Mark Your Calendar
  April 13 ……………………….. Annual Meeting
  April 26 …………………………. Board Meeting
  May 6-7 ………………… Bargain & Book Sale
  July 13 ………………………….. Summer Coffee
  Sept 25 ……………………………… Fall luncheon

S e c t i o n N e w s

ART – Pat Gjevre
Emily Swedberg, a Concordia art student from Moorhead, is this year’s recipient of the $400 scholarship. Her work includes watercolor and oil painting but she also enjoys illustration with graphite and digital illustration. She hopes to live in New York and become a freelance artist and illustrator. Art began at home with her admiration of her grandfather’s paintings.

For the spring luncheon on May 3rd members are asked to bring articles of vintage clothing or other vintage pieces and to tell a bit of their history.

BOOK
When can you look ahead by turning back the hands of the clock? This is the objective of the selection committee who is planning next year’s reading list. Picking book titles from days long ago is their mission. They are searching to find one book title from each of the previous ten decades. These titles will become the reading list for 2011-12. It also promises to be an interesting way to celebrate Fine Arts Centennial. Special thanks to the selection committee Rhonda Hoge, Winnie Stadter, and Pat Gjevre. Welcome to new members Bettie Withnell and Luanna Kennelly.

CREATIVE LIVING – Nadine Anderson
Memorable performances on the Clubhouse stage continue! Two fine examples shared their musical talents this year. ―Forte,‖ a local acappella group, entertained us in December and Barbara Schramm, operatic mezzosoprano and voice teacher, delighted us with film and stage music of Germany.

Movies, TV, radio, and local charities rounded out our winter programming. From a preview of the Academy Award to a behind the scenes look at the Emmy Award winning Prairie Public TV to broadcaster Larry Gauper’s history of the Golden Age of Radio we had highlights from both historical and contemporary culture media. Moving to management issues, we learned tips about being ―green‖ in a Reduce Reuse Recycle program of Clay County and the extent of the library for addictions of every kind and the ministry of recovery at Lost & Found, a local nonprofit organization.

DRAMA – Barb Olson
Working to build our knowledge of drama, we’ve had member-presented programs on actors, playwrights, and dramas ranging from the serious to the hilarious. We laughed through  readings from “The Odd Couple – Female.‖ We studied the  author of ―Phantom of the Opera‖ who was so fascinated with the Opera House in Paris that he built his whole story around it. The very real opera house was 17 stories tall, with only 7 above ground; the rest was a subterranean lake, storage, a place to house horses and dressing rooms. The auditorium and stage was small compared to opera houses today like the La Scala in Milan. Sandy Pearce from MSUM entertained us with a program on the story of George Kelly, uncle of actress Grace Kelly. Our December cookie exchange was special this year with the addition of two readings, “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” and “A Cup of Christmas Tea.

GARDEN – Sandy Knoll
Spring arrives regardless of snow, sleet, or flooding. And with all the snow banks this year, the only place one can see the ground is along the riverbank. Here, homeowners have used a snow blower to remove the snow to prepare for sandbags. If this slow start to spring has you yearning for something green, join us for the first meeting of the year on Monday, March 28th to see a demo on seed starting by Maurice Degrugillier. Joan Mulkern will be the hostess.

HISTORY – Gloria Holloway
This year’s scholarship goes to Hannah Haegeland, a senior at Concordia who was born in the US, was raised in Nepal and India, and went to high school in Colorado Springs. She has also been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and plans to teach English in Nepal after graduation. Hannah joins us on April 13th when she will present her senior thesis on the impact of internet and globalization on the way people engage in political protest.

INVESTMENT – Donna Nelson
Always asking questions is the way we approach every investment decision. A visitor may wonder if we ever make any decision because we ask and ask and ask again to learn about companies. Here are some helpful questions you may want to consider. How will this investment make money, will it be in dividends? What about capital gains? Do you know what must happen for this investment to increase in value? How long has the company been in business? Is its management experienced? Is the company making money? How are they doing compared to their competitors?

SPORTS – Rose Gallagher and Ann Koski
The finals of college basketball and hockey were in the news in March, but so is the state championship bowling team of Fine Arts, ten members who will compete in the state finals this month at West Acres Bowl!

News of the mah-jongg lessons seem to be spreading as each week there are new members. Players who just started a few weeks ago look like pros as they pick and sort the tiles. Learning this new/old game looks easy, it’s the waiting for that one missing tile that will drive you crazy!

Scrabble traveling trophies seem to camp out at the home of Jennie Rousu; she holds both the high average and the high game trophies.

Bowling team from 1931

HOUSE NEWS by Annette Ingulsrud
Flood preparations have been made at the house. Specifically, plumbers have closed the downstairs bathroom and basement water sources so please make plans accordingly. The main floor facilities are still functioning. In the event of a flood emergency, each section will determine whether to postpone or cancel their events at the house. Please be alert to changing flood conditions and check with your section chair for schedule changes.

Maintaining the safety and condition of the house requires a watchful eye and steady maintenance. For that reason, a complete house inspection was recently conducted by a professional company. A few minor issues and safety concerns arose and have been addressed, such as adding smoke detectors and outlets. Primary weaknesses are the many windows of the 2nd and 3rd floors which are original to the building. No action has been taken how to repair or replace them, continued discussion and solutions are needed.

IN THE NEWS

• Pat Chinquist performed with Tin Roof Theatre Co as Mrs.
  Potts in ―Picnic.‖
• Kathy Dietz and Rose Gallagher are co-chairs of a
  luncheon/style show at Holy Spirit Church on April 16th
• Rhonda Hoge sang on Broadway. Or, we should say, she
  sang about Broadway.
• Rumor has it that a member of FAC will be at a wedding
  in England. This summer! Will it be THE wedding?
• Kudos to Carol Wambheim for her recovery.

C E N T E N N I A L N EWS

Presenting the first in our series

A Newcomer’s Look written by Lou Richardson

From the beginning in 1911 when Elmadine (known to all but her best friends as Mrs. Frank) Thompson determined that Fargo needed a Fine Arts Club, she planned that the group would have a number of sections. She had assumed presidency of the Fargo Amateur Musical Club that year with the intent of merging it into a multi-sectioned Fine Arts Club, and within a few months the club attracted a group of 96 active and 25 sustaining members.

Some of the early sections are still active; some have disbanded, many new sections have been added, and a few
that were original to Fine Arts remain but under different names. If I’ve counted correctly, Fine Arts has been the umbrella organization for 15 sections over the last 100 years with eight active today. Naturally the Music Section was among the first along with Art, Drama, Writers (later Quill), and Social Economics sections. Home Economics Section was formed a couple of years later, followed by Literary (later called Literature), Sports, and History in the next two decades.

These groups remained rather stable for the next 50 years after which some realignment occurred. The Writers Section was disbanded in 1965. A Travel Section (with men welcomed as members) was formed in 1978 but discontinued after 2003. The long-running Music Section disbanded in 1980 when membership dropped to the point that an officers’ slate could no longer be put together.

The Social Economics group ended in 1985 and a Night on the Town Section was begun in 1991. This group also welcomed men, mainly members’ husbands, but it was especially attractive to single women who enjoyed attending plays and concerts with a group. A light supper before or dessert after the performances extended their social evenings. The group disbanded in 2006.

The Home Economics Section changed its name to Creative Living in 1992 and remains the largest section in the Fine Arts Club. Garden Section was added in 1995 as was the short-lived Culinary Section. Literature Section, which had concentrated on study of the classics, disbanded in 1998 but was reformed as the Book Section in 2001. That section, which now includes study of popular novels and non-fiction, has become so popular that it has subdivided into two groups. The club’s newest continuing section, Investment, was formed in 2000.

Sports Section had included games, particularly Scrabble and bridge, which were incorporated as separate sections in 2001. The Bridge Section disbanded rather quickly but remained as an activity in the form of duplicate and couples bridge. Scrabble remained closely associated with the Sports Section and after about five years as a separate section, it re-merged with Sports. Sports renamed itself Sports and Games in 2010 to reflect its continuing interest in Scrabble and, more recently, Mah-jongg.

Almost from the beginning membership included active members and sustaining members (those who attended only the monthly general meetings). Often nearly a third of the total membership was listed as sustaining, perhaps including working women and young mothers who found it difficult to attend section meetings.

With some six to nine sections regularly holding meetings on an average twice a month for eight or nine months of the year and with general meetings that started as monthly affairs and are now held twice a year, we can make a conservative estimate that Fine Arts members have attended some 13,000 meetings in the last 100 years.

The meetings have included recitals, plays, readings of members’ original poems, essays and fiction, concerts, tours, gardening projects, sports events and tournaments, games, reports and lectures, and guest speakers and performers by the gross. And can we imagine the thousands of cakes, pies, cookies, bars, sandwiches and cups of coffee and tea that accompanied these meetings.

RESIDENT MANAGER WELCOME

Mona Arnold has started her new position as the resident manager, she’s moved into the 3rd floor apartment and is staring to get acquainted with members of FAC.

A native of this area, Mona grew up on Cormorant Lake, went to Audubon High School, and then onto Moorhead Tech & MSUM. Working in the hospitality industry for many years, she was recently the manager of the Fargo American Legion and continues to work part time for the West Fargo Fire Department charitable gaming. She is the mother of two daughters, Kristin Ehlert and Kimberly Essig, both of whom live in Fargo with their families. After having a girls-only household, she now has four grandsons ranging in age from 18 to 7! Her loving Scooter, part Dauschund and Australian Shepard, wasn’t able to make the move with her but she hopes he’ll be happy with her sister in Detroit Lakes.

THANK YOU PAIVI

Paivi Young has served as Resident Manager of the Club since the summer of 2007. We send sincere good bye &
good luck messages to Paivi and her husband Steve who have moved to a new condo in Moorhead. Thank you for
your support of Fine Arts. For your service and friendship, we are deeply grateful.

Reasons to celebrate spring

Fine Arts Club Annual Meeting

You are invited to the

Annual Meeting

Wednesday, April 13

1:00 pm at the Clubhouse

PLEASE NOTE: in the event of a flood emergency, this meeting will be postponed to Wednesday, April 27th at 1pm hosted by members of Drama and Sports & Games Sections

BARGAIN and BOOK SALE

Friday, May 6, 7:00am to 6:00pm
Saturday May 7, 8:00am to 2:00pm
Please donate your books and gently used items and everything but the kitchen sink (no clothing items either!)

Deliver your items to the lower level anytime.

Officer Candidates for 2011 – 2012

Nominating Committee Chair Betty Kerns announces the slate of officers:

• President: Wini Christensen
  1st VP: Rose Gallagher
  2nd VP: Donna Hageman, Wanda Christensen
  3rd VP: Annette Ingulsrud, Luanna Kennelly
  4th VP: Ruth Morton, Natasha Neihart
  Recording Secretary: Donna Nelson
  Treasurer: Joni Bertel
  Membership: Gail Monson
  Historian: Gloria Holloway

Newsletters are also available in Adobe’s PDF format. Download the April 2011 Newsletter (PDF).

September 2010 Newsletter

March 2010 Newsletter

November 2009 Newsletter

September 2009 Newsletter