Let the good times roll: Museum highlights historic Bakken oil boom By Melanie Franner A photo by Minneapolis resident Alec Soth. It’s soon to be 10 years since the Bakken oil fields began churning out “black gold”, creating a white-hot economy in the process. So it’s no surprise that a local museum in Fargo, North Dakota, decided to celebrate the milestone with the creation of the largest group exhibition on the topic ever mounted in all of the U.S. Bakken Boom! opened to rave reviews on January 29th of this year. It has attracted a large following, but more important to Plains Art Museum Curator Becky Dunham, it has got people talking about a topic so near and dear to their hearts. The inspiration The Bakken Boom! has been a project of Dunham’s since she
And thus the idea was born. “I had no difficulty in finding local artists and ones from around the nation,” states Dunham. “Everyone I mentioned it to said they wanted to be a part of it. In fact, it got to the point that I was getting emails and telephone calls from artists asking if they could participate.” According to Dunham, one of the goals of the exhibition is to get people thinking about the significance of the oil boom. “This exhibition was designed to bring attention to a topic that has been on the tip of everyone’s tongue here in North Dakota,” she adds. “It also underscores how the state is now a celebrity because of the Bakken oil boom. It’s quite an interesting and exciting phenomenon.”
started with the Plains Art Museum in October 2013. As a native of Texas, however, she was more than comfortable with the
Go big or go home
subject matter.
Bakken Boom! provides a broad range of artistic interpretations of North Dakota’s oil rush. It invites visitors to consider new realities in the western area of the state, along with the profound impact of the energy boom on both lives and land.
“The New York Times magazine ran an article on the Bakken oil business in February 2013, which included both a written piece and a photo spread,” explains Dunham. “The director of the museum contacted the photographer, Alec Soth, and asked if he would be willing to participate in an art exhibition on the subject. Alec agreed but asked that it be a group exhibit.” 64
BAKKEN OIL REPORT – SPRING 2015
The exhibition (which uses two of the three main galleries in the museum) includes 22 individual artists, three artistic collaborations, and selections from the museum’s collection.