Dacotah Gallery

The Dacotah Gallery on the Museum's second floor is a small gallery in which we showcase our smaller-scale treasures.

Now showing:

“Jim River (Sad but Sympathetic)”
The Photographic Work of Roddy MacInnes
through April 25, 2008

The Dacotah Prairie Museum announces a new exhibit by Colorado photographer, Roddy MacInnes. The exhibition of work opened on March 7th and will remain open to public viewing until April 25. On Thursday, April  24th, there will be a closing reception for the artist from 5:00 to 7:00pm on 2nd floor of the Museum. The public is welcome to visit with the artist about his latest project involving the James River, it’s area and inhabitants.

Roddy MacInnes was born in Argyll, Scotland in 1953. After leaving high school, he spent three years traveling the world with the merchant marines. In 1972, he immigrated to Canada where he worked as a fur trader and as a minerals prospector. In 1981, he moved to Colorado still involved in the minerals prospecting industry.

MacInnes then returned to Scotland to gain his degree in photography from Napier University, Edinburgh. In 1991, he relocated in the US to attend graduate school in Boulder, Colorado, and earned his MFA in photography and digital media. Roddy now lives in Boulder and works as a photography instructor at the University of Denver. His latest photography project was inspired by two albums of photographs that he found in an antiques mall in Denver. All the pictures in the albums were taken by a North Dakota woman in 1917. Through his continued research and photographic response to this project, Roddy is exploring issues surrounding the relationships between people and the landscape, sense of place, identity and time.

The exhibit, “Jim River (Sad but Sympathetic)”, is composed of three main visual elements. The first is the actual photographs taken by Nina Weiste, the North Dakota woman who was recording her experiences in 1917 when she enrolled in Normal School at Ellendale, ND. These pictures include snapshots of her friends, outings, the school, musicals, and the area they lived in including days spent along the James River. The photographs have been retouched and enlarged by Roddy for inclusion in the show.

Secondly, the photographs that Roddy MacInnes has taken of the same area, the same river, plants, and landscapes. He has recorded his response to the same environment 90 years after Nina did, capturing some of the same geographical elements at a radically different time.

Third, the exhibit pictures the people who live in the area now, many of them accompanying their old portraits and those of their ancestors. Clearly, the bonds of people and the landscape on which they build their lives is still as strong and connected as they were in Nina’s day. The portraits tell the story of North and South Dakota from a contemporary, yet nostalgic perspective. Members of the same families, friends and couples photographed of framed together celebrate the passage of time and the ties that bind. In the exhibit, MacInnes presents a universal emotional response to the connections of people, places and time that relate to us all.

For information on past exhibits in the Dacotah Gallery, please click here.