Local Museum Transforms Into Holiday Market

MOORHEAD, Minn.

The Rourke Art Museum transformed its setup from general art into a holiday market exhibit.

With Christmas just days away, local artists have the opportunity to make the season of gift giving a little bit easier.

The holiday market included greeting cards, wood engravings and even Santa and elf portraits.

“Just seeing what the artists have brought in.  We put out the call in November and you never know quite what you’re going to receive but we really got some great stuff in,” said museum curator, Johnathon Rutter.

During the holiday season, Jonathan says people have been flooding in and out of the museum to buy gifts before Christmas.  “It’s been pleasantly hectic.  I think just in the first weekend of it we had to have staff and volunteers resist the urge to buy out all of the stuff ourselves,” said Rutter.

However, one volunteer says she just couldn’t resist and bought some purchases of her own.

“I did purchase some art from the market.  I also am kind of late with a wedding present so I got them a piece of art,” said volunteer Coralie Wai.

Luckily, employees of the museum are in the spirit of giving and made all of the pieces of artwork cost friendly.

“We want the work to be within everyone’s reach and everyone’s budget so everything within the holiday market is $200 or less,” said Rutter.

Staff even says the setup of holiday art has lightened the mood and made the environment more joyful than it already was.

“We just laugh a lot. We have a lot of fun, even though it’s hard work we still have fun. I would say if my volunteer job wasn’t fun, I’m not going to be back,” said Wai.

The market will remain open until Christmas eve to allow shoppers to get that last minute gift in before the holiday.