ACRES FOR ART

Virginia Lee Dunnigan was raised on a ranch north of Bismarck. She spent most of her adult life growing and marketing seed potatoes with her husband Robert in Walhalla, ND. These experiences gave her a life-long love of agriculture and respect for the farming community. Virginia was equally passionate about the arts. Whether serving on the Museum Board of Trustees, the North Dakota Council for the Arts, the Walhalla Brush Bunch, or a founding member of The Capital Gallery in Bismarck, art was central to her life. Virginia didn’t just support art; she was also a talented painter and an exquisite quilter. In 2010, as a Museum Trustee member, Virginia suggested a fundraiser that married her two passions – Acres for Art, where farmers and the grander agricultural industry could donate the proceeds from a set number of acres (or equivalent proceeds in sales, etc.) to the Museum in support of the Museum’s state-wide outreach, education, and collection.

Virginia passed away last year and left a $60,000 life insurance policy to the Museum. In her honor, the Museum has established the Virginia Dunnigan Acres for Arts Fund, which will provide educational opportunities for children and adults, and be used to acquire significant works of art for the Museum’s collection. The end goal is to match Virginia’s gift by harvest end of 2023.

The Dunnigan family is delighted to see Virginia Dunnigan Acres for Art come
to fruition.