The City of Fargo and the Plains Art Museum will host a community celebration to welcome the Sodbuster sculpture back to Downtown Fargo on Friday, October 18 from 5 to 8 p.m. Admission is free, made possible through donations collected for the event by the Plains Art Museum.
A social with refreshments and youth activities will begin at 5 p.m. in the Fargo Public Library atrium. At 5:30 p.m., a press event featuring Mayor Tim Mahoney, Plains Art Museum Director & CEO Andy Maus, Bishop Land Design Principal Scott Bishop and Susan Jimenez (wife of the late Luis A. Jimenez) will be held outside within the recently-completed Phase I of Fargo’s Civic Plaza to the north of the Fargo Public Library. The press event will be broadcast live on TV Fargo 56 and across the City’s social media channels. A livestream of the Plaza’s progress is available at FargoND.gov/CivicPlaza.
Beginning at 6 p.m., a community celebration will be held in the south parking lot of Fargo City Hall (the site of the planned Phase II of Fargo’s Civic Plaza). Live music provided by Post Traumatic Funk Syndrome and food trucks from Fargo Fillies and Suna’s Egyptian Eatery will be on site. The public event will conclude at 8 p.m.
Sodbuster pays homage to the region’s history, our farmers and prairie workers of the Great Plains. In 1978, the Fargo Parking Authority applied for and received a National Endowment for the Arts matching grant of $20,000 to help finance a major sculptural piece to be located in downtown Fargo. Luis A. Jimenez (1940-2006) was the artist chosen by a joint committee of NEA representatives and the Fargo Parking Authority. After extensive research of the region and several preliminary proposals, Jimenez produced Sodbuster. For over 20 years, it was located outside on Main Avenue and Broadway. In 1991, the City of Fargo donated the sculpture to Plains Art Museum to oversee the ongoing care of the sculpture. Sodbuster was restored through the financial support of the Institute of Museum and Library Service.