Museum receives property; historic farm house to become artists' residence

Margery McCanna Jennison has given her ancestral home in western Grand Forks County to the North Dakota Museum of Art to establish the state’s first full-fledged, Artist-in-Residence Program.

Named McCanna House, the residency will offer artists, composers, and writers unfettered time to work in a setting that preserves the history and integrity of one of North Dakota’s first architect-designed, country homes surrounded by rich, agricultural land.

In 1981, the railroad arrived in Grand Forks County and a year later the Territory of Dakota opened for settlement. Margery McCanna’s grandfather Simon Alexander McCanna was quick to homestead. He planted a tree claim, purchased an additional quarter of land, and not long after, married Katherine O’Gorman. The couple had five sons. Katherine McCanna, like her not-yet-born granddaughter Margery, was drawn to Europe. Here, prior to World War I, she discovered the elegance of the simple countryside houses outside of Paris. Her husband Simon died in 1906 and their eldest son Charles took over the farm. A decade passed and Charlie urged his mother to build her house. So Katherine McCanna made a visit to Joseph Bell DeRemer, one of North Dakota’s first and finest architects. He agreed to design a “French country home” for the flat prairies of North Dakota.

DeRemer, who lived from 1871-1944, worked for two periods in Grand Forks. During the first, from 1902 to 1912, he designed many Classical and Renaissance Revival style buildings. During the second period, which started in 1919, he designed buildings in the Art Deco and Art Moderne styles including the Grand Forks Masonic Temple, the Art Moderne United Lutheran Church, Whitey’s Wonder Bar, and, in collaboration with other architects, the North Dakota State Capitol.

In 1920 he drew up Katherine’s plans; the light-filled house located on the northern edge of McCanna, North Dakota, was finished two years later. The McCanna house, however, was an aberration—given its French influences—but the architect’s sensitivity to light echoed his public buildings.

Margery McCanna lived in Europe from 1950 to 1970 when her Uncle Charlie died and she inherited the family home. She returned to North Dakota to take up summer residence while wintering in Manzañillo, Mexico. Shortly after her return, she married King Jennison of Atlanta, another native North Dakotan whose family had settled in the Lakota area.

Plans for the residency are beginning to unfold. The current facilities include a house and a nearby Quonset (steel building) that will be converted into either one or two visual artist studios. Initially, and in addition to common dining and social spaces, the main house will be used for studios. A library will be developed within the house in the downstairs room off the screened porch. This library room could initially serve as studio space for a visiting writer or composer. As funds allow, several small studios with upstairs living quarters will be built to blend into the wooded acres surrounding the main house.

Once the residency program is established, the professional Museum staff will institute a selection process to include announcement of the program and solicitation of applicants. artists, composers, and writers. Residencies will be held from May through late September or early October, varying in length from one to three months. For example, the year might open with a one-month residency, followed by a three month residency, and conclude with an additional month-long residency. The number of artists at each session will depend upon available accommodations and studio space. In time, the house will be winterized to accommodate year-around residencies.

Applicants will be asked to submit work samples, references, and an essay describing their work plan while in residence. The Museum will establish a panel, appropriate to the nature of each year’s submissions, to evaluate applications. The program director—a member of the Museum’s staff— will also interview potential candidates in person or via telephone. The awards will be announced nationally. Museum staff will facilitate the resident’s arrival and stay to assure the success of the program.

Residents will be asked to give one public presentation of their work at the Museum or in nearby Larimore during their residency. In addition and when appropriate, the Museum staff will arrange for a studio open house at McCanna House for the general public. While artists are in residence, visitors will be discouraged from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. five or six days a week, as determined by each group of tesidents, to assure them unbroken creative or work time.

The Residency Program will be managed by the North Dakota Museum of Art, which will hire local people from the McCanna or Larimore areas for such duties as housekeeping, building and grounds maintenance, and year-round security oversight.

The Museum trustees and staff decided to include writers, musicians, and visual artists in the artist residencies in order to reflect its mission and to echo the Museum’s broad-based support of the diverse intellectual and aesthetic life of the region.

The Museum must build an endowment to support the program, adding to the initial $100,000 gift from Margery McCanna Jennison to maintain and preserve the property. According to Museum Director Laurel Reuter, “If we are successful, McCanna House will enrich the artistic life of North Dakota and enliven the cultural and economic life of the Larimore/McCanna region. It will also honor Margery McCanna Jennison, a long-time supporter of the North Dakota Museum of Art, and her McCanna and O’Gorman ancestors, early settlers who homesteaded in Grand Forks County and founded the town of McCanna.