On view in the Main Gallery from 15 September – October 2023

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The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum is pleased to present The Cyrus M. Running Legacy.
   • A special Closing Reception will be held from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday 15 October 2023.

The Artwork of Cyrus M. Running
Displayed on the west side of the Main Gallery

The artist Cyrus M. Running was born in Veblen, South Dakota in 1913.  He received his B.A. from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1934. Running did graduate work at Yale University, received his M.A. at the University of Iowa in 1940, and later did graduate work at the University of Minnesota and Instituto Allende in Mexico, where he was granted his M.F.A. Degree. Running’s artwork were exhibited regionally and nationally and he won numerous awards for his drawings, paintings, and prints. He was noted for large murals and mosaic panels that he executed as architectural commissions. This exhibit includes a portion of one such mural (which had originally been executed in the Carl B. Ylvisaker Library at Concordia College as a memorial to Gordon Maternach) which the museum is raising funds to fully restore and exhibit in the autumn of 2024. Mark Larson, who was once a student of Running, is expertly cleaning and restoring the mural section by section at his studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Students of Cyrus M. Running
Displayed on the east side of the Main Gallery

“If I could convey only one idea to a student, I would have [them] realize that in art, as in most things, you never arrive at anything; rather it is a constant exploration.”  —C.M. Running

Running taught at Concordia College in Moorhead from 1940 to 1970.
While he is rightly celebrated and remembered for his creative output as a visual artist, his lasting impact as an art instructor deserves equal attention. We have assembled a selection of works by some of Running’s notable students who went on to enjoy significant success as artists themselves. It is also worth observing how many of his former students represented here would return to Concordia to teach themselves: Betty Strand from 1947 to 1985, Orland J. Rourke from 1967 to 1996, Paul Allen from 1973 to 1984, and Kay Ornberg from 1978 to 1979.

Other former students in the display include:
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 • Marlene M. Diehl
 • Laura Kumpula
 • James O’Rourke
 • Rachel Smaby
 • Charles Beck
 • LeRoy Aasland
 • Philip J. Thompson
 • Frank Sampson
 • James VerDoorn
 • Kathleen Ristinen
 • Mark Larson
 • Abner Jonas
 • Charles Halling
 • Walter Piehl

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