School of Art Faculty & Staff

Anna Sigrídur Arnar is a Professor of Art History in the School of Visual Arts as well as a Graduate Faculty Member and Affiliated Faculty in Women’s and Gender Studies Program at MSUM. She teaches upper level courses in 19th- and 20th-Century Art, Women and Art, Contemporary Art, Design, and Theory (a senior capstone seminar), as well as special topics courses “The Book: History, Culture, and Art”, and “Modernism/Postmodernism: Narratives of the 20th Century.” In 2011 she published The Book as Instrument. Stéphane Mallarmé, The Artist’s Book, and the Transformation of Print Culture with the University of Chicago Press and was awarded the Robert Motherwell Book Award for outstanding publication in the history and criticism of modernism from the Dedalus Foundation in New York. Her current project is called “Social Spaces of the Book” analyzing artists’ books and sculptural bookworks at perennial exhibitions of contemporary art.

Professor Bachmeier is a native of Anamoose, N.D., who completed his MFA degree in ceramics from the University of North Dakota in 2007. In 2009, he was recognized with the prestigious N.D. Governor’s Award in Arts Education for his “numerous, significant and continued contributions to the state and region.” In 2013, he was granted the “Excellence in Research and Creative Activity” award at MSUM. Bachmeier’s work has garnered over 40 Best of Show awards and grants including the national NICHE award. Works are held in numerous national collections including the N.D. Governor’s Mansion, Microsoft, S.D. Museum of Art, Plains Art Museum, Dacotah Prairie Museum, Rourke Art Museum and Michelle Obama’s office in the White House. He is one of a few dozen brick sculptors in the country, having large-scale installations in Sanford Hospital Sioux Falls, Concordia College Moorhead, and U.S. Army base, Camp Grafton, Devils Lake, N.D.

Ken graduated from MSUM with an Industrial Technology Degree. He supervises the wood and metal shops and demonstrates proper usage of power and hand tools. He assists the students in making frames, building sculptures, welding, and just about anything else they need for their Art & Design classes. Ken has been the College Lab Services Specialist since 1978. Ken's hobbies include woodworking, photography, and traveling.

China born Zhimin Guan, professor of art/painting, earned his MFA in painting/drawing from Fort Hays State University in 1998, the same year he joined MSUM. Guan has exhibited his art throughout the U.S. and China, including China National Art Gallery, China Academy of Art Museum, Singapore Asian Artist Gallery, New York Asian Cultural Center, North Dakota Museum of Art, Rourke Art Museum, and Plains Art Museum. Guan has presented 20 solo shows, 200 professional shows and received 25 art awards. He was the 2010 McKnight Fellowship recipient from Lake Region Art Council. His works were featured in numerous art magazines and public/private collections, including Microsoft, the Kilbourne Group, Singapore Asian Art Gallery, Rourke Art Museum, Plains Art Museum, and North Dakota Museum of Art. Guan strives to equally balance traditional and experimental, figurative and abstract in his art.

Shirlee has worked in the School of Art since 2005, and has been employed at MSUM since 1985.

Jescia Hopper received her Master of Arts in Art Education from Maryland Institute College of Fine Art in 2015. Her research at MICA earned her the inaugural "Outstanding Masters Thesis Award" from the United States Society for Education through Art, which recognizes exceptional thesis work that promotes "pluralistic perspectives, deepens human and cultural understanding, and builds respect for diverse learners." Hopper has been published in Art Education Journal, and exhibits her work in numerous solo and group exhibits throughout the region. She teaches introductory drawing and illustration courses at MSUM.

Carlos Rene Pacheco is an artist and photographer from Tucson, Ariz. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in Photography from the University of Arizona and his MFA in Photography + Integrated Media from Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio. A former Astronomy student, Pacheco's work is a reconciliation of his questioning of the photographic medium and his passion for scientific exploration. Pacheco lives outside of the Fargo-Moorhead area and teaches photography at MSUM.

Professor Park teaches Foundation Drawing I and II, Foundation Design, Introduction to Illustration, and upper level Drawing / Illustration courses. He is an award-winning artist who has worked as an Interior Designer, Architectural Illustrator, Freelance Illustrator, and has illustrated four Interior Design textbooks. Professor Park earned his BFA from Brigham Young University, Provo UT, and his MFA from Northern Illinois (DeKalb) University.

Sherry Lee Short received her Master of Fine Arts with Distinction in Painting from the University of Georgia in 1988. Her teaching philosophy has an interdisciplinary focus and encourages students to develop a vision for the role of their artworks in a social context. Professor Short teaches all levels of drawing as well as Art of Social and Environmental Justice (art history) and the senior seminar, Professional Practices. Her work has been exhibited regionally and nationally, recently taking First Award in the Midwestern Invitational at the Rourke Gallery and Museum. She has been the recipient of numerous grants and residencies, including awards from the Archibald Bush Foundation, North Dakota Council on the Arts, and Michigan's Porcupine Wilderness Artist-in-Residence Program.

Kelli Sinner has been a professor of art at MSUM since 2005. She received her MFA in ceramics from Penn State University and her BFA in ceramics from Utah State University. Sinner has completed artist residencies at the Zentrum fur Keramik in Berlin, Germany, and at Penland School of Craft in Penland, N.C. She teaches ceramics, papermaking, and foundation design. She was awarded MSUM's 2015 Excellence in Teaching Award.

Walla spent much of his young life on the West Coast. Born in Los Angeles and later moving with his family to the Northwest. The compulsion to make objects and images was present from a very young age. Walla graduated from Western Washington University with his B.F.A in sculpture in 1997. After graduation he maintained a studio and lived in Bellingham, Wash. In 2000 he attended the University of Wisconsin Madison to earn his MFA with an emphasis in sculpture. In 2003 he accepted a teaching position at MSUM where he is a professor of sculpture. In 2006 he was selected as a McKnight Fellow and is currently a nominee for the 2015 Joan Mitchel Fellowship. Walla has had numerous exhibitions both regional and national, most recently a two-person exhibition at the Rourke Art Museum titled Together. Past exhibitions include Wait & See at the Plains Art Museum, Don’t Piss On Me and Tell Me Its Raining at Apex Art, New York, N.Y. a solo installation at Fraction Workspace in Chicago, Ill., and, InWords at the University Gallery in Newark, Del.