Luann Dart

“It continues to get bigger and better. We have great grandstand entertainment, great free stage entertainment and our Ag Education Center is going to be bigger and better this year,” Schulz says.

Buildings are being updated so visitors will see some new upgrades this year, too.

“Help is available. They’re not alone in this,” said Dawn Sauvageau, an adult outreach hearing specialist with the Center. The N.D. School for the Deaf (NDSD)/Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing’s Adult Outreach works with anyone 18 years of age and older who is either deaf or has a hearing loss.

In 2009, the N.D. Legislature mandated that the School for the Deaf expand its services to all ages. Established in 1890, the school had previously served children from birth through high school graduation or age 21, explained Pam Smith, the program coordinator.

Growing up in Bismarck, Gagner dabbled in art as a child, dreaming of being a professional artist someday.

“I’ve always loved painting and drawing, ever since I was a little kid. When I was really small, as soon as I learned what an author/illustrator was, that you could write books and draw pictures for it, I was in. That was what my job was going to be,” she says.

“I moved to North Dakota in 2002 and at that time, I would say there was a sparsity of regional works, particularly for the Northern Plains and for North Dakota. There definitely were some, but there’s a lot of history here and we don’t really have an outlet for a lot of it,” says Dr. Suzzanne Kelley, editor in chief at the NDSU Press.