Local artist Ross H. Hier will have a gallery of his work on display September 23-28 at the University of Minnesota Crookston with a reception planned for Monday, September 23 from 5-6:30 p.m. in Bede Ballroom. The University’s Agriculture and Natural Resources department will also have items from their wildlife museum on display at the gallery including taxidermy specimens and native grasses.
Hier worked as an assistant area wildlife manager for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for 35 years and was an adjunct instructor at U of M Crookston for 15 years before retiring. He is a self-taught artist whose love of nature shines through in his watercolor and acrylic paintings, drawings, and duck decoys. A recent project with a fellow artist led to the creation of a 10-foot mural on the side of a building across from Cabela’s in East Grand Forks, Minn. featuring Red River native fish species.
Hier is also known as a respected bird identifier and documented hummingbirds while on a trip to South America. His goal is to paint every hummingbird and he’s currently two-thirds of the way.
Hier’s art has been showcased at a number of exhibits in several states and he has won regional and national awards including the Northwest Artist of the Year by the Northwest Minnesota Arts Council in 2022 and the Jay N. “Ding” Darling Memorial National Award by The National Wildlife Society for Wildlife Stewardship through Art in 2020. He was also a featured artist on Prairie Public TV in 2023.
Hier grew up in Jackson, Minn. and received his bachelor of science degree from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and master of science degree from New Mexico State University, both in wildlife management. The early part of his career was spent banding waterfowl and assisting with research, and the last part was overseeing management on nearly 30,000 acres of prairie and transition zone habitats. He resides in Crookston with his wife, Leela, and their dogs, Bibi, a black labrador retriever, and Zarah, a brussels griffon.
