Michael Strand, associate professor and department head of visual arts, recently gave a TEDx talk titled, “The Spaces Between: Art, Craft and Humanity.” Strand’s TEDx talk is now available online.

TED, a nonprofit devoted to “ideas worth spreading,” started as a conference to bring people together from technology, entertainment and design worlds. TEDx is a program that allows communities, organizations and individual people the opportunity to stimulate dialogue at the local level. 

Formatively a potter interested in the potential of functional art in today’s society, Strand’s work has moved seamlessly into community and social engagement. Recent projects have been documented and written about internationally, with a forthcoming feature article in Ceramics Art and Perception this spring. 

Other Fargo TEDx presenters were Doug Burgum, former chairman and CEO of Great Plains Software, which was sold to Microsoft for $1.1 billion in 2001; Carl Peterson, CEO and founder of Peterson Farms Seed; and Susan Mathison, founder of Catalyst Medical Center.