Free music bash, silent art auction set to support Fargo indoor skateboard park

Free music bash, silent art auction set to support Fargo indoor skateboard park – InForum

June 25, 20243 Mins Read

FARGO — The Blank Skate Project, a fundraising effort to support the Hawk’s Nest,

an indoor skateboarding facility in Fargo,

will be held Friday evening, June 28, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Fargo Brewing, 610 N. University Drive in Fargo.

The free event will include at least four bands playing live music, a number of pop-up tattoo booths and a silent auction that aims to sell about 70 works of art.

Tom Kemmer, president of the North Dakota Skateboarding Association, said about 60 area artists, many of them tattoo artists, will contribute works of art for the silent auction, using blank skateboards as the starting point for their artwork.

tom kemmer.jpeg — Tom Kemmer is the president of the North Dakota Skateboarding Association

Kemmer is also a founder of the

Hawk’s Nest, a small north Fargo warehouse

located at 302 39th St. N., Unit B, in Fargo, that is being used as a mostly private skateboarding facility.

Kemmer said the North Dakota Skateboarding Association is a sponsored nonprofit that is working to establish its own nonprofit status.

That, he said, will allow the association to oversee and maintain the Hawk’s Nest as well as help pay for an expansion project that would allow the Hawk’s Nest to become more of a public facility open to wider use.

A silent auction of skateboard art is set for June 28 to raise funds for a planned expansion of the Hawk’s Nest, Fargo’s only indoor skateboard park. This image is an example of art sold at a previous fundraiser.

This is the fourth year a Blank Skate Project event has been held and Kemmer said money from the fundraiser will go toward further establishing the NDSA and its goal of expanding the Hawk’s Nest.

He said about $30,000 is still needed to reach a goal of $100,000 the NDSA believes it needs before starting the expansion project.

The Hawk’s Nest opened in 2011 as a place where members could pay a fee, get a key and skate at will. The space evolved and backers began holding music events inside.

That attracted the attention of city officials and the space closed in 2016.

When the Hawk’s Nest reopened in 2020, it did so with a new mission: to become a more inclusive public resource, according to Kemmer.

Dave Olson is a reporter, photographer and occasional videographer. He graduated from Minnesota State University Moorhead with a degree in mass communications, and during his time at The Forum he has covered many beats, from cops and courts to business and education. Currently is writing business stories, but jumps on daily news as needed. He’s also written about UFOs, ghosts, dinosaur bones and the dwarf planet Pluto. You may reach Dave at 701-241-5555, or by email at dolson@forumcomm.com.

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