"New Bohemia, N.D." has gotten its birth certificate.

The "New Bohemia" concept, which was conceived with an editorial in the Fargo weekly High Plains Reader, has been growing and evolving for the past two years and is now officially "born."

High Plains Reader editor John Strand, who wrote the editorial which proposed that North Dakota create a network of artists called "New Bohemia," spoke Wednesday at the Bismarck Civic Center to a group of about 25 interested people from across the state as part of the statewide Marketplace event there.

Originally conceived as a physical community of artists perhaps occupying a small town that would welcome them for their creative contributions and economic impact, the New Bohemia concept is now taking shape as a virtual community, populated by a roster of North Dakota artists and gathering art, festival and events under one umbrella.

Presenting with Strand were Jon Offutt, a glassblower from Fargo, and Cherie Harms, of Bismarck, who have been working with New Bohemia idea since its inception as a way to keep artists from moving away from North Dakota.

The group is now an official organization with the state of North Dakota, Offutt said; it has not yet been designated with federal nonprofit status.

Artists and economic developers from North Dakota towns from Beach to Garrison to Dunn Center, Dickinson and others generated ideas about "now where?" for New Bohemia at the meeting. Ideas ranged from clustering statewide art events annually in the fall to creating a comprehensive Web presence; the group also approved bylaws and accepted nominees to serve on a board of directors.

Strand said that the goal is to involve a diverse group - in profession, age, gender and region - in the decision-making for New Bohemia, including both artists and business people, small town economic development members, government and marketers.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson both briefly addressed the group.

"This is a concept that seems to have caught fire," Conrad said. "The arts are critically important to communities."

Johnson called the project "a high calling (and) undertaking."

Poets, culinary artists, fashion artists, writers and other artists all can be included in New Bohemia, Offutt said.

He would like to gather enough names to register 1 percent of North Dakotans as artists, he said: "That should be doable."

Offutt used the designation ABCD to shorthand the impact of New Bohemia: Arts-based community development. Artists can be primary economic engines bringing outside money back to the state, he said.