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All My Relations Arts Looks Towards the Future
April 11, 2010
By Sheila Regan
All sorts of exciting developments are happening with All My Relations Arts, which presents the work of American Indian contemporary fine artists and hosts Native American programming. New changes that include an exhibit at the Mill City Museum and a new partnership with the Native American Community Development Institute mark a new direction for the arts program.
For 10 years, AMRA was housed at Ancient Traders Gallery under Great Neighborhoods Community Development Corporation), and has recently become a NACDI initiative. This move will continue to promote American Indian arts and artists within the American Indian Cultural Corridor on Franklin Avenue, according to a press release written jointly by AMRA, NACDI and GNCDC.?
NACDI will work to identify a new permanent gallery space for the arts program. “All My Relations Arts is an important asset to the community,” said Justin Huenemann, president of NACDI. “American Indian art, culture and business are essential elements of a vibrant American Indian Cultural Corridor.”
Meanwhile, while a permanent gallery space is being sought, AMRA plans to open its new exhibit “Original Green” at The Mill City Museum in May. Curated by AMRA Director Heid Erdrich, the exhibit will feature work by Carolyn Lee Anderson, Gordon Coons, Gwen Westerman and Bobby Wilson. Opening on May 20, the program will run through November 21, and will highlight the St. Anthony Falls Area and its related stories, especially in relationship of people to the environment, according to the press release.
The exhibit is free and open to the public during regular museum hours, and in addition to the artists' work, the museum will also offer programming titled “Greening the Riverfront,” which is a series of lectures, cooking classes, family days and walking tours.
On March 10, several of the artists that will be featured in the “Original Green” Exhibit participated in an artists talk at the NACDI offices. Curator Heid Erdrich said that part of the vision of the exhibit was to begin a dialogue about regreening the riverfront, and about the sustainability of the river. In the area, she said, “there are spaces where there was something there that was important, that are still there.”
The St. Anthony Falls area was once a sacred site of the Mdewakanton Dakota people, and later became a trading grounds for both the Dakota and Anishinaabe peoples, according to Wikipedia. In 1680, Father Louis Hennepin wrote about the area. And in 1805 it was acquired by the United States government by treaty. In 1918 the federal government purchased the land and it became part of Fort Snelling Military Reservation. In 1971, it was added to the National Registry of Historic Places, according to the Minnesota Historical Society.
The artists spoke about the historical roots of the St. Anthony Falls area in their upcoming pieces, both by challenging the accepted history, and also reconnecting with the sacred space.
Textile artist Gwen Westerman, who has shown her quilts all around the country spoke a little bit about her piece that she plans to present at the exhibit, which will contain three panels. The first panel will reflect the original falls area, the second will reflect the presence of the Dakota people, and the third will be a more contemporary image. She is currently experimenting with snow resist dying, a process in which she packs snow on top of a fabric, over a plastic serving tray, and adds the dye on top of that. “As the dye melts,” the snow moves through the fabric,” Westerman said.
Bobby Wilson, who practices graffiti art as well as graphic design and painting, has decided he wants to try something different for the “Original Green” exhibit, and intends to create a piece using wood, aluminum, and spray paint on canvas. Wilson said his piece will include a post apocalyptic portrayal of what the river could become if something isn't changed.
Carolyn Lee Anderson plans to create a mixed media piece exploring the tension between the developed and undeveloped world. She plans to incorporate found elements from the river's edge into her piece.
Meanwhile award-winning printmaker Gordon Coons said he is interested in creating a piece about stories involving the river. “Humans have always been shaped by water,” he said.
Following the run at Mill City, the exhibit will then be presented somewhere in the Native American Cultural Corridor in late 2010 or early 2011 as part of the collaboration with NACDI.
