Native Arts Partnership Council at the M

The M is a small and collaborative team. Since October, there have been monthly meetings between core participants, including the M's Executive Director, Dr. Kate Beane; Dr. Laura Joseph, Curator of Exhibitions; Nancy Ariza, Associate Curator of Learning and Engagement; Kylie Hoang, Assistant Curator; and Nicole Jansen Delfino, Registrar. These meetings helped the M to be strategic and thoughtful about who is invited to join the Native Arts Partnership Council.

Dr. Kate Beane, a leader in the field, identified that this has been a sensitive time with Native Arts, as several conversations about appropriation have been occurring in the community that has been difficult to navigate. When putting together this group, the M will be intentional about how we conduct the meeting and what takeaways we aim for participants to get from experience.

These discussions cumulated in an off-site strategic visioning session in January. From this meeting, a list of 10 or so tribal members that the M intends to invite to participate. Discussion questions have been compiled, as well as an agenda template. The first meeting will take place in March 2023. From the strategic session, what felt more reasonable to the team was to conduct four in-person meetings throughout the remainder of 2023. Our initial planning of monthly meetings was too ambitious with a staff of our size and multiple priorities. What is needed is a project manager who can devote more time to this project, but due to budget constraints is not possible at this time. There are still plans for travel to tribal groups and meeting with elders and those who might not feel comfortable in group settings to help provide input. ; As stated in the proposal, the M went into the formation of the Native Artist Partnership Council will help the M navigate and identify what the full scope of the Native community desires are within an institution like the M. The process was led by the M's Executive Director, Dr. Kate Beane (Flandreau Santee Sioux Dakota and Muscogee Creek)
To honor the values of inclusion and access, as opposed to having set outcomes and expectations, the M approached the formation of the Council to build relationships with Native artists and elders. The intent was to bring respected leaders together at the beginning of the M's exploration into an expanded Native focus. The group engaged in thought leadership and built a strong community to lean on for Native Arts and programming.

After several months of planning and one-on-one meetings, the M hosted a two-day Native Arts Convening with 26 participants on June 20 and 21, 2023. To help lead conversations, take notes, and provide the M with a roadmap of how to move forward, Blackhawk Facilitation was hired to lead the 2-day convening. Participants received a pre-and post-survey to gather expectations and space to provide feedback. For the M's small team, hosting this convening was a big lift that laid the future groundwork for relationship and partnership building. For instance, participating artists offered to host a potluck and expand the circle of Native artists invited back to the M's spaces for further relationship building and knowledge sharing.
Minnesota-based artists from the Twin Cities, nearby urban areas, and Minnesota reservation communities expressed their appreciation for being brought together. One Dakota artist thanked organizers for inviting her to "be a part of something that is amazing and exciting." Another Ojibwe artist said, "This is brave and inspiring work. It also brings a lot of hope and excitement for the future in maneuvering things in favor of good and the benefit of many. You are standing in and doing the tough work."

As stated in the interim report, the overall goal of the Native Arts Partnership Council is to be a sustainable effort in the long term, which meant it was important for the team to take the time to have conversations to all be on the same page about the intended output. The M is a small and collaborative team, and this work is a significant lift in addition to other responsibilities of team members.
The number of Partnership Council meetings and length of meetings shifted into what became a very meaningful 2-day convening in which the M generated important conversations and opened the door for more collaborations and partnerships as we continue to hear from the community about how they wished to be represented within the M.