Arts and Cultural Heritage Grant
Arts and Cultural Heritage Grant
Chief Buffalo Memorial: Community Mural and Creative Placemaking Project.
Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, middle school art teacher; Tammy Mattonen: visual artists, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; Kayla Aubid: Native American craft artist, writer, employee at MacRostie Art Center; Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner; Emily Swanson: arts administrator at Oldenburg Arts and Cultural Community.
Terresa Moses: assistant professor of graphic design in the UMD Department of Art and Design; Jaylen Strong: Executive Director of the Boise Fort Cultural Center; Tim Davis: community advocate, artist; Carla Hamilton-Eisele: mixed-media artist.
ACHF Cultural Heritage
I was raised on the Fond du Lac Reservation to two parents of mixed Indigenous and European heritage. My resume lists out the extent to which I've remained working in my community, but some highlights include my work for the last four years at the American Indian Community Housing Organization, the place that gave me my start as an artist and which I returned to after college to pay it forward, so to speak. I've built up an amazing network among other Indigenous artists in a movement that is taking hold both nationwide and globally to begin to celebrate and acknowledge Indigenous stories of place. One story I like to highlight from the 2019 pilot of the project was working with emerging artist Michelle Defoe. I reached out to her as a lead artist after sitting on a panel that approved her apprenticeship in moccasin-making through a residency at the Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS). Her designs from her studies at this apprenticeship are the reference for the floral designs on the murals. Success can be measured by the involvement of the community at painting sessions and an overall visible increase in people's use of the walkways. Comments during events and following the completion of the project are also important - at the point Duluth is at, any conversation about its Indigenous history is a success, but the idea is that this space will accurately reflect the history and also be an engaging place for people to expiernece.
The only goal that wasn't achieved was the completion of all the murals, although they are all relatively close to completion and will be finished in the Spring. The delays by the city made it so the guest artists from North Dakota had to drive 19 hours every weekend to help paint rather than stay here for the summer as we had originally intended (one of the artists is in school and by the time the city approved the project, the semester had started again). We met the goals of the number of volunteers who attended painting sessions as well as promoting a greater understanding of Duluth history. The space is frequented by a high volume of Native community members and the park itself has been host to more community events, which is part of the intent of the project (to reclaim space for Native community).
Other,local or private