Giinawind Creative Space
The Giinawind Creative Space is a new project by MacRostie Art Center. It is an expansion of MAC's role as a cultural center of the community and into an adjoining storefront. Giinawind will be a gathering place for the creative community, an opportunity for cultural connections, and a catalyst for community development through the arts. In this space, Indigenous culture will be centered, artists will find support and resources, and community members will gather for events and education.
2022-2023 Cultural Heritage and Community Identity Grants - Winter 2021
This project represents a renewed focus on MacRostie Art Center's role as a hub of the creative community. The ideas behind it have grown out of conversations with our community of artists and arts appreciators over several years and planning sessions with MAC staff and board members about how we can best meet our mission in the current moment. Supporting local artists has been a part of MacRostie Art Center's mission for decades, and we know that rural artists are often more isolated from a creative community than those in urban areas. The pandemic only increased this sense of isolation and the need for new ways of coming together. The Giinawind Creative Space project is a physical embodiment of our values and a recognition of the importance of gathering, networking, connection, and opportunity in creating and sustaining a strong creative economy and cultural community.
This is a new project, and we expect to encounter challenges, especially in the first year of implementation. Our guiding strategy for this work is open communication and frequent check-ins with the project's leaders and advisors as well as input from the community once the space opens to the public.
In our first year we anticipate we will work directly with 20 Indigenous artists in exhibition and sale of work, 10 performing artists, 5 artists and 5 storytellers/authors/poets in our Native Artist Talk series. We'll track participation of artists and attendance of community members at these events and solicit community feedback to inform our programming decisions in the future.
We also plan to serve an estimated 10-20 Native and non-Native artists through our professional development services. We will collect feedback from the artists involved in these programs on their success in meeting their individual goals (grants, exhibitions, sales, etc.)
The primary opportunity for engaging a larger number of people will be in the space's role as a community gathering space. It is difficult to predict those numbers with an on-going pandemic, but we are estimate we'll have 1,500 people attending programs throughout the project period and over 5,000 through more casual drop-in interactions.
Our grant agreement was finalized in early May, so we have had less than two months of project work completed as the writing of this report. Despite the delay in starting, we are excited about the trajectory of this project. After hiring our first Giinawind Program Assistant we began developing a series of programs in the space. The first two in person events were scheduled for June 15 with a beading workshop by Wendy Roy (White Earth Band of Ojibwe) and a concert by Annie Humphrey. We had 8 people sign up for the workshop, but unfortunately due to a scheduling mix-up by the artist we had to reschedule for a later date. Over 40 people attended the concert by Annie Humphrey.
For May and June the space displayed blankets by Rick Kagigebi (Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe), and on June 28 we hosted an artist talk with Rick's wife Penny Kagigebi (White Earth Ojibwe) entitled "Queering Indigeneity" in which she shared her journey to learn the traditional art of creating quillboxes and how she now uses her art to share her message about the important role that two-spirit people play in Indigenous communities.
In the future we plan to release a virtual artist talk with painter Kent Estey (White Earth Band of Ojibwe) and July events that are part of the Giinawind event series will include a seminar on natural plant dyes and a film screening and discussion.
In addition to our grant project events, the space has hosted community gatherings like a graduation party, a birthday celebration, and a memorial for a local arts leader. The space is also open for drop-in visitors 6 days a week. We estimate that since the grant period began, over 500 people have visited the space for an event or to view the artwork on display. ; Through this project we updated a downtown storefront that is part of our larger building and was previously rented out to retail tenants. We turned it into the "Giinawind Creative Space" and began showing exhibits, planning a variety of cultural events, and making the space available for rent to our community. We hired a part-time project coordinator to manage the space which is a new position.
The first year of the Giinawind Creative Space was a great success. We hosted a number of events with Indigenous artists and creatives including: 4 art exhibits, 3 film screenings, 2 hands-on workshops, 4 artist talks, 3 concerts, and a comedy night. Highlights included an artist talk with Robert Martinez (Northern Arapaho), a comedy night with The Rez Reporter - Rob Fairbanks (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe), and a puppet show with Michael Lyons of the podcast Boozhoo Nanaboozhoo. These events were all open to the public and provided opportunities that were not previously available in downtown Grand Rapids for people of all backgrounds to connect with Native art and culture. We tracked participation of artists and attendance of community members at these events and solicited community feedback to help inform our programming decisions in the future.
We also focused on creating a welcoming and flexible space that could be used by to meet a variety of community needs. The space was rented out for birthday parties and private meetings and was also rented by organizations like the Itasca Orchestra and Strings Program to host smaller concerts and intimate artist talks during their summer chamber music festival. During the week the space is open for anyone to drop in and spend time -- meeting with friends, playing one of the games we have available, or perusing our extensive library of art books.
As part of the project we also began developing an artist resource center that provides shared access to technology, software, and equipment for artists to use on site or check out for off-site use. Providing professional development opportunities for artists is a priority for our organization as we recognize the significant impacts that working artists have on community and economic development of our area. We partnered with Springboard for the Arts to offer their Work of Art "business skills for artists" training, which was free to artists thanks to support from Minnesota DEED. We collected feedback from the artists involved in these programs on whether these programs are meeting their needs and how else we can support them in their creative and entrepreneurial pursuits.
Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Culture and Tourism grant ($4,638)
Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Support for Organizations grant ($1,062)
MAC's general operating funds ($3,055). Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Culture and Tourism Grant ($5,000)
Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Support for Organizations Grant ($4,300)
MacRostie Art Center general operating funds ($25,100). Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Culture and Tourism Grant ($5,000)
Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Support for Organizations Grant ($1,224)
MacRostie Art Center general operating funds ($4,775)