This exhibition presentation is a reflective journey highlighting Lakȟóta female perspectives surrounding this idea and concept of Mitákuye Oyásʼiŋ. The project aims to engage Lakȟóta artists, scholars and general audiences to reflect on the (mis)appropriation of this phrase through mixed and multimedia installations. Mary V. Bordeaux (Lakota) is the co-owner and creative director of Racing Magpie, a collaborative space with a Native art gallery and artist studios in downtown Rapid City, SD.

 

Educational Experiences for the Public

Sophie Durbin (she/her)
Independent curator, Pancake House
sophiekhdurbin@gmail.com, @pancakehousempls

“Educational Experiences for the Public” will present a series of experimental, no/low budget site-specific programs hosted by Pancake House throughout 2019 – 2020. The talk will also offer a few suggestions for those interested in developing place-based programming. Sophie Durbin is a multidisciplinary artist and curator based in Minneapolis.

 

Dinner in the Desert Kitchen

Glenna Jennings (she/her)
Associate Professor, Photography, University of Dayton
gjennings1@udayton.edu, @glenna_goes_Places

“Dinner in the Desert Kitchen” will share an ongoing, student-led, art-based collaboration with community partners who share the goal of eradicating hunger and raising awareness of food justice. This cross-disciplinary, annual event combines an art auction, interactive installation and dinner experience on themes ranging from water and sustainability to immigration and systemic injustice. Glenna Jennings is an artist, educator and community advocate based in Dayton, Ohio.

 

Curating in Mni Sota Makoce

Alexandra Buffalohead (Dakota), (she/her)
Emerging Curator
alebuffalohead@gmail.com, @alebuffalohead

Curating in Mni Sota Makoce will be Alexandra’s perspective of sharing experiences of curating as an Indigenous person, and working with different First Nations Artists and in spaces that have/ or have not typically shown as much art from First Nations Artists (in Minneapolis, and Bloomington). Alexandra Buffalohead is an emerging curator, artist, musician, and currently working at Native American Community Development Institute and All My Relations Arts in Minneapolis, MN.

 

Symbols and Historical Representations of Oppression

Xavier Tavera (he/him)
Independent Artist, University of Minnesota
xtavera@hotmail.com, @taveraxavier

Throughout history we have monumentalized ideas of injustice, colonization, violence, racism and their perpetrators commemorated through monuments, statues, and other edifices erected around the world to defend their causes. We are changing the way we see and live with these symbols of representation with information and education. Xavier Tavera is a photographer and filmmaker currently teaching at the University of Minnesota whose main concern is Latinx geographies in the US.

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DAY 2

1. Jen Caruso (she/her) 5:34
2. Dr. Susan L Smith (she/her) 21:06
3. Nicole Condon-Shih (she/her) 32:15
4. Jojin Van Winkle (she/her) 46:33
5. Natasha Pestich (she/her) – presentation omitted from recording
6. Billi London-Gray (she/her) 59:07
7. Q&A 1:12:16

 

An Engaged and Public Art Minor; What it Means to Develop a Program Connected to a Particular Place

Jen Caruso (she/her)
Associate Professor of Liberal Arts, Minneapolis College of Art and Design
jcaruso@mcad.edu, @j_caruso

This presentation will offer a set of questions and reflections on developing a minor program in Engaged and Public Art that is responsive to the ethos of place, attentive to the social forms and practices, culture, and ecology of the Twin Cities and the Midwest bioregion. Dr. Jen Caruso is Associate Professor of Liberal Arts at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Her research interests include socially-engaged art, aesthetics in the context of late capitalism, and cultural representations of climate change.

 

Witness: Site-Based Work and Social Practice at the Borderlands

Dr. Susan L Smith (she/her)
Assistant Director & Faculty, Intermedia MFA, University of Maine
susan.lynn.smith@maine.edu, @slsmithstudio

“Witness: Site-based work and Social practice at the borderlands”- will discuss the importance of site-based research-creation and relationship to social practice student projects. Susan Smith, assistant director of the MFA program at the University of Maine, teaches social practice and focuses on site-based work centering on issues of displacement and migration.

 

Integrating Charette: Community and Collaboration

Nicole Condon-Shih (she/her)
Assistant Professor, Cleveland Institute of Art
nccondon@cia.edu, @nicolecondonshih

“Integrating Charette: Community and Collaboration” presents the benefits and challenges of integrating the charette process and working with community partners in first year classes. Nicole Condon-Shih is an interdisciplinary artist and educator committed to pedagogical research in the shifting landscape of foundation studies.

 

Teaching Infiltrating Places with Site-Specific Soundscapes

Jojin Van Winkle (she/her)
Assistant Professor of Art and Program Director of the Photography and Film and New Media Program, Carthage College
jvanwinkle@carthage.edu

“Teaching infiltrating places with site-specific soundscapes” will discuss processes of location selection, content development and final audio experiences created by undergraduate students in a Sound Art course at a liberal arts college. Jojin Van Winkle is a filmmaker, visual artist, writer, and assistant professor of art at Carthage College (Kenosha, WI) whose research focuses on resilience, environmental stewardship and human rights.

 

Ethical and Philosophical Questions Related to Teaching Place

Natasha Pestich (she/her)
Professor, Minneapolis College of Art and Design
npestich@mcad.edu, @natashapestich

This talk will discuss what conditions need to exist for a higher education arts curriculum to contribute ethically to community-based initiatives. Natasha Pestich is a multi-disciplinary artist currently teaching at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Please note: this talk will not be posted online after the event; it is only being broadcast during the live event. 

 

Soundwalks and Psychogeographic Map-Making

Billi London-Gray (she/her)
University of Texas at Arlington
billi.londongray@uta.edu, @billilg

“Soundwalks and Psychogeographic Mapmaking” will share projects that prompt students to identify and represent senses of place using observations, event scores, and mobile apps. Billi London-Gray is an intermedia artist who lives and works in Arlington, Texas.

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DAY 3

1. Karen Gergely (she/her) 5:33
2. Brandon Waybright (he/him) 18:14
3. Greg Blair (he/him) 34:37
4. Alexis Rivierre (she/her) 48:45
5. Kevin McKelvey (he/him) 1:01:23
6. Elise Kirk (she/her) 1:14:06
7. Q&A 1:31:31

Teaching Rural Community Engagement

Karen Gergely (she/her)
Associate Professor of Art, Graceland University
Gergely1@graceland.edu, @kegergely

This presentation will highlight how small projects in a rural town have started a ripple effect of social engagement and has contributed to the creation of a social change major at the University. Karen Gergely is a multidisciplinary artist currently teaching at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa.

 

 

A Project for Students Developed to Encourage Site Interventions

Greg Blair (he/him)
University of Southern Indiana
gblair1@usi.edu, @gregoryblair_art

“A Project for Students Developed to Encourage Site Interventions” will examine a project that has been developed for undergraduate students to encourage them to consider the politics, identities, and ethics that different places can produce. Students are asked to create an intervention which asks viewers to think about place differently or to reconsider the experiences that they may have had with a certain place. Greg Blair is an artist, writer, and educator based in Evansville, IN.

 

#IAMTHEFLAG: Power at the Intersection of Masked Performance & Place

Alexis Rivierre (she/her)
Interdisciplinary Artist & Educator
a.rivierre.fineart@gmail.com, @alexisrivierre_art

Rivierre will discuss challenging the spectacle of Black death and engaging in masked public performance while activating historical sites. Alexis Rivierre is an interdisciplinary artist who constructs visual narratives that investigate memory, identity, representation, and the social ramifications of race in the United States.

 

Rural Projects Review

Kevin McKelvey (he/him)
Director of Social Practice Art, University of Indianapolis
mckelveyk@uindy.edu, @kevinmckelvey11

To begin to work in rural places requires an understanding of how its geology and ecology shaped colonization, displacement, and capitalist commodification and extraction to form its history and current culture. From this framework, this talk will explore rural projects that are reimagining and remaking this history to cultivate a new, inclusive culture of arts, community, and creativity. Kevin McKelvey is a place-based writer and artist who teaches at University of Indianapolis in Indiana.

 

Picturing Place Teaching Project

Elise Kirk (she/her)
Assistant Professor, Photography, University of Kansas
hello@elisekirk.com

“Picturing Place” presents a First-Year Seminar for incoming freshmen at the University of Kansas. The course employs photographic inquiry as a process of discovery, research, and connection to a student’s new Place. Elise Kirk is a photofilmic artist and educator at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

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DAY 4

1. Regan Golden-McNerney (she/her) 5:59 
2. Leslie Grant (she/her) 14:55 
3. Robert Bubp (he/his) 26:02 
4. Alex Braidwood (he/him) 38.28
5. Julie Usha Libersat (she/her) 48:49 
6. Dyani White Hawk (she/her) 1:02:18 
7. Q&A 1:20:59

Cultural Conceptions of Place/Nature – A Discussion

Leslie Grant (she/her)
Artist and Educator, Minneapolis College of Art and Design
lgrant081@mcad.edu

Regan Golden-McNerney (she/her)
Independent Art and Lecturer, University of Minnesota +Minneapolis College of Art and Design
rgoldenmcnerney@mcad.edu, @regangoldenmc

In “Cultural Conceptions of Place/Nature,” we will discuss different how to engage students in the study of a place through sound recordings, drawings of the weather and site-specific installations. We will discuss how specific studio projects and writing exercises can help students connect to the spaces they inhabit. Leslie Grant is a photographer and mixed media artist currently teaching at Minneapolis College of Art and Design in the Media Arts department. Regan Golden is an Artist, Teacher, Writer and Plant Enthusiast who lives and works in the Twin Cities.

 

Otherness, Place, and Tourism: Shared Visiting Artist and Student Experiences in Wichita, Kansas and Wellington, New Zealand

Robert Bubp (he/his)
Associate Professor, Wichita State University
robert.bubp@wichita.edu

“Otherness, Place, and Tourism: Shared Visiting Artist and Student Experiences in Wichita, Kansas and Wellington, New Zealand” will explore the highlights and challenges of a two month-long visiting artist engagements in each other’s universities and cultures. In each case, collaborative projects on otherness, community, and tourism were created with students and exhibited in university galleries. Robert Bubp is an interdisciplinary artist using drawing, painting, video, and place-based processes, currently faculty in the School of Art, Design, and Creative Industries at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas.

 

Teaching Soundscape, Acoustic Ecology, and Sustainability

Alex Braidwood (he/him)
Associate Professor & Sound Artist, Iowa Lakeside Lab & Iowa State University
a@listeninginstruments.com, @listeninginstruments

Sound is often under-considered in our visually dominant culture and there are more opportunities for artists and scientists to work together, both inside and outside of the academy. “Teaching soundscape, acoustic ecology, and sustainability” will discuss the value of bringing students from the arts and sciences together in a unique field study course focused on nature sound in the agriculturally-dominated state of Iowa. Alex Braidwood is a sound artist, designer, and educator who maintains a practice centered around a process of play, experimentation, and research through making.

 

ROAM: Getting Lost in Art and Art Education

Julie Usha Libersat (she/her)
Assistant Professor, Texas Woman’s University
jlibersat@twu.edu, http://game.roamgetlost.com/, @julibers

“ROAM: Getting Lost in Art and Art Education” will present an ongoing pedagogical project and mobile game that asks participants to get lost and creatively record their journey. Julie Libersat is an intermedia artist and educator currently teaching studio art, design, and digital fabrication at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, TX.

 

“Listen” Indigenous Language People and Place

Dyani White Hawk (she/her)
Visual Artist
dwhitehawk@gmail.com, @dwhitehawk

White Hawk will discuss a recent video installation piece titled “Listen” which, through highlighting Indigenous language, people and place, “provides a window into the immense division between the greater American public and our Indigenous Nations, as well as the tremendous omissions of truth in how our national history is taught. Dyani White Hawk is a visual artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.