The Art Of The Rural

Earlier this month, our Communications Manager Hannah Almon Matangos was on the road for AFTACON in Albuquerque!

Over the past 6 months, Hannah has been part of the Americans for the Arts’ Empowering Rural Arts & Culture Pathway Committee with Krysta Aina (Arts Council for Wyoming County), Joseph Allen (Manoomin Arts Initiative), and Dr. Astrid Kaemmerling (Educational Foundation of America). With the help of AFTA staff, the committee planned breakout sessions and a full-day Incubator to bring artists & organizations from across geographies together for resource sharing and field-wide visioning.

Breakout sessions featured Kiran Singh Sirah on rural narratives & storytelling; Carey Fountain (Foot Soldiers Park), Erika Nelson, and Chris Gchachu (Zuni Pueblo ArtZ Gallery) on turning small ideas into local investment; and Amy G. Johnson (Indian Pueblo Cultural Center), Tina Kuckkahn (First Peoples Fund), and Joseph Allen (Manoomin Arts Initiative) on resourcing & representing Native artists & culture bearers.

The Empowering Rural Arts & Culture Incubator, hosted at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, kicked off in conversation with Michele Anderson (Springboard for the Arts), Yue Nakayama (Blue Sky Center), and Joe Tolbert Jr. (Waymakers Collective), moderated by Kiran. After hearing about arts-centered, coalitional initiatives in different regions, Incubator attendees got hands-on in sharing celebrations & challenges encountered in their own work and communities — and in visioning a more interconnected future to support & share rural creativity.

We’re excited to keep the connections & conversations going, in person and online, and we are grateful to AFTA for having us as part of this year’s convening!

🎨 Last slide: “Indigenous Freeways” by Arrowsoul Art Collective, on view at the IPCC.

On view at Rhizome DC, "500 Miles Out: Carceral Ties between the District and Central Appalachia" visualizes the impact of the prison-industrial complex through photographs, quilts, and multimedia pieces. Throughout the exhibition, the artists represent the people, places, and movements working across regions, sharing the importance of rural-urban solidarity in communicating about and agitating against the violences of the carceral system.

The exhibition features artists Jonas N.T. Becker, Lacy Hale, Jared Hamilton, Jordan Martinez-Mazurek, Comrade Pitt Panther, Tiffany Pyette, Kat Smith, and Sylvia Ryerson, and is curated by Gabrielle Christiansen. Read all about it in this article from Art of the Rural Broadsheet (for free, always!): https://artoftherural.substack.com/p/500-miles-out

✍️ By Art of the Rural Communications Manager Hannah Almon Matangos

Order by May 24! 🎉 A little bird (maybe a loon) told us that more folks wanted another chance to get this beautiful t-shirt, with design donated by Cole Redhorse Taylor.

All proceeds benefit our partners, the Honoring Dakota Project, who are dedicated to creating community engagements, projects, and events that provide education to discover our shared stories, bridge our communities, and create a space for healing for the people of Red Wing and Prairie Island, and the surrounding area.

Order yours at customink.com/fundraising/SupportHDP

We are deeply grateful for the Honoring Dakota Project's ongoing partnership and collaboration, and we look forward to gathering with them throughout this year!

A few weeks ago, we were honored to host Spillway Fellow Cole Redhorse Taylor Art in Winona and debut his powerful new ledger artwork “Ipsica.” The artwork takes its inspiration from a piece that the Winona County Historical Society is currently in the process of returning to the Dakota community. “Ipsica” will be on view as part of new, Dakota-led exhibitions launching at the History Center this summer.

We are grateful to be with friends such as The Honoring Dakota Project and an ever-expanding circle of local/regional partners for their continued collaboration as we all collectively nurture intercultural exchange toward building responsible and durable relationships between the Winona region and Dakota people.

This Spillway Fellowship artwork was made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.