College of Lake County (CLC) is expanding its approach to the arts with its first artist-in-residence, Mundelein-native Cristina Chopalli. She is one of four artists showing works at “Home,” the upcoming fall art exhibition Aug. 25 to Sept. 21 in the Robert T. Wright Gallery of Art at the college’s Grayslake Campus.
Chopalli always knew she’d create art. After getting her master’s in fine arts degree in creative writing, her method was originally supposed to be through words. After graduating, she began writing a memoir and traumatic parts became difficult for her to write. So, she paused the project and turned to painting.
With no formal training, Chopalli soon entered her paintings for gallery exhibitions and made it her full-time career. Her paintings feature layers of brightly colored acrylic paints, overlapping together to form familiar shapes and figures with bold lines. She says she’s always surprised by what she finds in the paint.
“The sprawling canvas fills with colors, movement and joy,” Chopalli says about her latest painting. “After a couple of hours, the colors and shapes enter into a meditative flow and combinations blossom.”
Chopalli describes her work as intuitive. She starts by painting what she feels without overthinking it. Many of her works come to her during meditation or in a dream.
As an artist-in-residence, Chopalli set up her art studio at CLC’s Grayslake Campus. She has a number of works in the exhibition, but the one she’s creating during her residency at CLC is wider than she is tall, bursting with colors and organic shapes. Along with the opportunity to showcase her work, Chopalli has enjoyed her time at CLC because she has the chance to speak to interested students about her work and their career goals.
“I enjoy exchanging thoughts on all types of art with college students and faculty who stop by while I work,” Chopalli said. “I’m hopeful to have a good variety of my work together because it really has a collective narrative. When people see my work, for me, what’s important is that they find whatever it is that they’re looking for. There is not just one message or right or wrong.”
The opening reception is Friday, Aug. 25 from 5:30-7 p.m. Artists Taehoon Kim, Michael Litewski and Ilse Miller will also share their personal visions of home.
“The “Home’ exhibition offers a diverse group of artists with unique takes on the metaphorical idea of home,” said Art Gallery Curator Ann Rintz. “It features non-objective, abstract and realistic art by four artists of various backgrounds and at different stages of their creative careers. I find that diversity creates a more dynamic exhibition.”
Gallery hours are Monday-Thursday 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
About College of Lake County
College of Lake County is a comprehensive community college committed to equitable high-quality education, cultural enrichment and partnerships to advance the diverse communities it serves in northeastern Illinois. Offered at three campuses in Grayslake, Vernon Hills and Waukegan or online, college classes are affordable and accessible to help each student achieve academic, career and personal goals. More than 70,000 students graduated with degrees and certificates since the college opened in 1969. College of Lake County is the only higher-education institution ranked among the top 15 best places to work in Illinois by Forbes in 2019 and is a national leader in many areas, including campus internationalization, sustainability and conservation.
The focus on belonging or community is a new tactic in marketing today. Creating a sense of community and belonging is also a major initiative of many marketers.
Increasingly consumers are drawn toward companies, products, experiences and services that offer a sense of belonging or community. The consumer may or may not even realize that this is a quality they are embracing but savvy marketers are certainly aware of the value.
Fostering belonging as part of a larger marketing effort is a good thing to strive for today.
I want to share a personal story. Recently I had an experience that really brought this home to me during a visit to the Milwaukee Art Museum. I was visiting Milwaukee with my husband about a month ago and didn’t know prior to our arrival there that our day in Milwaukee was the final evening of Harley-Davidson Homecoming 2023 — a once-every-five-years meetup of motorcycle enthusiasts celebrating the Harley-Davidson brand.
We arrived in a city literally buzzing with excitement. Something like 40,000 riders were already there, and the biggest corporate party I’ve ever experienced unfolded around the city culminating in a ticketed Foo Fighters concert on the lakefront. We did visit the art museum and then we spent the rest of the day, quite unexpectedly, enjoying the city, the Central Market for dinner, and meeting Harley fans from all over the world and we even stayed for a concert of somewhat epic proportions.
What was the take-away?
I learned that day that Harley-Davidson owners have pride of ownership unlike any I’ve encountered. I also learned that Harley-Davidson is masterful at creating moments and experiences for their customers and their fans.
Though I am not a motorcycle rider I came to appreciate just how connected this group is and how proud they are to get together and ride, swap stories, check out each other’s bikes, and just bask in the glow of the international community that loves this brand.
Dealerships along the various highway routes into Milwaukee even offered refreshments to riders coming from all over North America and beyond. We met people from many states, Canada, Asia and Central America. Everyone was kind and completely enthused to be together and reveling in the brand. What a perfect marketing moment.
Now, this is an extreme example of how it is possible to create community and belonging and tie it in masterfully to a brand. But we can all learn from this and think about how we might gather our fans, and our brand evangelists, and bring them together meaningfully. There is a lot to unpack around this idea. I invite small business marketers and local organization marketers to think about how creating a feeling of belonging can be so powerful for stakeholders.
Give thought to how you might convene your brand’s fans. What opportunities can you devise to gather people who love what you do? Of course, you might not have 40,000 motorcyclists in your midst, but that is OK. Even small groups have a magnetism, a power, that when spotlighted can do wonders for a brand.
Think about it and try to get your fans together. I wish you many happy marketing moments with your fans.
• Rebecca Hoffman is the founder and principal of Good Egg Concepts, a strategic communication and brand marketing consulting practice serving clients around Chicagoland and nationally.
This is the Art of Living Well, a column from CULTURED that explores how tastemakers think about luxury: the luxuries that are free, the ones that cost way too much, and the little ones that punch above their weight.
In the 2021 memoir Whore of New York, Liara Roux recounts their journey growing up in a conservative Christian household and finding a career in sex work, sex-worker advocacy, and writing. Their creative practice often explores issues of labor and femininity—which also happen to make them a connoisseur of taking care of themselves in ways that feel authentic and grounding. Here, Roux offers insight into the perfume that feels like spiritual armor and their favorite after-Thanksgiving ritual.
What product do you use every day that instantly improves your mood?
I adore Marissa Zappas’s perfumes. They’re a critical part of my morning ritual, what I put on after I’m fully dressed and made up. Recently I’ve been loving her scent Maggie The Cat is Alive, I’m Alive!—it is incredibly luxurious-feeling. Unlike many unisex perfumes, it’s both very masculine and very feminine. Putting it on feels like spiritual protection.
What’s your favorite small luxury to give to someone else?
I really love giving people a box of tea from Tea Dealers, who sell a variety of beautifully packaged and very high-quality tea. Tea is a wonderful gift because nearly everyone drinks it—there are even herbal options for those who are avoiding caffeine—and because it’s meant to be consumed, it won’t unnecessarily clutter their home. I think there’s no better way to start the day than with a delicious cup of tea, and I love to share that with others.
What do you do when you need to feel grounded?
I draw a hot bath with Bath Roman bath salts. They have one called Muddy Blue that is very warming. Nothing relaxes me faster than an hour or two in the bath with a good book.
What is something you’d love for someone to buy for you, but would never buy for yourself?
What’s a luxurious ritual you inherited from someone in your life?
My grandmother let me in on the secret that cherry pie is always better the day after it’s made. On the morning after Thanksgiving, she and I always ate a slice of cold pie from the fridge and it’s one of my favorite memories.
What is the best thing you’ve put on your face recently?
Biologique Recherche Masque Vivant.
What is your favorite luxury that costs less than $20?
Pastries from Des gâteaux et du pain in Paris! They’re never too sweet and always have the most delightful textures.
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Museums and art organizations around the globe are putting their best foot forward this fall with fresh takes on outdated histories and new, thrilling discoveries. Outside the well-trodden hubs of Los Angeles and New York, the coming season boasts a vibrant celebration of women artists, from historically misunderstood figures to contemporary creators. The work of Native and Indigenous artists is also the subject of growing, overdue attention. And of course, it wouldn’t be a fall art season without a few boldface names getting deliciously ambitious retrospectives. Here, CULTURED selects 12 shows worth the trip this autumn.
“Choreographies of the Impossible”
The 35th Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo
September 6-December 10, 2023
The four-person curatorial team behind the 35th Bienal de São Paulo—Diane Lima, Grada Kilomba, Hélio Menezes, and Manuel Borja-Villel—has compiled an ambitious show based around the theme of resilience. It includes the work of 120 artists, from rising talents like Igshaan Adams, Dayanita Singh, and Luana Vitra to historical figures such as Charles White, Elizabeth Catlett, and Wifredo Lam. The city will also host an action-packed slate of museum and gallery exhibitions. Don’t miss “Indigenous Histories” (October 20, 2023-February 25, 2024) at Museu de Arte de São Paolo Assis Chateaubriand, an ambitious presentation of Indigenous cultural production from around the world.
“Mickalene Thomas/Portrait of an Unlikely Space”
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven
September 8, 2023–January 7, 2024
In something of a departure from her vibrantly decorated paintings and photographs, Mickalene Thomas has created an installation that imagines living-room-like interior spaces during the pre-Emancipation era. Inspired by a miniature painting of a formerly enslaved woman, Rose Prentice, who lived from 1771 to 1852, the artist places engravings and daguerreotypes of Black women, men, and children in dialogue with her own work and the work of her contemporaries.
“The World’s Quietest Concert Hall” by Annika Kahrs
Schering Stiftung, Berlin
September 13-November 27, 2023
What do gravitational waves sound like? German artist Annika Kahrs makes art out of that question. Her intriguing piece, Gravity’s Tune, is inspired by the sound created when two black holes orbit and collide. The culmination of over three years of work at the U.S.-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), this new sound and video performance (coinciding with Berlin Art Week) is based on a 2015 scientific breakthrough, when experts converted cosmic waves into acoustic signals for the first time.
“Niko Pirosmani”
Fondation Beyeler, Basel
September 17, 2023-January 28, 2024
Though this exhibition started its tour at Denmark’s Louisiana Museum of Modern Art earlier this year, the survey of the Georgian modernist, 1862-1918, hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. The show represents a rare opportunity to see a large body of work by an artist who enjoys cult status in his home country. Pirosmani is a self-taught enigma who spent his life doing odd jobs, from working as a railroad conductor to a dairy farmer, and rose to prominence posthumously. Discover some 50 paintings in what is described as the largest exhibition of the artist’s work to date.
“The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans”
The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
September 22, 2023–January 15, 2024
While art lovers swooned over the first retrospective of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, a citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, at the Whitney Museum in New York earlier this year, the octogenarian artist was busy curating an unprecedented show of her peers. “The Land Carries Our Ancestors” features some 50 living Native American artists working in the U.S. Quick-to-See Smith has supported the visibility of Native artists for decades, despite a pitiful lack of attention from the established art world. Now, she shares the spotlight with figures including Marie Watt, Gerald Clarke Jr., and Cara Romero.
“Marina Abramović”
The Royal Academy of Arts, London
September 23, 2023–January 1, 2024
The twice-postponed retrospective of Serbian artist Marina Abramović is one of the season’s most talked-about art events—and rightly so. The performative and participatory nature of the exhibition resulted in multiple pandemic delays, while also stoking anticipation for the artist’s live performances. Expect to see restagings of pioneering works like The Artist is Present and The House with the Ocean View. “No two visits will be the same,” promise the organizers.
“Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400-1800”
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore
October 1, 2023-January 7, 2024
Women artists have always been integral to Europe’s artistic and cultural production. They just haven’t gotten appropriate credit for it. While the Baltimore show’s organizers acknowledge they are joining a wave of new scholarship on women in art history, they claim that other “investigations remain largely focused on an elite group.” This show, co-organized with the Art Gallery of Ontario, is distinguished by its wider aperture, embracing artistic, cultural, and entrepreneurial innovations by both acclaimed and lesser-known women through 175 objects. Works range from portraiture, sculpture, tapestries, drawings, metalwork, and more.
“African Modernism in America, 1947-67”
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
October 7, 2023–January 7, 2024
This traveling exhibition revisits important ‘60s presentations of modern African art in America to consider how the fruitful dialogue shaped art history. Curators are zeroing in on the transcontinental exchanges between African artists and American patrons, artists, and cultural organizations amid the context of the Civil Rights movement, decolonization, and the Cold War. The show, co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and Fisk University Galleries, includes work by 50 artists from Papa Ibra Tall to Suzanna Ogunjami.
“Marisol: A Retrospective”
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal
October 7, 2023–January 21, 2024
This retrospective, organized with the Toledo Museum of Art, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, and the Dallas Museum of Art, digs into an artist described by the curators as “the most intriguing and least understood artist associated with Pop art.” The show surveys the 60-year career of the Venezuelan-American Marisol, 1930-2016, who became famous in the 1960s for her striking assemblage sculptures influenced by Pop and Pre-Columbian art. The exhibition also revisits her post-1970s work, when the artist fell out of the limelight.
“Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit”
Bourse de Commerce, Paris
October 13, 2023-February 2024
The Tate Modern-organized retrospective, which begins its international run amidst Paris’s fall art fairs, has our attention. The in-depth show will include a sure-to-be-memorable presentation of the artist’s “Kandors”—sci-fi fantasy cities under bell jars—in the Bourse’s spectacular rotunda, as well as Kelley’s final work, Day is Done, 2005. Plus, visitors will get a better understanding of Kelley’s highly influential but lesser-shown drawings, photographs, and writings.
“Mark Rothko”
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
October 18, 2023-April 2, 2024
The Fondation Louis Vuitton knows how to do a blockbuster exhibition—and Mark Rothko’s first retrospective in France promises to be no exception. Mounted in time for the opening of the Paris+ by Art Basel fair, the show gathers some 115 works from major institutions, encompassing the artist’s early figurative paintings as well as his iconic and influential abstractions. The exhibition will also include the first “Rothko Room,” from the Phillips Collection, completed in close collaboration with the artist in 1960.
“Marie Laurencin: Sapphic Paris”
The Barnes, Philadelphia
October 22, 2023–January 21, 2024
If you haven’t seen the arresting work of French artist Marie Laurencin, 1883-1956, in person, this fall offers a ripe opportunity. Although historically best known as the lover of Apollinaire and a secondary member of the Cubist movement, Laurencin developed a distinct artistic style and became part of interwar Paris’s vibrant lesbian literary and artistic network. For her first solo American museum exhibition in 30 years, the Barnes will bring together more than 50 paintings that offer discreet evocations of queer affection and a uniquely “sapphic modernity.”
This photo won Overall Winner as well as the “Cats” category. Rescue kittens photographed in Lebanon, play pounce. The photographer said of the two: “My rescue kittens, Alex is the shy one, Max is the playful one. Together they form a lethally cute duo. I had more fun taking photos of these two character than during my most adventurous wildlife photography trips.” (Michel Zoghzoghi/Comedy Pets)
Every pet owner knows how silly their cat or dog’s personality can be. But it’s tricky to catch those cherished moments in a photo. The winners of the Comedy Pets Photography Awards managed to do just that, and these images may be the funniest photos of pets you’ll see this year.
The Overall Winner went to Michel Zoghzoghi for a photo of rescue kittens playing pounce in Lebanon — rather, one kitten is playing pounce, while the other, with a timid look in his eye, seems unsure of what’s to come. The image also won the “Best Cat” category. Other notable winners include Chris Porsz for his photo which took home the prize for the “Dog” category, featuring a border collie making an epic leap in front of stunned onlookers in New York City. For the “Pets Who Look Like Owners” category, the prize went to a photo that, upon a quick look, might look like three pooches facing away from the camera; on closer inspection, it’s two dogs and their grey-haired owner.
(MORE: The 2023 Comedy Pet Photography Awards Finalists Show Animals’ Love Of Nature)
This was the fourth consecutive year of the competition, which calls on all pet and animal lovers to submit their goofiest images of their furry friends.
As winner of the top prize, Zoghzoghi received a cash prize of £500 as well as a camera bag from ThinkTank and a trophy honoring his win.
“As a wildlife photographer, I never really considered sending photos to a pet competition until I discovered Comedy Pets,” Zoghzoghi said. “It’s witty, it’s fun and the photos are hilarious. I am extremely happy and proud to have won it as all the finalists were really outstanding and some of them made me laugh to tears. Pets are a very, very important part of our families and should be celebrated.”
(MORE: Water Sport-Loving Pug Takes To The Lake)
Six photos were recognized as “Highly Commended” in the competition: two images taken by Kenichi Morinaga, who was the Overall Winner in the 2022 Comedy Pets Photography Awards, and one image each taken by Kazutoshi Ono, Karl Goldhamer, Gill Woodcock and Sophie Boynton.
Click through the slideshow above to see this year’s winners.
Senior editor Nicole Bonaccorso works as weather.com’s photo editor and writes about breaking news, travel, climate and more.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
Welcome to Rules To Live By, where CULTURED asks sartorial voices—renegades, visionaries, and annotators—to unpack their style DNA and share the edicts they follow (and break) in the absurd game of life.
Elena Mottola broke into the world of fashion when she was still in high school. She may not have known who Anna Wintour was, but with her boyfriend, Pierre Kaczmarek, the Paris-based teen made waves with the deconstructed chic clothes of their en vogue clothing line Afterhomework. Four years into the adventure, which Mottola considers just as formative as fashion school, she decided to change course. “Having a brand was about imposing a vision two to four times a year, and I was more interested in sharing a vision many, many times a year,” she says over Zoom. “It’s like being a DJ versus creating an album. When you’re a DJ you can change songs every night, whereas a musician has to sing the same songs over and over again.” The equivalent of a DJ in fashion? Being a stylist. Five years into her new career, she’s accumulated editorials and collaborations with publications and brands such as Vogue Italia, Dazed, CR Fashion Book, Nike, and Bulgari, and cemented a tongue-in-cheek, character-driven approach to styling. For CULTURED, Mottola dishes on believing in obvious beauty, staying home if she doesn’t find the right outfit, and unpacking effortlessness.
CULTURED: Who taught you how to dress?
Elena Mottola: The women in my family! Dressing in a fashionable way was a means to define my personality. It was so hard for me to express myself through language growing up. It was way easier to express myself through clothes, hair, and makeup.
CULTURED: What stylistic phases did you go through as a kid?
Mottola: Like many people in the fashion industry, I’ve been through every phase. I had this dark moment where everything I wore was black and by Japanese designers like Comme des Garçons and Yohji Yamamoto. Before that, there was the cowboy moment, the girly moment, the princess moment—I passed through all of them. When I was a kid, the thing I looked forward to the most was my dance recital at the end of the year. Getting into a costume on stage—this for me was happiness. The costumes and the performance aspect marked me back then, so it’s funny that now it’s my job to create these “characters” from scratch. As a stylist, you build a world, which is also why it’s so linked to the movies.
CULTURED: What are some movies that have shaped you?
Mottola: I love obvious beauty, something that anyone can like. A democratic, legible beauty. So in that way, I really love Paolo Sorrentino, Terrence Malick, and Wes Anderson. The characters are so fucked up but so charismatic and you get attached to them. Like Song to Song, 2017, by Terrence Malick, when I watched it I felt like I was on drugs. His film The Tree of Life, 2011, made me feel the same thing. These films and these directors reassure me about life.
CULTURED: Are there people in your day-to-day life who you find inspiring?
Mottola: I’m half Italian, and most of the people I find inspiring are in Italy. Just the way that people express themselves… In France, it’s way more about what you think, what your politics are. French culture is more about the brain, and Italian culture is way more about appearance. There are these intense characters, like ladies walking down the street with dogs that match their clothing, or a 90-year-old grandpa in a full suit on his way to go grocery shopping. Any moment they go out, they have to look good. And that for me is everything.
CULTURED: What was your breakout moment as a stylist?
Mottola: It was with the musician Lous and the Yakuza. We worked together for three years, and still a bit now … What’s important to me about my job is making things that my grandmothers could understand. And in that way, styling is a bit weird because nobody understands the job, so working with celebrities or working with publications like Vogue Italia is so important because they make what I do legible.
CULTURED: How do you get dressed in the morning?
Mottola: Depends on the vibe. Sometimes it can take literally hours. I can try 20 looks before finding the right one. Sometimes it’s the first one. But I just cannot go out if I don’t feel good in my outfit. I’d rather stay home.
CULTURED: What would someone have to wear on a first date for you to walk out?
Mottola: For a first date, wow them with effortless sexiness.
CULTURED: Effortlessness is a construction, though. It’s never that easy.
Mottola: Effortlessness is like mastering nothing. That’s the key to fashion. On shoots, I always end up taking layers off, even if it means I’m leaving a model in just a tank top instead of some fancy outfit. When you overdress, you’re not in control of the message you’re trying to share. Striking the right tone is the chicest thing. In this way, I’m quite French.
CULTURED: Whose closet would you want to pull a Bling Ring for?
Mottola: Madonna. Someone who’s had thousands of lives.
Elena Mottola’s Rules to Live By:
1. Always adapt to the situation.
2. Always prioritize creativity.
3. Never restrict yourself to seeing the same people all the time. Anybody can be inspiring.
4. Always mix generations and cultures.
5. Always question your own beliefs.
6. Combine the uncombinable, but always stay chic.
7. Never stop learning.
8. Always take care of the way you present yourself to the world.
9. Never stick to the norm.
10. Never be late.
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Gary Albert Stevens, 53, passed away in June in his Las Vegas home of natural causes. His memorial service will be at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 31, at Chief Shakes House on Shakes Island in Wrangell, followed by a reception and potluck at the American Legion Hall.
He was born to Gary James and Susan Georgina Stevens on March 28, 1970, in Wrangell. He was Tlingit and Haida of the Naanyaa.iee clan. His Tlingit names were Gush Tlein, Ts’eil and “Eagle Looking Out on the Ocean.” He was the first grandchild born to the Feller and Stevens family in Wrangell.
He graduated from Wrangell High School in 1989, and at the age of 20 moved to Ketchikan to learn Tlingit formline art.
He later went on to get an associate of arts degree at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Sante Fe, New Mexico, in 2001 and a bachelor of arts in English in 2003. He was given the Truman Capote Short Story Writer Award in 1999 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
Gary owned Down the Mountain prints in Seattle from 2003 to 2012, and with his talent provided the designs for Alaska Wolf and Raven Silkscreens and Apparel owned by his mother and all the art prints for Naanyaa.iee kooexs from 2008 to 2013, and the design to celebrate the Shakes Island restoration in 2014.
When he was 23, he conceived a canoe project. He got community members involved and saw the result of their work at a ceremony for “The Dedication of the Wrangell Canoe” to the Wrangell Cooperative Association in April 1998. It now sits in front of the screen at the Shakes House.
His first commercial fishing trip was when he was a few weeks old, when he trolled on the Fairweather Grounds. He commercial fished with his dad and younger brother on the Miss Susan.
He was preceded in death by his father, Gary Stevens; grandmothers Carol Feller Brady, Patricia Youens Ewing and Edith Ann Stevens; grandfathers John Paul Feller Sr. and James Stevens; uncles Chuck Jenkins Sr., Albert Feller Sr., Otto Feller, Thomas Feller Sr., Carl Bean, Walter Stevens, John Fowler II, Christopher Feller, John Feller Jr., James Shirai, Chester, Ben and George Miyasato Sr .; aunts Sandra Moore, Patricia Ann Stevens and Rachel Shirai Peterson.
He is survived by his mother Susan Georgina Stevens; brother Mark Christopher Stevens; grandfather Brookner Scott Brady; Linnea Brooks, the long-time companion of his dad; uncles Carl Stevens, Earl Kloster, Jerry Knapp; aunts Helen Feller, Luella Knapp, Rhonda Lynn Smith, Harriet Beleal; and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews.
This spring, Dennis Alvord, EDA’s Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for Economic Development and Chief Operating Officer, visited Rapid City, South Dakota. He met with members of the Mountain Plains Regional Native CDFI Coalition (Mountain Plains), led by the Four Bands Community Fund. In 2022, Mountain Plains received a $45 million EDA award as part of the Build Back Better Regional Challenge (BBBRC).
EDA leadership is committed to furthering the agency’s relationship with its Tribal partners and stakeholders. This event provided the opportunity to spotlight how one of our grantees is maximizing its BBBRC funding to improve economic opportunities within its community, a core EDA investment priority.
Mountain Plains is comprised of nine Native Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), serving Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. These four states are some of the most sparsely populated in the nation while having the highest concentrations of Native Americans. They contain twenty Indian reservations and urban populations totaling more than 208,000 people. The coalition works to dismantle long-standing barriers to capital which led to disproportionate rates of poverty, unemployment, and income. Together, they create locally-led financing infrastructure to support Indigenous business growth and economic stability in this region.
The EDA investment enables the coalition to do just that by expanding economic opportunities in Tribal communities through a Regional Revolving Loan Fund (RLF), providing $21 million in loan capital to deploy. It was designed to provide local Native entrepreneurs with the resources they need to build and grow their businesses. Through this program, EDA and the coalition seek to reverse decades of historical disinvestment and institutionalized inequities for Native communities.
Coalition members began the proceedings by providing DAS Alvord with an update on their work since the grant was awarded last fall. After robust conversations and a couple of panel discussions, the group visited several Native-owned businesses in downtown Rapid City, many of which have received funding through the RLF program. These visits were designed to underscore the real-world impact of the grants and the BBBRC program.
The tour included a stop at the Tusweca Gallery, which features a series of exhibits by Indigenous artists. With an emphasis on Lakota history, these pieces help to promote the creative talents of the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
The day’s events concluded with a meal catered by Chef Braveheart, an Indigenous private chef, motivational speaker and female entrepreneur. Guests were also treated to a traditional dance ceremony performed by members of the Oglala Lakota Nation.
The following day, DAS Alvord gave keynote remarks congratulating the coalition for their BBBRC successes and inspiring them to keep leveraging their forward momentum. He highlighted additional opportunities available through the EDA and the broader Department of Commerce coalition of agencies.
For more information on resources available to Tribal communities, please visit eda.gov (PDF).
