Twelve Twin Cities-area students spent a week in late June at MPR News listening to Indigenous leaders in the law, arts and media describe their work and mission make sure Native lives are accurately portrayed.

The 2023 Radio Campers interviewed legal scholar and Chief Justice on the Sisseton-Wahpeton Supreme Court, Angelique EagleWoman; educator and Santee Sioux Dakota Nation member Ramona Kitto Stately, musician Reuben Kitto Stately and artist Marlena Myles (Spirit Lake Dakota/Mohegan/Muscogee).

Fullscreen SlidePrevious Slide

5 of 5

1 of 5

2 of 5

Next Slide

Radio Camp drew students from several media organizations: ThreeSixty Journalism based at University of St. Thomas; KRSM, a low power radio station in the Phillips neighborhood and part of Pillsbury United Communities’ media initiative and MIGIZI, a Minneapolis-based organization that supports Native American youth.

The students were asked to reflect on what they learned. Here are their projects for the week.

Fatima Abdurahman is a ThreeSixty Journalism student and attends Rosemount High School. Fatima interviewed Marlena Myles about using art to fill the need to represent Dakota culture in the Twin Cities, especially for young people.

Kendra Andrews came to Radio Camp from MIGIZI. Kendra attends Eden Prairie Online. Kendra talked with Reuben Kitto Stately about his art. The musician said expectations placed on Native art limit artists’ work.

Alexis Aryeequaye is a ThreeSixty participant who attends Rosemount High School. Alexis reported on Ramona Kitto Stately’s efforts to change narratives that are harmful to young people through the educator’s work for We Are Still Here Minnesota.

Anna Brodin, from ThreeSixty, attends Mounds View High School. Anna talked with musician Reuben Kitto Stately about his message of Dakota sovereignty and strength to younger audiences, delivered through hip hop.

Douglas Buckanaga, a student at South High School, also has worked with MIGIZI. Douglas interviewed Sisseton-Wahpeton chief justice Angelique EagleWoman about the experiences that shaped her desire to become a lawyer.

Laniya Campbell is a student at FAIR School for Arts and came to Radio Camp from KRSM Radio. Laniya spoke with EagleWoman about media stereotypes that continue to harm Native youth in particular.

Marquan Harper has worked with Listen Up! Youth Radio and ThreeSixty. Marquan is a student at Twin Cities Academy. Marquan interviewed Ramona Kitto Stately about navigating two different cultures every day.

Guillermo Mcelrath is a student at Roosevelt High School, and is affiliated with MIGIZI. Guillermo talked with chief justice EagleWoman, who related a story about her family’s negative experiences with law enforcement and her desire to become a lawyer to serve her people.

Gloria Ngwa attends Washington Technology Magnet School and participated in Listen Up! Youth Radio and ThreeSixty. Gloria reports on how Reuben Kitto Stately uses music —specifically hip hop — to reflect his life as an artist from the Red Lake Nation and Santee Sioux Nation.

Riauna Rone is a student at FAIR School for Arts and is affiliated with KRSM. Riauna focused her story on Ramona Kitto Stately’s efforts to fight false narratives the longtime educator says are absorbed by and negatively affect Indigenous children and children of color.

Cameron Toal has studied at MIGIZI. He goes to South High School. Cameron talked with artist Myles who also publishes books that allow Native children to see themselves in art, something Myles did not have as a young person.

Thuy-Sa Truong attends Eagan High School and came to Radio Camp from ThreeSixty. Thuy-Sa says EagleWoman presented students with ways in which the media may address inaccurate portrayals of Indigenous people. The attorney recommended media develop more sources and look for those who are doing good work.

Only months ago, Derick Wycherly was an adjunct instructor teaching drawing and printmaking at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University.

He recently moved back to his native Montana, but shortly will return to campus as the featured artist in the first exhibition of the 2023-24 academic season in the Gorecki Art Gallery at Saint Ben’s. A member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, about 4 ½ hours east of Missoula — where he is now the collection manager of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture, his show is titled “In Land.” Much of the work originated in the Welle Book Arts Studio – only feet from where it will be displayed from September 13 through October 26 in the Benedicta Arts Center.

“I was looking for a place to get some teaching experience after grad school, when much of my printmaking came during the pandemic,” said Wycherly, who completed his Master of Fine Arts in 2022 at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. “During COVID, there were a lot of studio closures, and I felt I needed more time to keep going with my work.”

He found the solution at CSB and SJU. Through networking, he learned Rachel Melis, who also has an MFA from UW-Madison, was going on sabbatical for 2022-23 and someone with his skill set was needed to teach her classes.

“It was my year of adjunct, but it was practically a residency because the art department was so generous about letting me use the facilities,” Wycherly said. “It was like a gap year to be able to work on my own and be away from the business side of things. Coming in as an outsider, I found this separate little world at Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s. There’s a lot of pleasant landscaping at Saint Ben’s, and it’s pretty at Saint John’s, where the art building is right near the water, and you can walk down just about any time and see little critters. It was a nice, quiet break for me.”

Wycherly is a member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, about 250 miles northwest of Missoula, where he is now collections manager for the Montana Museum of Art and Culture. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2011. Then he spent eight years at an etching studio in New York City before working with handmade paper to create lithographs, monotypes, serigraphy and even performance art during his master’s study.

So, he was ready for a little slower pace and time for introspection when he came to Central Minnesota. In Land, he said, speaks to lands’ interconnectedness and divided state through handmade sheets of paper aligned as repeat patterns that are variable and shift with time, emotion and alterations in process.

“I like to use the different handmade papers to create different fibers and textures,” Wycherly said. “All of that is like parts of the natural world. That’s what I’m collaborating with in the process. Sometimes it’s just cotton or flax, and abaca is another fiber I used. The fibers have different qualities when beaten to different consistencies, and it’s a material difference, as opposed to just drawing one object or a different object. You can feel the imagery ingrained in the paper. I create a base sheet and design stencils to lay on more pulp over that. The color and the drawing are built into the sheet through stencils.”

On exhibit will be four or five editions, each displayed as a group of sheets on the wall (totaling roughly 200), that connect visually to create a larger field of pattern. The handmade sheets sometimes receive ink printed from a matrix of copper or stone, in register with the stenciled pulp. One of his bigger projects is a benefit for Hand Papermaking, Inc., a broadside that includes a poem by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, an Indigenous scholar and musician from Canada. With permission, Wycherly uses Simpson’s poem, which is based on a performance by artist Rebecca Belmore created in Peterborough, Ontario.

“(Belmore) was painting these big white X’s in milk on the side of a grocery store while across the street an Indigenous Nation was reburying an ancestor whose remains were disturbed at the construction site of a grocery store parking lot,” said Wycherly, who produced a brick image from 82 cotton-based sheets with abaca stenciled over. “My piece pays tribute to Rebecca’s performance and Leanne’s poem. I’m also acknowledging the history of this institution as a former boarding school for Native children by using the white walls of the gallery to recreate those white X’s.

“Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s are a gorgeous place of learning, but they’re also going through reparations with the collection of sacred objects described as ‘gifts,’” Wycherly said of recent efforts by CSB and SJU to work with the abbey, monastery and tribes in Minnesota to reconcile their roles in Native American boarding schools, primarily in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. “I have living relatives that went through the boarding school experience and it’s a very heavy subject. I appreciate that Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s are inviting Indigenous artists and authors to share their work, but I also didn’t want to do a show of just pretty landscapes.

“Each sheet is like a plot of land that could be for sale individually, but it connects to all the sheets around it as part of a larger, continuous whole. It’s a contradiction that creates friction and inspiration. And the fibers and the water and ink, everything is from the earth and going back to become part of the landscape. I hope, when people look at them, they feel a heightened sensitivity to reality. You can see and feel the value of the textures, but also the positionality of who you are, where you’re at and when we are.”

Wycherly is helping the MMA, which had been closed for decades, prepare for a late September grand opening. He is in the process of moving the first 400 pieces from an 11,000-article collection that must be relocated in two years at the University of Montana. During his visit in the fall, he will conduct a workshop with Melis’ printmaking classes and appear at an artist’s reception from 5-7 p.m. on October 26, the last night of the exhibition.

“Sector Cycle” shows the intricasies of the handmade paper and printmaking process Derick Wycherly uses to create his art.

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is pleased to announce a renovation to the Museum’s 3-acre campus and Sculpture Garden and create a universally accessible, native landscape for art and the public in the heart of historic Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Groundbreaking is scheduled for the fall of 2023 and the Museum anticipates opening the newly redesigned space in the fall of 2024 with a group exhibition that will span the Museum’s indoor galleries and Sculpture Garden.

A public fundraising campaign will be launched this fall to support this important project.

Since the Museum’s founding in 1964, The Aldrich’s campus has included a Sculpture Garden and public art installed throughout its grounds. While the Museum’s campus has always been free and open to the public seven days a week from dawn until dusk, the renovations will improve accessibility with pedestrian pathways to link Main Street and the Sculpture Garden, add an accessible ramp from the Museum’s building to the Garden, and create amphitheater seating. In addition, these renovations will improve storm water management, protect wetland health, and add approximately 40 trees to the property.

Executive Director Cybele Maylone shared: “Since the Museum’s founding, the Sculpture Garden has been an essential part of the Museum experience. With this project, The Aldrich will dramatically improve our campus, providing a better experience for artists and for Museum’s entire community.”

Museum stakeholders identified the following goals for the new Sculpture Garden design outlined in a Master Plan: accessibility and inclusion for all; to expand the platform for artists with flexibility for exhibitions, events, programming, and community use; and environmental stewardship.
Board Chair Diana Bowes shared: “The Aldrich’s Sculpture Garden Master Plan is an ambitious and significant renovation of the Museum’s exterior campus. Our improved Sculpture Garden will greatly enhance The Aldrich’s ability to support artists and engage the public. It’s a natural culmination of all the work we’ve put behind expanding opportunities for Aldrich artists and connecting to the community. It will allow The Aldrich to reach its full potential. Once you’ve seen the plans, it’s hard to turn back. It just makes sense. And what a gift to
the community!”

The Master Plan will make approximately 50% more space available to artists and the community, including a Secret Garden, Pollinator Pathway, and Boardwalk.

Chief Curator Amy Smith-Stewart shared: “Art out in the world is seen by visitors on their terms under an open sky for free. The museum has a long history of showing public art on its campus. Our new and improved grounds will provide better accessibility to more communities while also enhancing visitor experience through the creation of pathways, seating, and green areas for education, exploration, and collective participation that improves well-being and advances equity. With additional spaces to exhibit outdoor work and an amphitheater to increase interdisciplinary programming, artists will have greater opportunities to grow and broaden their vision while reaching a larger more diverse audience. With more for visitors to encounter and more space for artists to create, our campus will become a more inclusive, imaginative, and holistic place for art, community, and nature to be together.”

The new Master Plan was designed by STIMSON. Based in a Cambridge, Massachusetts, STIMSON was named firm of the year by the Association of Landscape Architects in 2021. Recent projects include the Florence Griswold Museum, Hackley School, and Brown University, along with private residences throughout New England.

The Aldrich is currently raising the $3.25 million needed to complete the project. The Museum was awarded a $500,000 Good to Great grant from the State of Connecticut for this project this spring. More details on the groundbreaking will be released in the coming weeks.

More information on the project and fundraising opportunities can be found on our website here.

Editor’s note:

Do you want to be part of history and the preservation of community? Donations towards to Sculpture Garden can be made on The Aldrich website here, where donors may choose “Sculpture Garden” as the focus of their gift.