Anpetu Was’te Cultural Arts Market Set
to open next summer
By Rebekah Peterson
TC Daily Planet
Next summer, a new marketplace will
open on Franklin Avenue and will bring art, food, and music to a very
unlikely location – the median between Cedar Avenue and South 17th
Avenue.
The project is the result of a
$435,000 ArtPlace grant and the work of the Native American Community
Development Institute. NACDI Vice President Andy Hestness explained
at a recent project unveiling that the Anpetu Was’te Cultural Arts
Market is designed to bring the Ventura Village and Seward
neighborhoods together and create a pedestrian-friendly roadway,
something that the presence of a light rail station has not been able
to do on its own. “People originally thought that plopping the
light rail here would create a new paradigm. We’ve been waiting for
years for this to happen, and it never did. We finally decided that
we were going to do it ourselves, since no one was going to do it for
us.”
Jay Bad Heart Bull, NACDI president,
explained that for the light rail to be strong and successful, there
needs to be a strong pedestrian presence. He noted, “[The
Marketplace] will bring life to the street. It’s really going to
change the face of the avenue and bring life to the station.”
The Marketplace will feature a stage
for performances and theater and a space for vendor tents and food
trucks.
Throughout the Market, the work of
Native American artists and writers will be represented, and, as
local poet Jim Oliver Smith said, “It will bring the Native
presence to the street.”
Poetry by four local writers and
four nationally-known writers will be featured throughout the space.
The work of artist Francis Yellow will welcome visitors from Seward
as they go under the underpass. Yellow explained at the project
unveiling that his artwork for this project was heavily influenced by
his ancestry. He said, “The Lakota welcomed the Ojibwe to this
land. My inspiration is the generosity of my ancestors, the friendly
people.” One of his pieces depicts trading in keel boats. Another
piece shares a Lakota saying, “Welcome all to the land of the
friendly people.”
Construction has begun on the median
in preparation for the Marketplace, and NACDI is planning on opening
the space in mid-July. However, this open date is dependent on the
ability to complete construction this spring.
More information on the project is
available in a previous article, New Cultural Arts Market Planned for
Franklin
(http://www.my-broadsheet.com/2013/06/03/nacdi-cultural-arts-market/).
Little Earth Receives Grant for Skill
Tech Youth Development Program
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Little Earth
Boys and Girls Club Extension was awarded a $15,000 grant from the
Comcast Foundation to support its Skill Tech program. The digital
arts program re-introduces culture to participants through technology
and provides relevant, fundamental skills and a creative outlet for
youth.
Little Earth will use the funding to purchase supplies for
its digital arts training program, including computers, digital
cameras, video equipment and robotics kits. The materials will be
used in weekly photography, video and robotics classes and
labs.
Since Comcast started supporting the Little Earth Boys and
Girls Club Extension in 2012, the company awarded $30,000 of grant
money to the Skill Tech program. Comcast also supported Little
Earth’s attendance at the 2013 Boys & Girls Club Indian Country
Summit in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Northwest Indian OIC Unveils New
Cultural Training
BEMIDJI, Minn. – Northwest Indian OIC
is announces Anishinaabe World View, a newly-accredited training in
Cultural Competency. The training is a result of many gatherings of
elders, teachers, critical thinkers and traditional Anishinaabe and
the voices of our members, who share their experiences and their
recommendations to make our communities, Native and non-Native,
healthier, safer and culturally-enriched places.
This course will give a general
understanding of the Anishinaabe. It will give learners a historical
framework from which to understand and articulate the Native
experience today. The outcome will be a sense of identity in the
Native learner and increased understanding for the non-Native
learner.
Participants can receive Continuing
Education Units (CEU) or three college credits from Northwest
Technical College and Bemidji State University, as well as a
certificate of completion. Registration fees for this training, as
with all our trainings, are used to support the ongoing services of
Northwest Indian OIC, a Native American-controlled community based
nonprofit organization. www.nwioic.org.
