My name is Alex Buffalohead. I am an artist, curator, and musician in a family band with my parents, called Bluedog. For my day job, I am the Arts and Cultural Engagement Manager at the Native American Community Development Institute and All My Relations Arts gallery in the American Indian Cultural Corridor on Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis.

“Please give your origami cow a name.” These were the instructions I received one Wednesday afternoon as part of a Creativity course taught by Yuko Taniguchi. I was a medical resident in psychiatry, taking a break from seeing patients in clinic to learn about art therapy. Yuko taught the class for adolescents in a mental health outpatient program. We had spent the last half-hour learning a series of folds that transformed a square piece of paper into a the recognizable head of a cow, or at least some creature with triangular ears.

This summer, Weisman Art Museum presents the outdoor poster exhibition, Just Yesterday, developed by artists Mike Gaines and Maggie Williams. Through dynamic image layering and bold type, the campaign uses iconic pop-culture references to raise awareness around systemic racial injustice in the United States in our recent, and not so distant past. 

Stories of the Land/Connect is a podcast series of interviews with people in northern Minnesota, sharing their lives and connections to the rural landscape.
Host: Rebecca Dallinger, Curator in Residence, The Big River Continuum at Weisman Art Museum.

It’s a freezing cold day in December when I meet photographers Tom Arndt and Michael Dvorak at their shared studio space in downtown Minneapolis. Tom and Michael make coffee for all three of us, trading jokes as they move around the studio. Coffee in hand, Tom and I sit to chat while Michael moves to the darkroom to develop some of his most recent work.

Ashley Cope: You were in Paris in November for your recent book launch. How was that experience?