Additional Details
Artists of the Big River Continuum: Bloom Like a Wildflower in a Hurricane and Flow Like a River
The Big River Continuum Project cultivates creative exchanges connecting communities of the Mississippi River from the headwaters to the delta. Taking inspiration from the Ojibwe name Misiziibi, or gichi-ziibi (meaning Huge River), this initiative turns the Mississippi River in its entirety into a platform for creative collaboration. Supported by the UMN Extension Northwest and Central Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships, this project strives to connect geographies and sectors to synergize the uniqueness of regional and indigenous cultures, artists and scholars in a shared process of inquiry.
The Artists of the Big River Continuum presentation is led by artist Monique Verdin and curator Rebecca Dallinger. Verdin will share stories and video of Artist Karen Goulet about the Indigenous Artists collaborative that flows from the headwaters to the delta, connecting Mississippi water truths with scientists through conversation, residency, rural art making and environmental knowledge exchange. Learn more about the Big River Continuum project.
This is a collaborative project between the University of Minnesota’s Weisman Art Museum, the University of Minnesota’s Itasca Biological Field Station and A Studio in the Woods within Tulane University Bywater Institute.
Requests for event accommodations can be sent to Rebecca Dalinger at dalli018@umn.edu or 218-849-1372.
Karen E. Goulet
Karen E. Goulet is a multimedia artist often working with textiles and written word. She is a White Earth Ojibwe Band member and is also from Metis and Sami/Finn people. Her work is informed by her experiences, the people she is from and places she loves. She received her MFA in sculpture from UW-Madison and an MEd from UM Duluth and has been exhibiting nationally and internationally for 25 years. She is the Program Director for the Miikanan Gallery at the Watermark Art Center in Bemidji, MN working as a community change maker through her creative practices.
Monique Verdin
Monique Verdin is a multidisciplinary artist responding to the complex interconnectedness of environment, economics, culture, climate, and change along the Gulf South. Her indigenous Houma relatives and their life-ways have been the primary focus of her storytelling practice. Monique is the director of The Land Memory Bank & Exchange, a part of the Another Gulf Is Possible Collaborative, co-producer/subject of the documentary My Louisiana Love and co-author of Return to Yakni Chitto; Houma Migrations.
Rebecca Dallinger
Rebecca Dallinger is the Curator-in-Residence for The Big River Continuum at the Itasca Biological Station and the Target Studio for Creative Collaboration at the Weisman Museum. She has an extensive background in community organizing and rural arts development. She lives in Ogema, MN.