Ceramic artist Courtney M. Leonard (Shinnecocke) will discuss her work Breach Logbook 22: Cull in conversation with Ojibwe leader and activist Sharon Day and Vicente Diaz, Chair of the Department of American Indian Studies, and Director of The Native Canoe Program, at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. 

Leonard’s body of work examines histories of water and seeks to activate conversations about industrial impacts on water, inter-species connections, climate change, and the shifting relationships between humans and water, as informed by the past. Presented in conversation with the exhibition, Ebb/Flow, currently on view at WAM. Q&A to follow. 

REGISTRATION

November 29, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
This event is PAY-AS-YOU-WISH (INCLUDING FREE), but registration is required to attend.

Registration for tickets begins September 18

PARKING

Parking is available under the museum. University rates for parking ramps are $3 an hour and a $13 daily maximum.

Nearby parking is also available at the East River Road Garage, which provides both disability and short-term parking for Coffman Memorial Union and the East Bank campus. Both the Museum Garage and the East River Road Garage are easily accessible from Delaware Street.

About the Speakers

Courtney M. Leonard (Shinnecock, b.1980) is an artist and filmmaker, who has contributed to the Offshore Art movement. Leonard’s current work embodies the multiple definitions of “breach”, an exploration and documentation of historical ties to water, whale and material sustainability. In collaboration with national and international museums, cultural institutions, and indigenous communities in North America, New Zealand, Nova Scotia, and the United States Embassies, Leonard’s practice investigates narratives of cultural viability as a reflection of environmental record. Leonard’s work is in the permanent public collections of the United States Art In Embassies, the Crocker Art Museum, the Heard Museum, ASU’s Art Museum and Ceramic Research Center, the Peabody Essex Museum, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of the North, the Mystic Seaport Museum, and the Pomona Museum of Art.

Vicente M. Diaz is Chair of the Department of American Indian Studies, and Director of The Native Canoe Program, at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. The current President-elect of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association and a leader in the field of Comparative and Global indigenous Studies, Diaz’s research is in traditional outrigger voyaging culture, knowledge, and practice in the Micronesian Islands in the western Pacific Islands region, where he is from.

Sharon Day is an Ojibwe leader and Native American activist, artist and writer from Minnesota. She is an enrolled member of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe. Day is most known for her water walks, a spiritual practice in which Day and others carry water for a long distances to raise awareness and pray for the health and future of the waterways.