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Online Artist Talk: Dyani White Hawk in Conversation With Alex Trommler and Erica Behrens
Join us for a virtual noontime artist talk with Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota) on November 17. White Hawk, in collaboration with international art glass studio Franz Mayer of Munich (est. 1847), will create a one-of-a-kind public artwork to be incorporated into Fraser Hall on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. For this conversation, White Hawk will be joined by artistic collaborator Alex Trommler, and Erica Behrens, Director of the American office for Franz Mayer of Munich Glass Works, where they will discuss the role of public art today and the significance of this work for the University of Minnesota community. Moderated by writer and interdisciplinary artist Heid E. Erdrich.
Dyani White Hawk
Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota) is a visual artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. White Hawk earned an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2011) and BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico (2008). She served as Gallery Director and Curator for the All My Relations Gallery in Minneapolis from 2011-2015. Support for White Hawk’s work has included 2021 Arts and Letters Award in Arts, 2021 and 2013/14 McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship, 2020 Bemis Alumni Award, and the 2020 Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation Art Prize, among numerous other awards. (Photo by David Ellis)
Alex Trommler
Alex Trommler is a project manager at Franz Mayer of Munich, an international art glass studio founded in 1847. Trommler holds an MFA in Glass Sculpture and Teaching from Southern Illinois University (2012) and a BA in German Studies and BFA in Glass Sculpture from Alfred University (2006)/ While studying abroad in Munich as an undergraduate student, he completed a project at Mayer of Munich as an introduction to architectural-scale projects. In his role at Mayer of Munich, his responsibilities include developing and supporting various projects as well as working closely with visiting artists.
Erica Behrens
Erica Behrens has directed the American office of Mayer of Munich, located in New York City, since 2004. Before joining the Mayer team, Behrens managed highly successful public art projects with the Metropolitan Transportation’s Arts for Transit & Design Program in NYC for eleven years. She studied art history at Mount Holyoke College and began her career at Phillips de Pury Auction House. In her role, Behrens devotes time and energy to individual artists, architects, administrators, and other clients involved in all aspects of the studio’s architectural art glass and mosaic projects.
Heid E. Erdrich
Heid E. Erdrich is a writer and an interdisciplinary artist. She works as a visual arts curator and collaborator and as an educator. Heid teaches in residencies including as the recent Distinguished Visiting Professor in Liberal Arts at University of Minnesota Morris and as Mentor in the low-residency MFA Creative Writing Program of Augsburg University. Heid edited the 2018 anthology New Poets of Native Nations from Graywolf Press. Her poetry collection is Little Big Bully was published by Penguin in 2020. Heid grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota and is Ojibwe enrolled at Turtle Mountain.
