The Johnson Heritage Post recently opened a splendid new display of art and poems, with the main feature works created by fifth and sixth graders from Oshki Ogimaag elementary school in Grand Portage. Called The Seven Clans, the works are painted on circular/convex canvasses.
On March 20, Oshki Ogimaag fifth and sixth graders sent their current art project, The Seven Clans, to the Johnson Heritage Post Gallery in Grand Marais on March 20 for inclusion in Spirit of the Wilderness, 8th Annual Art Show; Kindling Curiosity, Lighting the Creative Spirit.
The opening art reception began on March 24 and will hang until April 9. Gallery visiting hours are Mondays and Wednesdays through Saturdays from 10-4 p.m. and Sundays from 1-4 p.m.
The Seven Clans paintings were created by students with art therapist/facilitator Belle Janicek, who has worked with students at Oshki Ogimaag for the past five years to create works that allow student to explore, interpret and create their own images of their cultural teachings.
In the past, the projects have been donated to Grand Portage Community Center where they hang in the long hallway as a collection of the children’s path through art and what they have come to know of themselves and their journey as new leaders. The paintings are an honest and breathtaking display of what the children have come to know of themselves, their culture and their truth in the world. The Seven Clans Project was funded by a grant from the Lioness Club of Cook County that covered art materials for each of the students involved.
The paintings of The Seven Clans are each painted on circular/ convex canvasses and each of the seven will hang with the artist’s information, as well as their reflections and insights on the Clan they painted. Following the exhibit at the Johnson Heritage POst, The Seven Clans paintings will return to the Grand Portage Community Center to hang with the collection of paintings that Janicek has facilitated with Oshki Ogimaag students over the last five years.
Towards the end of March, Belle will return to the Twin Cities to pick up student works (17 paintings and drawings) that were submissions to the Public Art Project. These Oshki student works have spent the last two years in a traveling show that ran through Minnesota to teach students and communities about the injustice of public art in its depictions of Native Americans. The work had a voice in meetings with the State Capitol Art Subcommittee that eventually was able to have work removed from the Governor’s Office. It was a small but hopeful step for students, but the art now hangs in a different location at the capitol.
Join Oshki Ogimaag students and Belle to view the entire collection of student art, including The Seven Grandfather Teachings, The Seven Clans, The Public Art Project and more as the students exhibit the entire body of their works at the Grand Portage Community Center. The opening will take place on May 11 from 3:30-5 p.m. All are welcome and refreshments will be served. Following the opening the art will remain permanently at the Grand Portage Community Center for all to see.
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