Carissa Bickford and Biidaash Aubid both stand next to their paintings that now hang on the walls of the Grand Portage Community Center for display. Three other beautiful works of art by Oshki Ogimaag students are also hung for public viewing through the month of May.
Five Oshki Ogimaag students’ excellent artwork is now being shown at the second annual Public Art Exhibit at the Grand Portage Community Center through the end of May.
The colorful acrylic paintings on canvas depict many things about the children’s past, their culture, their current lives, and their hopes for the future.
When Biidaash Aubid was asked to describe his picture, the 10-year-old thought for a minute, crinkled his nose, then pushed his glasses up on his nose and his face lit into a big smile as he explained that his painting featured a medicine wheel with other symbols of his Catfish Clan.
“I did this project because I really can do it and because all people should be treated fairly and recognized for their accomplishments,” said the thoughtful fourth grader.
Another fourth grade student, 9-year-old Carissa Bickford, said her picture was about, “How I would have lived back in time. My painting is about how it was ‘back then.’ It is a symbol of where I came from.”
Suzabelle “Belle” Janicek, local artist and therapist who provides emotional support at the Oshki Ogimaag School, provided guidance to the students throughout the project.
Janicek said she first learned about the Public Art Exhibit through a breakout session at the 2012 Native American Education Conference where Scott Russell, Healing Minnesota Stories director, and Bob Klanderud, Dakota, were presenting the Indians in Public Art Project.
“This session took participants on a virtual tour of Minnesota public art and created a dialog around how public portrays Native Americans and the stories it tells about early state history,” Janicek said.
Janicek’s history in restorative paintings at state capitols in Alabama, Michigan and Minnesota exposed her to a lot of public art that was not historically accurate. The Public Art Project, she said, gave her hope for change.
Over the past two years Janicek has worked to build a curriculum with Oshki students, encouraging the young artists to paint an accurate presentation of themselves, their history, and their culture in Minnesota.
Once the current show is finished it will join the Oshki Ogimaag Public Art Exhibit of 2015 and will continue with the Traveling Public Art Exhibit, educating the public and advocating for a change and removal of offensive art displayed at the Minnesota State Capitol.
Janicek said as a result of last year’s advocacy that included many meetings with Tribes and the Capitol’s Art Subcommittee, it was decided not to honor the tribes by removing the art completely from the Capitol, but it was recommended that the offensive and traumatizing pieces (in the governor’s office) be removed to a less prominent place in the capitol.
“The hope remains that the students’ work will eventually initiate permanent removal of the Capitol’s current defamatory art and hopefully the addition of some of the student art pieces,” Janicek said.
In the meantime, the Three Rivers Gallery in Minneapolis will be hosting an exhibition to call attention to public art that will include the 2015 and 2016 Oshki Ogimaag Charter School’s students’ artwork.
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