MNN Extended Interview: Heid E. Erdrich

Transcript

[Music: Minnesota Native News Theme]

Marie Rock [ANCHOR]: Welcome to Minnesota native news. I'm Marie Rock. This week, we look back with an extended conversation between producer Dan Ninham and art curator, writer, and educator Heid E. Erdrich about creativity, collaboration, and the connections that shape her work.

Dan Ninham: Explain your journey into becoming an art exhibition curator and what inspired you within this field?

Heid E. Erdrich: It's a really good question, Dan. I was a professor, and I was a full-time tenured professor. I was feeling my mission slip. School was changing. Students were changing in ways that I felt less inclined to serve them. And I was really happy working in the Native community in the Twin Cities, working with youth groups, working with artists. And one night, I decided I'm going to leave my job, and I went into an exhibition at the old Ancient Traders Gallery where Shirlee Stone ran the All My Relations program. And I was leaving, it was crowded, and I was leaving. And I was going to head home, and Shirlee caught me at the door, and she said, "Wait, wait, we didn't get to talk. How's it going?" I said, "Well, actually, I decided to quit my job today." And she said, "Would you like mine?" And I said yes on the spot. So I took over for Shirlee with the local Native artists exhibition series and moved it over to the what became the All My Relations Gallery on Franklin Avenue, and worked on and off with those programs and those organizations for about 10 years. And in doing it, I met so many artists. More committed to showing them and the way they wanted to be shown, rather than the way somebody wanted to show them. There's a big difference in listening to the artists. And I started writing about art and writing with artists, and even making art with them sometimes.

Dan Ninham: Explain how the curatorial processes compared to your writing and their other creative work.

Heid E. Erdrich: Yeah, I try to make all my work kind of the same in my head, or I would go bonkers, you know. Because it's just too many things I'm doing. And if they're all kind of one thing, I have one mission. I have one way of being in the world, and I hold myself steady in it, then I don't get discombobulated in it. A lot of it is listening, listening for what should happen, noticing when something comes to you, which is something I really learned from Anishinaabe elders, like watch what's coming around you. Be quiet, be still. Listen. See who's coming to you. See what's around you. What have you ignored that you maybe shouldn't have ignored? So that has made it work for me to be kind of trusting and faithful to that concept of what needs to come to you will come to you, and what you need to show up for will be there. Those things have really helped me. I really encourage Native folks at whatever age they're in to look into working with arts organizations, working across disciplines, finding places you can collaborate with others, because it's just satisfying. It feels less like, you know, the solo artist in the Western tradition, in the Euro tradition, meant to just self-aggrandize and make themselves the center. But that's not so satisfying. And that's not where you're needed. You're needed to show up in community, and that gives back a lot. It gives you back a lot. So look for those times when you can work, you know, even if you're working in social work or a field that doesn't seem to have anything to do with art, look for ways that you can work. Because I think it's our natural way of being. And then also, if people are interested in professional careers, museums, galleries, institutions, I think that's a great place for students to think about looking for work. There's still a fair amount of that. There's still a lot of interest in including communities. Somebody could make a living just being a social and community engagement specialist for Native artists. I think that job is really needed out there. So any entrepreneurs who like hanging out with artists that don't get frustrated when things aren't immediately going your way, that might be your job.

Dan Ninham: Well, what strategies did you use to develop an engaging and educational exhibition concept?

Heid E. Erdrich: You know, I was thinking about the audience and who is going to walk in there, you know. Everything from school kids to elders, Native people, non-Native people, visitors from other countries, you know, to engage them. I wanted there to be parts of the stories written, audio so people could listen to a story. Trying to hit every way that a person gets engaged and every age of person that might encounter—that was the strategy.

Dan Ninham: Miigwech.

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Marie Rock: Minnesota Native News is produced by AMPERS: Diverse Radio for Minnesota's Communities. Made possibly by funding from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.