Mni Sóta: Traditions & Innovations

Fiber and Material Culture of the Indigenous Landscape

Delina White, Curator

April 14 – July 11, 2026, Joan Mondale Gallery

Artist reception: Thursday, June 4, 5:30 – 7 pm

Mni Sóta: Traditions & Innovations honors Native textile and fiber arts as living knowledge held in the hands and shaped by place. For the Tribal Nations of Minnesota, textiles are teachings, protection, identity, and relationship, formed through artistic skills guided by water, forest, prairie, and season, and carried forward across generations.

Featuring distinguished Dakota and Anishinaabe artists working today, the exhibition highlights practices that extend ancestral forms through contemporary expression. Beadwork, cloth, fiber, hide, quilting, weaving, and mixed media reveal technical mastery, material understanding, and cultural responsibility.

Curated by Delina White, (Leech Lake Band of Anishinaabe), the exhibition brings together Minnesota artists whose work invites close looking and thoughtful appreciation. Each piece carries labor, intention, and story, affirming Native textile arts as a living presence, continually becoming.

Participating Artists:
Adrienne Benjamin, Mille Lacs Anishinaabe / Misizaaga’iganiing
Fern Cloud, Upper Sioux Dakota Community / Pezihutazizi Oyate
Lavender Doris, Red Lake Anishinaabe Nation / Miskwaagamiiwi zaaga’iganing
Georgina Drapeau, Lower Sioux Dakota Community / Cansa’yapi
Kent Estey and the Nayatahwaush Community, White Earth Anishinaabe / Gaawaabaabiganikaag
Melvin Losh, Leech Lake Anishinaabe / Gaazagaskwaa’jimekaagzaaga’iganing
Marcie McIntire, Grand Portage Anishinaabe / Gichi’onigamiing
Cole Redhorse Taylor, Prairie Island Dakota Community / Tinta WitaDakhotaOyate
Delina White, Leech Lake Anishinaabe / Gaazagaskwaa’jimekaag
Gerald White, Leech Lake Anishinaabe / Gaazagaskwaa’jimekaag
Valerie Whitebird, Fond Du Lac Anishinaabe / Nagaajiwanaang

(Header image, from left to right: Born of the Waters  by Cole Redhorse Taylor, Traditional Deer Hide Painting by Fern Cloud, Odanisaan’ Toddler Dance Set, detail by Lavender Doris)

This exhibition is a part of Minnesota Handwork — a year-long series of programming at Textile Center celebrating the importance of fiber art and the handmade.

Minnesota Handwork is a part of a national celebration called Handwork 2026, organized by Craft in America, with more than 250+ participating organizations. Learn more: minnesotahandwork.org

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.