Mni Sóta: Traditions & Innovations, April 14 – July 4, 2026

Mni Sóta: Traditions & Innovations
Fiber and Material Culture of the Indigenous Landscape

Delina White, Curator

Joan Mondale Gallery
April 14 – July 11, 2026
Artist reception Thursday, June 4, 5:30 – 7 pm

Galleries are open Tuesday – Thursday, 10 am – 7 pm
Saturday + Sunday, 10 am – 4 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, 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: Odanisaan’ Toddler Dance Set, detail, by Lavender Doris