Rick Kagigebi, Ceremony Blankets
2024 McKnight Fiber Artist Fellowship Exhibition
February 21 – August 21, 2025
Location: Gizhiigin Arts Incubator, 701 East Jefferson Ave, Mahnomen, MN
After showing at Textile Center, Ceremony Blankets traveled to Gizhiigin Arts Incubator, thanks to collaborators Gizhiigin and Manoomin Arts Initiative.
An artist reception for Kagigebi took place on Tuesday, March 18, 4 – 6 pm. A McKnight Fellowship information session, from 3 – 4 pm, preceded the reception at Gizhiigin to share about all of the Fellowship programs offered in the McKnight Artist & Culture Bearers Fellowship program.
Read more about Rick’s work on our SUBSTACK channel!
Photos by Tj Turner Pictures
Ceremony Blankets, Rick Kagigebi
January 14 – February 15, 2025 • Textile Center
February 21 – August 21, 2025 • Gizhiigin Arts Incubator
Rick Kagigebi (Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe) is a blanket maker whose mural blankets, created as ceremonial gifts, are shaped by every aspect — from the sketch to the fabric selections, sewing, and tying — to hold storytelling significance.
@rick_a_blanket_maker
facebook.com/p/Rick-a-blanket-maker
Exhibition statement:
A blanket is a stopped moment in time. I make appliquéd mural blankets where a story is being told as I see it or is conveyed to me. Elements such as direction, movement, time, space, 3D layering, and Ojibwe culture are used. I begin with a single idea, transferring my sketch onto large, taped-together sheets of tag board. I’ll think about a person that the blanket will go to – what can be provided through the blanket in order for this person to have a good life? I translate the story into fabric, thread, and yarn with the aid of HeatnBond, stabilizer, and zig-zag stitching. The design may shift while I’m working, making me wait until I know what changes to make. The blankets don’t define me; they define the people they are made for.
Blankets are a core element in Indigenous cultural life – used both as a robe through the day and to sleep at night. Blankets are shelter, warmth, an expression of generosity, a place of safety. Babies are swaddled and protected in their first blanket. Spouses are wrapped together at a wedding ceremony. Oftentimes, a blanket will be given with tobacco within the ceremonial community as a sign of respect to the spirit helpers who are being called on; and to show one’s personal investment or sacrifice of how much they want healing and a good life.
Within ceremony, blankets are sent out to carry healing to distant communities. Blankets are imbued with medicine and prayers for long, good lives. When we die, we are again wrapped in a blanket as we begin our journey home.
I don’t know anyone else who does what I do. For many years, people have told me that the blankets I’ve made helped them. Many commissioned blankets are personal blankets. People will wrap themselves up in the blanket when they need help.
Why do I do what I do? Because the people are worth doing it for.
See more about the 2024 Fellows HERE
Founded on the belief that Minnesota thrives when its artists and culture bearers thrive, the McKnight Foundation’s arts and culture program is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in the country. Support for individual working Minnesota artists and culture bearers has been a cornerstone of the program since it began in 1982. The McKnight Artist & Culture Bearer Fellowships Program provides annual, unrestricted cash awards to outstanding mid-career Minnesota artists in 15 different creative disciplines. Program partner organizations administer the fellowships and structure them to respond to the unique challenges of different disciplines. Currently, the foundation contributes about $2.8 million per year to its statewide fellowships. For more information, visit mcknight.org/artistfellowships.
