We Are Still Here

The exhibition features artists Ray Janis, Sheldon Starr, Missy Whiteman, with mentor artist, Jonathan Thunder. As part of the inaugural collaboration between Hennepin Theatre Trust and All My Relations Arts, this exhibition features the culmination of works completed by the artists during their eighteen month cohort. The artworks include digital designs featured previously as billboards displayed in downtown Minneapolis, along Hennepin Avenue and throughout the Twin Cities. These works served to uplift Native voices and highlight truth-telling by changing the narrative of Native people in Minnesota. The art highlights contemporary Native culture while dispelling stereotypes through education, humor, and bold, thought-provoking designs. By interweaving contemporary and traditional storytelling, and the allyship of Indigenous communities here in the Twin Cities, We Are Still Here connects the Native history of the land and continued connections to our past using the powerful visuals and current narratives of contemporary Native artists.

We Are Still Here re-centers Native voices and stories in the Hennepin Theatre District and the Native American Cultural Corridor through the work of a Native artists’ cohort working in a variety of digital and analog media, leading to a large-scale public art project by fall 2020. All My Relations Arts and Hennepin Theatre Trust have committed to this multiyear partnership to weave Native culture back into Hennepin Avenue with temporary and permanent art that engages Native and non-Native people in a deeper sense of place and share future.