Leading with Our Hearts Presentations
Enjoy these audio recordings of a gallery talk and an online webinar for the exhibit Leading with Our Hearts: Nordic, Sami, and Ojibwe Designs from Nature, which was open at Vesterheim in 2024.
The gallery talk is presented by exhibit artists Alison Aune and Wendy Savage. The webinar is a conversation with five of the exhibit artists – Alison and Wendy plus Chi Ma’iingan (Cloquet, Minnesota), Laurel Sanders (Duluth, Minnesota), and Marlene Wisuri (Duluth, Minnesota).
Ojibwe, Sámi, and Nordic artisans have always decorated domestic objects and ceremonial clothing with sacred patterns. Traditional arctic designs, woodland and garden flowers, vines, leaves, and berries symbolize a spiritual relationship with nature. Today, these artists are preserving, reinterpreting, and revitalizing cultural patterns. The exhibit at Vesterheim shared their work, along with artifacts from Vesterheim and the American Swedish Institute, as they explored and honored their cultural roots and ancestral traditions with goals of unity, healing, and celebration.
The exhibit was curated by Wendy Savage (Duluth, Minnesota) and Alison Aune (Duluth, Minnesota). Participating artists were Alison Aune, Chi Ma’iingan (Cloquet, Minnesota), Laurel Sanders (Duluth, Minnesota), Wendy Savage, Dr. Lisa Savage (Binghamton, New York), and Marlene Wisuri (Duluth, Minnesota). The exhibit was made possible by a generous gift to the Vesterheim Annual Fund in loving memory of Floy Anderson Sauey by her daughters.