"We Are Still Here" Mural Artists Celebration

With a focus on mural art, this year's cohort have been working diligently under the guidance of mentor artist Thomasina TopBear to learn mural art creation and techniques. Utilizing the AMRA space as working studio, the artists have created a collaborative mural spanning four walls of the gallery.

This event culminates as a celebration of the artists' creativity, learning and growth in the field of mural art. Meet the artists and staff from AMRA and Hennepin Theatre Trust and view the final mural work from the artists - featuring the work of Racquel Banaszak, Summer Sky Cohen and Jearica Fountain.
 

About the "We Are Still Here" Program:
  We Are Still Here is a multiyear collaborative partnership between the Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI) and Hennepin Theatre Trust to bring large-scale, high-profile public artworks to the Hennepin Theatre District and the American Indian Culture Corridor. This ongoing and evolving initiative seeks to match emerging Native artists with established Native arts mentors in an extending fellowship that creates a variety of public art works which promote Native and Indigenous storytelling in the community along Hennepin Avenue and throughout the greater Twin Cities metro area.

Each cohort will work closely with their mentor, Hennepin Theatre Trust and NACDI over the course of several months to create a learning experience tailored to their individual styles, goals and needs as artists. The artists and their mentor will work and learn together, creating in an artistic medium individual to each cohort; this year the artists will be creating murals, but past cohorts have designed digital artwork, animations and projections.

Editor's Note: See our article about the project for further reading.