Art Revitalization
Jennifer Gauthier fingerweaving. Fingerweaving is an art form used mostly to create sashes, belts, straps.
Menominee Beadwork.
Revilizating Menominee arts is an important part of food sovereignty work, as the two are inherently connected. Items like black ash baskets, yarn woven belts, loom beadwork, fiber bags, and wood carved spoons are viewed as art pieces to be stored on shelves and for display. It was not so long ago that these items were used for gathering berries, storing food, cooking, rinsing corn, and other purposes. There are few people in the community who are actively practicing these arts. The goal of art revitalization work is to bring back the utility of these items in everyday life while increasing the number of Menominee who are able to carry on these traditions. Local art revitalization workshops of 2014 were made possible with funding from the American Indian College Fund. With this funding, the College of Menominee Nation and its extension division developed workshops to: 1.) connect community with local artists; 2.) build safe and inclusive learning communities; 3.) bring back Menominee arts that were fading from everyday life; 4.) introduce Menominee material culture, history, and functional uses of fading arts; and 5.) give community members the knowledge and materials to use what they learned at the workshops. These workshops were, at a minimum, seven weeks long, with learning groups meeting weekly for at least three hours.
During this time, we achieved the goal of building learning communities. What also transpired was intergenerational learning and the building of extended families. Most workshops did not have any age
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