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Photo of Gordon Parks authorized for use by the Gordon Parks Foundation, New York CIty, NY.
The Gordon Parks Gallery ascribes to a multi-faceted mission: to support the arts curriculum and cultural activities of Metropolitan State University and to preserve the legacy of the 20th century multimedia artist Gordon Parks.
As an academic venue, the gallery is committed to providing educational opportunities for adult learners through internships, student exhibitions and related programming. As a civic venue, the gallery is dedicated to exposing Minnesotans to the life and work of Gordon Parks through youth and community outreach programs.
Gordon Parks Gallery is dedicated to showing the work of various subjects, media, forms and content by diverse artists, including emerging and established artists of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
If you’re interested in exhibiting at The Gordon Parks Gallery, please reach out to Erica Rasmussen, gallery director, at erica.rasmussen@metrostate.edu to receive details about the submission process.
Shawl, by Jaida Grey Eagle, and Mercury Suspended, by Abbe Sunde
In recognition and celebration of Native American History Month, Minnesota-based multidisciplinary artists Jaida Grey Eagle and Abby Sunde examine the reciprocal relationship Indigenous peoples have with water and the responsibility we all have to protect it.
Mní is the Dakhóta/Lakhóta/Nakhóta word for water. It is the liquid that descends from the clouds as rain, forming rivers, lakes, and oceans. It is cleansing, nourishing, and healing. Indigenous people all over the world believe water to be sacred.
Mní Futurism features the cultural and creative practices of two Native women as they draw critical attention to the impacts water faces in their own communities—from pipelines, pollution, land use, and resource extraction—to their food sovereignty, fishing and treaty rights, and access to clean water.
This exhibition gives voice and agency to water, empowering its freedom to flow. It discusses the present, past, and future of water from the social and artistic movements of Indigenous peoples.
Guest Curator Tamara Aupaumut has commented, “Mní Futurism will inspire viewers to reflect on the current state of water by imagining a positive future for Earth’s sacred source of life—water.”
The opening reception takes place 5–7:30 p.m., Thursday, October 24, with curatorial remarks at 7. Gallery hours are 1–7 p.m., Monday to Thursday, and 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturdays, October 26 to December 5. The gallery is located at the university’s Saint Paul Campus on the first floor of the Library and Learning Center, 645 East Seventh Street.