Artspace Projects
Report date
August 2018
What has been most instrumental to your progress?
Through a joint effort between LLC members Artspace, First Peoples Fund, and Lakota Funds we have made significant progress in our project through selection of an architect for the Oglala Lakota Artspace project and we unanimously selected Encompass Architects to be the architect of the Oglala Lakota Artspace. Encompass is a Native owned firm lead by Tammy Eagle Bull, a Oglala Lakota member of the Pine Ridge reservation who has done extensive work across Pine Ridge including art centers and creative businesses. The addition of Tammy Eagle Bull to our team adds local capacity and understanding of the issues, possibilities, and opportunities of and for the community. Encompass provided the LLC members with a revised architectural design for the Oglala Lakota Artspace incorporating space plan requirements from our community outreach sessions. We have gone out to bid for contractors and will make a final selection by the end of August 2018 and start construction late September of this year.
In partnership with the LLC members, artists, community members, and key local stakeholders we have coordinated a groundbreaking ceremony on September 27 in anticipation of the construction start date the Fall of 2018. The groundbreaking signifies a major milestone in project development and toward project completion scheduled for 16 month after construction begins.
Key lessons learned
A clearly identified need for the Oglala Lakota Artspace that was based on artist lead research was critical for us in establishing the right foundation to move this construction project forward. We also learned this year during the architect selection period, and after selection of the architect that community connections and understanding, both with the Native artists that the Oglala Lakota Artspace project will serve as well as key stakeholders in the community will significantly benefit the process and our project. By working with an architect who is both from the community and familiar with construction in the community we were able to make thoughtful and productive changes to the space design to better serve artists, be mindful of the budget, and take into consideration practical factors such as security, parking, and other site issues.
Reflections on the community innovation process
Inclusive - because by the very nature of meaningfully engaging key stakeholders and thoughtfully identifying all of people who needed to both create the intended change as well as those who would be directly affected by the problem, we were able to very clearly identify the need and get community-wide buy in to the need and issues. As the result of inclusion we were also able to more clearly identify solutions to those needs thus laying the foundation for true collaboration and understanding of existing resources. To us, without 'inclusive' it would be difficult and even impossible for collaboration to create a culture of innovation or a breakthrough in addressing the community need.
Progress toward an innovation
We've made a breakthrough, which the service #s attest to. Rolling Rez Arts (RRA) has traveled 8,000+ miles and 105 art classes have reached 650 people in all 9 districts of Pine Ridge. Classes ranged from moccasin making to ledger art to film-making. 65% of the people attending workshops identified as working artists. Under the leadership of FPF program manager Bryan Parker, who lives on Pine Ridge and is part of a large multi-generational family of artists, RRA has strengthened the network of artists across the reservation. The program has employed 22 Lakota artists and culture bearers as instructors and also travels annually to neighboring communities for special events. Lakota Federal Credit Union, the reservation's first FDIC-insured financial institution, uses the bus 1-2 times per month for banking days and credits the bus with helping it grow its membership to nearly 10% of the reservation population, with $2.5 million in loans and $5.7 million in deposits. The bus has been featured in the New York Times, the NEA monthly magazine and PBS News Hour.
What it will take to reach an innovation?
N/A
What's next?
A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for the first-ever arts center on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota: The Oglala Lakota Artspace. The arts facility is designed for Native artists who have not had access to programs that support their professional careers, and who have not had a place to collaborate. When complete, the mixed-use arts center will give Native artists access to capacity building programs, training in arts business practices, and opportunities to collaborate. The groundbreaking event will take place 1 p.m. Thurs., Sept. 27 at Lakota Prairie Drive, BIA 2, Kyle, SD 57752 (across from the Pine Ridge Area Chamber of Commerce) and will include an opening prayer, remarks, an exhibit of artist-designed shovels, art classes, and a lunch. Construction will begin in the fall and will take about 14 months. During that time, we will conduct outreach to artists for leasing; put together a program plan; and fundraise for programming and an eventual Grand Opening event.
If you could do it all over again...
If Artspace had the chance to go back to the start of the grant period, we would bring on a Native architect as a consultant during the entire predevelopment phase. Throughout the initial process of developing the space plan we engaged the community and have brought in artists and other key stakeholders to review schematic plans and space use/needs—all of this input was of great importance to the planning phase of the Oglala Lakota Artspace. Now that we have identified an architect and construction is on the horizon, we see that it is crucial for us to have the knowledge, sensitivity to local concerns and issues, and understanding of local resources that Encompass Architects brings to our project. Encompass has helped us establish the appropriate questions to ask around space design, construction materials, and site situations that are needed to successfully bring the building to completion.