Recently, we sat down with musician, artist, and city planner Rynn Kerkhove to talk about some of the connections between ecologically reproductive labor, environmental planning, and building reciprocal relationships with local ecosystems. Listen to the conversation below or on Amplify’s website, if you’re on the go, and share your thoughts in the comments section.

Recently, Associate Curator of Native American Art at the Joslyn Art Museum, Annika Johnson and CEO of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, Marisa Cummings sat down to talk about some of the complexities surrounding sovereignty, Federal Indian Law, and recent landmark court cases that underscore the undeniable connections between Indigenous peoples' rights, climate action, and social justice. Listen to the conversation here or on Amplify Arts' website and share your thoughts in the comments section.

We recently asked Amplify’s 2020 Indigenous American Artist Support Grant recipient, Steve Tamayo, if he would share some of his thoughts about what it means to cultivate creative practices in rural spaces and how those practices connect revitalizing and preserving indigenous cultural knowledge to ecological justice. Steve Tamayo draws upon his family history as a member of the Sicangu Lakota tribe. His fine arts education (BFA from Singe Gleska University), along with his cultural upbringing, have shaped him as an artist, historian, storyteller and dancer. Steve provides activities during his residencies that include art and regalia making, drumming, powwow dance demonstrations and lectures on the history, symbolism and meaning behind the Native customs and traditions. Steve has considerable experience developing curricula and teaching both youth and adults, including work with the Native American Advocacy Program of South Dakota, Omaha Public Schools, Minnesota Humanities Council and Metropolitan Community College of Omaha. He also leads groups of students and teachers on cultural excursions on the Rosebud reservation, introducing them to the rich culture and way of life that is slowly being revived among native communities. He is a past Governor’s Heritage Art Award recipient, an honor bestowed for his contributions in the arts and Native American culture. Tamayo has had work exhibited at The National Museum of the American Indian, in Washington, DC, The Kaneko in Omaha, NE, The Great Plains Museum in Lincoln, NE, RNG Gallery in Council Bluffs, IA. His most recent work included painting buffalo robes and set design for Willie Nelson and Neil Young on the occasion of their concert for Bold Nebraska in Neligh, NE.

Indigenous communities, particularly those located in rural areas where ways of knowing and being are rooted in interdependencies with the environment, are on the frontlines of confronting the climate crisis and often the hardest hit. Associate Curator of Native American Art at the Joslyn Art Museum, Annika Johnson and Director of Native American Student Services at the University of South Dakota, Marisa Cummings recently sat down to talk about connections between resiliency, Indigenous cultural practices, and Nation building. Listen to the conversation here, or on Amplify’s website, and share your thoughts in the comments section.

We sat down recently with  Paige Reitz, Deputy Director at the Union for Contemporary Art and Joey Lynch, the Union’s Director of Facilities and Sustainability to talk about the organization’s move to zero waste, the intersections of social justice and ecological justice, and collectively moving the goalpost toward carbon neutrality. Listen to the conversation below or on Amplify’s Alternate Currents blog page and share your thoughts in the comments section.

We sat down recently with  Erin Foley, Finance Manager at Film Streams, to talk about the relationship between art and labor and working toward more financial stability in cultural fields. The wide-ranging conversation unpacks ideas around wage disparity, transparency, and collective organizing.

We sat down with 2019 Artist Support Grant recipients Sarah Hummel Jones and Corson Androski to find out more about the content that drives their work, their respective creative practices, and how they situate those practices within the greater economy.