Racing Magpie works to be A GOOD RELATIVE

By Mary V. Bordeaux and Peter J. Strong

At Racing Magpie, we center the Lakota practice of being a good relative in everything that we do and focus our work on elevating and amplifying the work that artists and culture bearers are doing already in our community. From our Native gallery to affordable art studios to flexible rental space for community groups and artist-centered programs, our relatives are our first priorities at all times.

As the pandemic rolled out in March, we immediately closed our physical spaces to the public and implemented protocols for our studio artists so they could still safely produce their art. This decision remains in effect until we are positive that we can still responsibly protect our community and share space.

We also initiated a “West River Creatives” Facebook group and survey to identify artists’ greatest needs and how COVID-19 was impacting them. After learning that the biggest issues were loss of income because of canceled markets and talks and a need for online exposure and sales, we immediately rolled out a Virtual Residency program for six artists and partnered with NAMI South Dakota to offer Wellness Workshops led by five additional artists.

Mary V. Bordeaux

Peter J. Strong

Both programs offered compensation and extended social media sharing, and center the artists’ stories, processes and teachings as the unbelievable resource that they are. These videos are the first additions to an online repository of videos that will remain valuable to our community for many years to come.

Additionally, in late June, we partnered with an amazing local organization, The Cave Collective, to present Amplify Black Hills: A Livestream Arts & Music Festival. This was a six-hour long event that featured seven musical acts and eleven visual artists from around western South Dakota, including an in-person, socially-distanced concert outside our building.

As we look to the remainder of the year and into 2021, we will be featuring Native artists by presenting second rounds of the Virtual Residency and Wellness Workshops, continuing the Amplifymodel at least monthly along with The Cave Collective, and introducing a new program called Winter Camp. Winter Camp will offer ongoing community learning experiences by centering Lakota knowledge keepers, and we will prioritize our community’s safety by presenting the programming online as needed.

We will continue to embrace creativity and technology as we strive to be good relatives by creating stages for our incredible artists and culture bearers.

The band Modern Folklore performs in the Racing Magpie gallery at the beginning of “Amplify Black Hills: A Livestream Arts & Music Festival.”