Art of the Rural

Art of the Rural

The Art of the Rural podcast highlights the work of individuals & organizations across rural America & Indian Country. Join us for conversations expressing visions and futures across the wide field of non-urban art, culture, and community. Founded in 2010, Art of the Rural is a collaborative arts non-profit organization that works to resource artists & culture bearers to build the field, change narratives, and bridge divides. Learn more and support our work at artoftherural.org

  1. Uplifting Two-Spirit Stories and Cultural Healing with Penny Kagigebi (5 Plain Questions)

    3D AGO

    Uplifting Two-Spirit Stories and Cultural Healing with Penny Kagigebi (5 Plain Questions)

    This two-part episode was produced in partnership with5 Plain Questions and Eleven Warrior Arts. Hosted by Joe Williams, 5 Plain Questions is a podcast that proposes 5 general questions to Native American and Indigenous artists, creators, musicians, writers, movers and shakers, and culture bearers. In this episode, meet Penny Kagigebi. Penny is a Two-Spirit queer artist, curator, and community collaborator. She is Crane Clan from White Earth Nation Ojibwe in northwestern Minnesota. For years, Penny has worked at the intersection of queer activism and cultural healing, teaching and practicing porcupine quillwork and birchbark basketry to continue the lineages of these practices.  Recently, Penny curated Queering Indigeneity in collaboration with the Minnesota Museum of American Art. This multi-year, multi-generational project celebrates the vision and diversity of Two-Spirit, Native queer, gender expansive artists in the Upper Midwest. Her work has been shown across the Upper Midwest since 2018, supported by grants from the Region 2 Arts Council Anishinaabe Arts Initiative, the Lake Regions Arts Council, and the Minnesota State Arts Board, and recognized with fellowships like First Peoples Funds Cultural Capital and the Emerging Curators Institute. She also serves as co-vice chair for the Mahnomen Arts Initiative in Mahnomen, Minnesota, quietly doing the patient necessary work for tending culture back to life. Episode Resources Episode transcriptEpisode webpagePenny Kagigebi’s Facebook & InstagramQueering Indigeneity at the Minnesota Museum of American ArtTwo-Spirit Stories at Textile Center (Minneapolis)Rural-Urban Exchange, an initiative of Art of the RuralArtists mentioned:Sadie & Zoe AllenSharon DayChewie MasonAlbert McLeodMel LoshNoah PolkDelia TouchéSubscribe to 5 Plain Questions wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Art of the Rural is honored to support 5 Plain Questions. We are grateful to individual donors across the country, the Ford Foundation, and Good Chaos for making these conversations possible. Learn more about our work and show your support at artoftherural.org

    1h 25m
  2. “Get Dirty, Eat Well, and Make Art”: Reflecting on 25 Years of Wormfarm Institute with Donna Neuwirth & Jay Salinas

    APR 27

    “Get Dirty, Eat Well, and Make Art”: Reflecting on 25 Years of Wormfarm Institute with Donna Neuwirth & Jay Salinas

    Meet Donna Neuwirth and Jay Salinas, co-Founders of Wormfarm Institute, a cross-sector arts and culture organization rooted in Sauk County, Wisconsin, in the heart of the Driftless region of the Upper Midwest. Over thirty years ago, Jay and Donna made a leap of faith, leaving behind Chicago, and the city’s vibrant arts scene, for a forty-acre dairy farm in Wisconsin. Out of this experiment grew one of the most inventive and influential models for artistic, cultural, and agricultural stewardship in rural communities, a way of seeing connections embodied in Wormfarm’s notion of the cultureshed. From this foundation, Jay and Donna built a residency program rooted in the simple, generative idea of invitation – welcoming artists to visit, stay, and pitch in with the labor of a working farm. As we learn in this conversation, all of the work that has garnered Wormfarm such attention and respect continues to be rooted in those relationships and conversations that can be exchanged across a bean row. As we learn, this ethos led to some of the Institute’s most well-known work: the Farm/Art DTour, a ten-day, fifty-mile, self-guided drive across Sauk County, punctuated by temporary art installations, pasture performances, and roadside poetry; and Fermentation Fest, a celebration of the deep connections between food, land, and culture. Across all these efforts, Wormfarm has cultivated a web of cross-sector partnerships that weave together farmers, ecologists, choreographers, sculptors, and community members across the Midwest. This conversation scans from Wormfarm’s history forward into their visions for the future, and what can emerge out of deep attention to place, culture, and ecology – and where those soundings might take all of us. Learn more and support Wormfarm Institute at wormfarminstitute.org. Episode Resources Episode transcriptWormfarm Institute websiteThe notion of "cultureshed"Artist Residency ProgramFarm/Art DTourFermentation FestHay Rake BalletDecomposiumAldo Leopold archivesDr. EvermorWe are grateful to folks across the country who have made tax-deductible contributions to Art of the Rural to make this conversation possible, and to the Ford Foundation and Good Chaos Foundation for their support of Art of the Rural’s media programs.

    1 hr
  3. Championing Native Rights with Suzan Shown Harjo, Part 2 (5 Plain Questions)

    APR 1

    Championing Native Rights with Suzan Shown Harjo, Part 2 (5 Plain Questions)

    This two-part episode was produced in partnership with5 Plain Questions and Eleven Warrior Arts. Hosted by Joe Williams, 5 Plain Questions is a podcast that proposes 5 general questions to Native American and Indigenous artists, creators, musicians, writers, movers and shakers, and culture bearers. Suzan Shown Harjo is a Cheyenne citizen of Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes and Hodulgee Muscogee. She is a six-decade champion for Native rights, Founder and President of the Morning Star Institute, and former Executive Director of the National Congress of the American Indians and Native American Rights Fund. Her poetry has been published widely in several journals and anthologies, including Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Contemporary Native Women's Writings of North America and The Remembered Earth: An Anthology of Contemporary Native American Literature. In Part 2 of this conversation, Suzan continues to reflect on her work in media & journalism and her transition to Native rights advocacy. Throughout this journey, she stresses the importance of representing Native arts & culture on a national level. Suzan also shares more stories and perspectives from her youth, including her involvement in the No Mascots movement. The episode closes out with Suzan’s advice for young folks, a continuation of her ancestors’ and elders’ guidance. Throughout her advocacy work, Suzan has helped win landmark laws, including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1979, the National Museum of the American Indian Act of 1989, and the Native American Graves Protection Act of 1990. She has also led campaigns to end Native mascots, helped return over a million acres of Indigenous land, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. She remains a leading voice for Indigenous culture and legal rights. Stay tuned for part 2! Episode Resources Episode webpage & part 1Episode transcript5 Plain Questions websiteSubscribe to 5 Plain Questions wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Art of the Rural is honored to support 5 Plain Questions. We are grateful to individual donors across the country, the Ford Foundation, and Good Chaos for making these conversations possible. Learn more about our work and show your support at artoftherural.org

    1h 12m
  4. Championing Native Rights with Suzan Shown Harjo, Part 1 (5 Plain Questions)

    MAR 20

    Championing Native Rights with Suzan Shown Harjo, Part 1 (5 Plain Questions)

    This two-part episode was produced in partnership with5 Plain Questions and Eleven Warrior Arts. Hosted by Joe Williams, 5 Plain Questions is a podcast that proposes 5 general questions to Native American and Indigenous artists, creators, musicians, writers, movers and shakers, and culture bearers. Suzan Shown Harjo is a Cheyenne citizen of Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes and Hodulgee Muscogee. She is a six-decade champion for Native rights, Founder and President of the Morning Star Institute, and former Executive Director of the National Congress of the American Indians and Native American Rights Fund. Her poetry has been published widely in several journals and anthologies, including Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Contemporary Native Women's Writings of North America and The Remembered Earth: An Anthology of Contemporary Native American Literature. In Part 1 of this conversation, you will hear about Suzan’s early life, family influences, and the experiences that have shaped her decades-long advocacy work. From her transnational upbringing & education, including in places like Hawaii and Italy, she underscores the presence of shared values across cultures, including intergenerational respect, kinship, and resilience. Her elders’ teachings about tribal treaties and her background in both language arts & journalism influenced and informed her transition to Native advocacy. Throughout her advocacy work, Suzan has helped win landmark laws, including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1979, the National Museum of the American Indian Act of 1989, and the Native American Graves Protection Act of 1990. She has also led campaigns to end Native mascots, helped return over a million acres of Indigenous land, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. She remains a leading voice for Indigenous culture and legal rights. Stay tuned for part 2! Episode Resources Episode webpage5 Plain Questions websiteSubscribe to 5 Plain Questions wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Art of the Rural is honored to support 5 Plain Questions. We are grateful to individual donors across the country, the Ford Foundation, and Good Chaos for making these conversations possible. Learn more about our work and show your support at artoftherural.org

    1h 23m
  5. Tending Our Circles: The Long Conversation with Fire in the Village's Annie Humphrey & Shanai Matteson

    FEB 27

    Tending Our Circles: The Long Conversation with Fire in the Village's Annie Humphrey & Shanai Matteson

    In this episode, meet Annie Humphrey and Shanai Matteson of Fire in the Village, a collective of artists and cultural organizers that build and sustain spiritual fires of connection where they live in Anishinaabe territory, or rural northern Minnesota, and with arts and music communities around the region. As we learn, Fire in the Village isn't what we might conventionally call an organization or a program. As Shanai shares in this conversation, Fire in the Village is better understood as a work of art in itself — one that is always evolving, always changing, and deeply tethered to the places and people from which it springs. One of the most resonant images in this conversation is the one that gives this collective its name. Annie describes the circles that Fire in the Village builds as little fires — distinct, local, and belonging to their particular lands and community, but capable of connecting to other fires across the region and beyond, growing and growing until what once seemed isolated becomes a network of warmth and light. Recorded in November 2025, this conversation raises many complex and multilayered questions with depth and honesty: What does it mean to stay? What does it cost, practically and personally, to choose to remain in and work from the communities where you were shaped, rather than accept the art world's logic of moving away? What futures are possible in terms of intercultural exchange and community resilience when artists and culture bearers are genuinely of a place and not just visitors to it? This episode is presented in a format that we call the Long Conversation, an unmoderated space that allows for individuals to cultivate a depth of conversation that shares the textures of creativity and intercultural exchange that are often hard to express in conventional interviews. Episode Resources Episode transcriptFire in the Village website & InstagramShanai Matteson's websiteAnnie Humphrey's websiteJohn Trudell archiveMore Long Conversations Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange & Kentucky Performing Arts, The Golden Thread (2025)Dyani White Hawk & Jovan C. Speller, High Visibility: On Location in Rural America & Indian Country (2021)We are grateful to folks across the country who have made tax-deductible contributions to Art of the Rural to make this conversation possible, and to the Ford Foundation and Good Chaos Foundation for their support of Art of the Rural’s media programs.

    58 min
  6. Amplifying Dakota Language & Creativity with Dr. Kate Beane (5 Plain Questions)

    12/12/2025

    Amplifying Dakota Language & Creativity with Dr. Kate Beane (5 Plain Questions)

    This episode was produced in partnership with 5 Plain Questions and Eleven Warrior Arts. Hosted by Joe Williams, 5 Plain Questions is a podcast that proposes 5 general questions to Native American and Indigenous artists, creators, musicians, writers, movers and shakers, and culture bearers. Dr. Kate Beane is a public historian, the Executive Director of the Minnesota Museum of American Art, and the Vice Chair of Vision Maker Media. In 2020, she was appointed by Governor Walz to serve on the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board, which oversees Capitol complex preservation and development. Previously, Kate served on the leadership team at the Minnesota Historical Society, where she was the Director of Native American Initiatives, engaging in both Native American communities and tribes, and advocating for the implementation of indigenous interpretation & involvement at historical sites throughout the state. She holds a PhD in American Indian Studies from the University of Minnesota. In this episode, Kate shares her journey into the public art realm, including her work with Dakota name restoration at Bde Maka Ska. She reflects on the importance of public art as "more than just text on a plaque" - it plays a key role in sharing & shaping narratives, knowledge, and solidarity with Native communities.  Episode Resources Episode webpageEpisode transcriptVision Maker MediaOhiyesa: The Soul of an Indian filmMinnesota Museum of American ArtQueering Indigeneity exhibitionPenny KagigebiDJ Justis BrokenropeBuddy Red BowUniversity of Minnesota Dakota Language Program Subscribe to 5 Plain Questions wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Art of the Rural is honored to support 5 Plain Questions. We are grateful to individual donors across the country, the Ford Foundation, and Good Chaos for making these conversations possible. Learn more about our work and show your support at artoftherural.org

    48 min
  7. Dreaming Back Knowledge with Autumn Cavender

    11/11/2025

    Dreaming Back Knowledge with Autumn Cavender

    On this episode of the Art of the Rural podcast, meet Autumn Cavender. She is a Wahpetunwan Dakota midwife, artist, and community leader focusing on the intersections of art, birth, and storytelling. Raised amidst community historians, Autumn initially focused on Dakota language and cultural revitalization. This background brought a unique perspective to her birth work, first as a doula, and then as a student midwife. After establishing a private midwifery practice, she joined forces with Indigenous midwives nationally, culminating in the creation of the National Indigenous Midwifery Alliance, geared towards addressing reproductive care barriers and perinatal health disparities in Indian country. Autumn’s artistic journey began as a porcupine quillwork apprentice under Elder Master artists rooted in her oral history training. She focused on Dakota artistic methodology, resulting in globally recognized digital art. Her work has graced prestigious exhibitions like Miami Art Basel and earned her the National Indigenous Media Arts Experimental Moving Image Award. She is a 2024 Bush Foundation Fellow and also currently an Art of the Rural Spillway Fellow. We are honored to present her exhibition Hinapapi — Emerging this fall at the Winona County History Center, and we are grateful for the support of the Jerome Foundation in this work. Autumn lives near her home reservation of Upper Sioux with her partner, two kids, a German Shepherd, and the occasional chicken. During this podcast, Autumn shares her personal journey and artistic practice as one animated by a commitment towards care and cultural revitalization. In this wide-ranging conversation, she discusses how blockchain, decolonization, storytelling, and childbirth are connected points in her practice and the futures it brings into being. We move in this space from talking about NFTs to Native sovereignty to the legacy of Oscar Howe in a way that feels both truly unique, but also deeply grounded in cultural tradition and contemporary experience. Our conversation concludes with Autumn’s thoughts on how the phases of childbirth might offer us teachings on how to navigate and to be with the overwhelming complexity of this current moment in the world. Episode Resources Episode transcriptAutumn Cavender’s website & InstagramAutumn Cavender: Hinapapi — Emerging exhibitionJuleana Enright, “Glitching the Glass Wall: A Conversation with Autumn Cavender-Wilson” (Mn Artists)“The Howe Legacy Across Four Generations Exhibition” (University of South Dakota University Art Galleries)

    1h 14m
  8. Hearing the Archive, Land, and Memory with Brian Harnetty

    10/24/2025

    Hearing the Archive, Land, and Memory with Brian Harnetty

    On this episode, meet Brian Harnetty, an interdisciplinary sound artist, composer, and author. Brian is known for his archival recording projects, socially-engaged works, sound & video installations, live performances, and writings, including his book, Noisy Memory: Recording Sound, Performing Archives (University of North Carolina Press, 2025). Brian works with sound archives and the communities connected to them, creating projects that are centered on place and listening. This conversation dwells on many of these projects, including his recent recording Words and Silences, which is a musical portrait of Kentucky monk and writer Thomas Merton that combines archival recordings of Merton's voice with newly composed music. Since 2010, many of Harnetty’s projects have brought together myth, history, ecology, and economy in Appalachian Ohio, informed by his family's roots there. Brian has released 10 albums and EPs, and his installations have been exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally. He is a recipient of the Creative Capital Award, two Map Fund awards, and the Blade of Grass Fellowship for Socially-Engaged Art, among many other honors. Resources Episode transcriptEpisode webpageFrom Brian:Brian's websiteSound is Magic Substack & podcastNoisy Memory: Recording Sound, Performing Archives (University of North Carolina Press, 2025)Shawnee, Ohio (2021)Words and Silences (2022)“Who Is This I?”The Workbench (2024)Lewis Hyde, The Gift (1983)Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance (2024)Mallory Catlett & Aaron Landsman, The City We Make Together (2022)We are grateful to folks across the country who have made tax-deductible contributions to Art of the Rural to make this conversation possible, and to the Ford Foundation and Good Chaos Foundation for their support of Art of the Rural’s media programs.

    1h 6m
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Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

4.8
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

The Art of the Rural podcast highlights the work of individuals & organizations across rural America & Indian Country. Join us for conversations expressing visions and futures across the wide field of non-urban art, culture, and community. Founded in 2010, Art of the Rural is a collaborative arts non-profit organization that works to resource artists & culture bearers to build the field, change narratives, and bridge divides. Learn more and support our work at artoftherural.org

Information

  • Creator
    Art of the Rural
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Art of the Rural
  • Show Website
    Art of the Rural

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