Gwen Westerman: Listening to the Land

Join us on Zoom or in-person for this meeting. We will host our first Program Watch Party at the Textile Center. Members who are able to be at the Textile Center can start gathering at 5 pm and then watch the program at 6:30 pm on a large screen.

Gwen Westerman’s roots are deep in the landscape of the tall grass prairie, and reveal themselves in her art and writing through the languages and traditions of her family. She is an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota Oyate, her father’s people, and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, her mother’s people.

A three-time recipient of an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, Gwen creates incredible textile art influenced by her life and Indigenous cultures. Since 2005, she has been creating quilts that have won awards at the juried shows of the Northern Plains Indian Art Market in Sioux Falls, the Eiteljorg Indian Art Market in Indianapolis, and the Heard Museum Guild Indian Art Fair & Market in Phoenix. Her work is in several permanent collections including the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul.

Dr. Gwen Westerman holds her BA and MA in English from Oklahoma State University, and PhD in English from the University of Kansas. She teaches American and Native Nations literatures, Technical Communication, and Humanities to undergraduate and graduate students at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Gwen's poems, essays, and short stories appear in numerous publications including the Minnesota issue of Quiltfolk (January 2020).

(Photo credit Melanie Zacek for Quiltfolk 2021)

https://www.gwenwesterman.com/