mtnfeatures:http://drivinghawk.com

     For our featured WEB site this edition we have chosen a site designed by one of our 1997/98 Open Studio artists Shirley Sneve who publishes the site with her mother Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, located at http://drivinghawk.com. This site is very personal and moving. It is, "The story of Mothers and Daughters in South Dakota". The home page states, "Everything moves in a circle. The Lakota show this through the medicine wheel. Its colors represent the four directions and our journey through life. We are storytellers. Through each generation, our stories connect values of the past, who we are today and visions for the future. All within our circle of life and relations. Mitakuye Owasin. We are all related." The site consists of the four directions along with Father Sky and Mother Earth. Each of these six locations include wonderful pictures, spiritual text and history. It is the artist's history including both her Lakota as well as Norwegian American family.

     From Maka Ina / Mother Earth, a portion of the text below a photo of Lakota quilt makers: "In the 1866 the U.S. government moved the Santee Dakota to a reservation in Nebraska. White Christian missionaries went with the Indians to teach them new ways. The Santees learned how to live in houses, and the women began to cook on stoves and make clothing with new materials. Once, the women had buckskin from which they made clothing that had been laced together with sinew and a bone awl. On the reservation, their garments would be of woven cotton or wool. The women learned to use scissors to cut patterns for shirts and dresses. At first it was difficult to poke fine cotton thread through the eye of a steel needle. Awkwardly, they began stitching the fabric together, and laughed when they pricked their fingers, but soon it was easy. Then they were taught to operate sewing machines. There was scraps of fabric left over after making shirts and dresses, so the women learned to make quilts from the cloth pieces. The quilts would take the place of buffalo hides which had kept them warm. They made crazy quilts; they made patch quilts. But their favorite was the star quilt because it reminded them of the morning star."

     From Tunkashila / Father Sky: "My Father, Vance Sneve, is Norwegian. He is the straight guy for all of us, our grounding and reality. When asked what he'd like to see in this website, he said Norwegian jokes. OK. Ole was on his deathbed. Suddenly, he revived to the smell of freshly baked cookies. Making his way to the kitchen, he said "Lena, Lena, I'm better now." As Ole reaches for a cookie, his wife slaps his hand and says, "Stop it, Ole, those are for the funeral."

     Please take a moment to visit this wonderful Website and to check out other Open Studio sites visit, http://mtn.org/internet/benton.htm.

openstudio.gif Open Studio 1999: continued from page five

     The following 12 arts organizations were also selected:

     As it did for the program's first year, Intermedia Arts plans to display the website art created by Upper Midwest participants in a full gallery exhibition, scheduled for February - March 1998. Open Studio: The Arts Online is an ambitious national initiative funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Benton Foundation, with major additional funding from Microsoft, AT&T, and the Ford Foundation. The program was launched as a pilot program in 1996 to provide free public Internet access at arts and community institutions and to help nonprofit arts organizations and artists go online by offering training and technical assistance. Open Studio supports 10 regional mentor sites that train local artists and arts organizations. Over 200 artists and 200 arts organizations nationally will be trained through Open Studio.
In this Issue:
MTN Page One: MTN Appreciation Night
Page Two: Programming Notes
Page Three: MTN Profile
Page Four: View From the Northside
Page Five: E-Mail from Derrik and Open Studio 1999
Page Six: MTN Features
Page Seven: MTN Appreciation Night Awards, Oct. 23, 1998