b'"What You Learn, You Share: The Power of Artto Build & Heal Community" A Conversation with Missy WhitemanMissyWhiteman(NorthernArapahoandKickapoo),Emmynominatedwriter,director,producer,interdisciplinarypubliXartistandcurator, teacher and learner, and winner of the2022MinnesotaChangemakerAwardasanIndigenous Media Innovator, has seen and felt,firsthand, the impact that art can have on boththe individual and community levels.TYRC Staff had the distinct honor of speaking creativeavenuesforhealing.MyfatherleftthewithMissyaboutthehealing,connecting,and reservationtogivemysisterandIaccesstochangemakingopportunitiesthatthecreative resourcesandopportunitiesthatunfortunatelyarenot available on the reservation. Missy noted, whatprocesscontinuestoprovideinherownlife. you learn, you share. What you learn is for the nextArthassavedmylife,manytimes,Missy generation.ThishasframedMissysapproachtoshared,Ifoughtthroughfostercare,hadan thecreativeprocess,toteaching,andtoalcoholic mother, [and] by the time I was three community-building. Youre always building basedyears old, I was in three car accidents and put on ancestral knowledge and building for the future,intofostercare.[Ihad]alotoftrauma[that she said. came] up and not a lot of resources. Luckily, Ihad art and my father who was an artist saying, Missy celebrates the opportunities that the creativeyoutalkthroughart,youhaveavision,and process offers the individual artist; we all have thatsharethatthroughart.Ialwayshadthat abilitytohaveavisionandadreamofwhatweprocess, that guidance, when it was my turn to want to do with our lives, she noted. But the realsharethatbacktootherpeople.Missywas powerinart,inbothprocessandproduct,MissyattendinganartshighschoolinMinnesota highlights,isitscapacitytohonortradition,buildcommunity,and,ultimately,heal.Inthelate80swhenshelosthermotheratage18;she and early 90s, Missy shared, Native Art Circle wasemphasizedhowgratefulshecontinuestobe created in Twin Cities in response to Native visibilityforaccesstosupportivespaceatschooland invisualarts,[specifically]creatingdifferentartsguidancefromteacherswithwhomshecould organizationsandpartneringwithotherBIPOCprocess her grief and trauma and lean intocommunities. [We saw] artists coming together'