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Fond du Lac Arts is a series exploring the stories, creative expression, and craftsmanship of Fond du Lac artists from a range of disciplines.
This project is produced by AMPERS, Diverse Radio for Minnesota’s Communities in partnership with WGZS, the Radio Voice of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, with support from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
INTRO: You are listening to Fond du Lac Arts: Community through the Creative Arts.
HOST: The old band shell has sat in Cloquet's Pinehurst Park since before World War Two. It was the backdrop of Giizh Sarah Agaton-Howe's childhood summers,
GIIZH SARAH AGATON HOWES: And the Pinehurst Band Shell is this historic kind of iconic old school band shell structure, and I grew up going to that pool, like seeing that structure.
HOST: A proper band shell with a curved back to amplify sound. For decades, people have been gathering there for concerts, competitions, or just an evening’s entertainment under the stars.
GIIZH SARAH AGATON HOWES: My great grandpa used to log roll there because it used to be a pond.
HOST: So when the Fond du Lac Band and the city wanted to put Native public art in the space. Giizh, an artist and CEO of the contemporary Ojibwe design brand Heart Berry, got excited because she had those personal connections.
GIIZH SARAH AGATON HOWES: And there isn't currently any other Native public art in Cloquet at all.
HOST: She got the go-ahead to paint a mural on the back wall, whose bumpy surface would provide one of those first challenges.
GIIZH SARAH AGATON HOWES: Ah, well, because it's almost like popcorn, and not like a popcorn ceiling, but like literal popcorn.
HOST: She'd never worked on such a grand scale. She built a painting surface that would sit on top of the bumpy wall and invited in community to paint the wildflower design paired with the theme of wild ricing.
GIIZH SARAH AGATON HOWES: Everything about wild ricing is like center to health, wellness, good life, because when the rice is healthy, the water is healthy, we're healthy when we're eating it, and when we're going to do it, like all the things about it.
HOST: Giizh Sarah Agaton-Howes’s band shell art was unveiled to the public May 2025. She titled the mural The Good We Were Given.
OUTRO: Fond du Lac Arts is produced by AMPERS and WGZS, the radio voice of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, with support from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.