The American Dream in Wisconsin
The American Dream is a shared dream of our own creation. The phrase implies the inclusion of all who live here and embrace the promise of a democracy that represents its diverse citizens and communities. Yet rapid, even erratic, policy changes surrounding immigration and American influence abroad are having an effect on people who share this dream across the United States. At the same time, the Seventh Generation philosophy that guides sovereign Indian nations often collides with dreams that center on short-term economic success.
In Whose Dream Is It?, artist Terese Agnew will host a panel discussion with journalist and Academy Fellow Patty Loew and community organizer Jesus Salas exploring what it means to be an American today and how different perspectives on Americanism contribute to—or detract from—our shared identity. The panel will open with a short performance by Blanche Brown about Caroline Quarlls, the first person known to have escaped slavery through Wisconsin’s Underground Railroad. Quarlls and panelist Jesus Salas are both featured in the Writing in Stone exhibition, on view in the James Watrous Gallery.
Terese Agnew
A Milwaukee native, Terese Agnew began her art career as a public sculptor. Her early work included huge temporary installations that engaged hundreds of people in the art making process. In 1991 Agnew began making art quilts in addition to sculpture. Her quilts are intricately detailed; Practice Bomber Range in the Mississippi Flyway for example, is entirely embroidered with up to fourteen layers of hand guided machine stitching.
Agnew’s Portrait of a Textile Worker, is a quilt constructed with over 30,000 clothing labels contributed by people from across the globe. She says of the piece: “The repetition of thousands of people cutting out their clothing labels is retained in the piece, giving it the impact of a chorus of voices." Agnew’s artworks are in permanent collections including the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY; the Renwick Gallery/Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C., Merton College, Oxford, England; Milwaukee Art Museum; the John M Walsh III Collection of Contemporary Art Quilts; and numerous other private collections.
Patty Loew
Patty Loew, Ph.D., is a professor in the Medill School of Journalism and the inaugural director of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research at Northwestern University. A citizen of Mashkiiziibii- the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe- Dr. Loew is a former broadcast journalist in public and commercial television. She is the author of four books, including Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal; Native People of Wisconsin, which is used by 20,000 Wisconsin school children as a social studies text; Teachers Guide to Native People of Wisconsin; and Seventh Generation Earth Ethics. In 2019, she produced a StoryMap and GPS-guided Indigenous Tour of Northwestern: https://bit.ly/2n8Acr5
Loew has produced many documentaries for public and commercial television, including the award-winning Way of the Warrior, which aired nationally on PBS, and Faces and Places of Alaska for KATU-TV in Portland. She works extensively with Native youth, teaching digital storytelling skills as a way to grow the next generation of Native storytellers and land stewards. In 2019 Dr. Loew was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and received the state of Wisconsin’s Martin Luther King Jr. Heritage Award.
Jesus Salas
Jesus Salas cofounded Obreros Unidos and was the first Latino CEO of United Migrant Opportunity Services. He taught bilingual courses at Milwaukee Area Technical College for two decades and was a lecturer at UW–Madison and UW–Milwaukee. Salas lives in Milwaukee, where he continues to be active in Latino community organizations.