Native Art Market and Solstice Celebration

June 21, 2025
12:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Join us in welcoming the summer season with an afternoon of art, culture, and community! Caponi Art Park’s Native Art Market & Summer Solstice Celebration will feature Native artists and makers, live performances, and engaging workshops for all ages. Admission is free, and all are welcome!

Schedule

12:00 | Opening song and drum with Tanáidaŋ Tó Wíŋ and Cante Waste Yuhua Mani

12:30 | Poetry readings with Ailene Bass

1:00 | Children’s storytelling with Travis Bush

2:00 | A native plant teaching with Fern Renville

All day | A hands-on screen printing workshop with Courtney Cochran

Native Plant Talk at Caponi Art Park

This plant walk will teach participants how to engage in a loving relationship with our plant relatives. We all need to honor and protect grandmother Earth, and her gifts for our future generations to come! Free!

All Are Welcome: A Conversation with Tara Perron (Tanaǧidaŋ To Wiŋ)

“It’s heart medicine,” is how Native Art Market host Tanáǧidaŋ Tó Wíŋ, also known as Tara Perron, describes Caponi Art Park. “It’s uplifting and it’s calming and you just feel that sense of the earth growing around you and with you.” 

This month, the Native Art Market is returning to the park for its second year to welcome in the summer season. “You’re gonna see a wide variety of our artists and all of their gifts that they have to share, whether it’s jams and syrups, soap, or beadwork,” Tara tells CAP. In addition to even more artist vendors, this year’s market will also feature storytelling, dance and drum performance, plant teachings, poetry readings, and an interactive screen printing workshop. “All are welcome,” Tara says. “I think visitors are going to get a really authentic sense of who we are as a people.”

Tara is a Lower Sioux Dakota and White Earth Anishinaabe artist, writer, and business owner from St. Paul. Coming from a lineage of medicine people on both sides of her family, she first began learning about plant medicine as a young girl. “After the pandemic hit, I knew it was really important to share our healing ways and our medicine to the broader people. That’s what inspired me to open up a shop and wellness center” she explains. Tara owns and operates Blue Hummingbird Woman Heart Medicine Gift Shop in St. Paul, which highlights Indigenous artists and makers. She also co-owns Eagle and Condor Native Wellness Center and has authored numerous children’s books. Through her shop and wellness center, Tara facilitates healing events and gatherings for the local community. 

With the Native Art Market and beyond, Tara hopes to remind us that “it’s not just native people that are connected to this land and this water. The health of the land and the water will affect everyone’s lineage in our future generations.” She also emphasizes the importance of bringing communities together. “Minnesota has a deep history that’s sometimes overlooked because it’s filled with trauma, but I think if we have more events that bring people together, we can build a healthier community. The only way to do that though is to learn and grow together.” 

Tara tells CAP that a highlight of last year’s market was the open dialogue between artists and visitors. “Each vendor really enjoyed being asked and answering questions and building that relationship with participants. Being able to talk about your artwork, whether it be a pair of earrings, you know, is meaningful because there’s a story in each piece that we create as artists.” In speaking to non-Natives, Tara has found that many are hesitant to ask questions and see the market as “a safe space for people to learn authentic information about our culture.”

All are welcome and invited to join us June 21st for the Native Art Market and Solstice Celebration. Come “share a day of family, fun, and learning!”