(light music) - For us as an artist, especially for our community, when we think about a space, it is not so much about a physical space rather than a shared space where connections are created and imaginations are explored.

Art, like many other forms of communications that exist in the world, is to tell a story, is to communicate, is to relate to one another.

We really were starting to establish Soomaal House of Art.

There wasn't a Somali-run gallery in the state.

There wasn't a whole lot of art shows that were done by Somalis.

There were some artists early on that were still creating artworks.

But it is these things, or these artists, were really in silos.

(upbeat music) - The Somali community started arriving in the United States, particularly in the Midwest, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Columbus, Ohio.

Most of the major cities, housing, it's very expensive.

Folks could not afford to pay rent.

Also transportation.

So few families started arriving on Somali piggybacked to rely on one another.

And those two communities have available startup jobs, relatively affordable housing arrangements for larger families, and the growth continued from there through family reunification, through more settlement, through refugee agencies, and the US State Department.

And that's how they ended up having the largest in the case of Minnesota and the second largest in Columbus, Ohio.

- When I moved to Minneapolis, there was already an established Somali community.

And that has grown tremendously over the years.

And so if my art is about who I am, which is who I am as a person, what shaped me as a person, as a Somali immigrant, Muslim, American, therefore all of those experiences are embodied in me, and I use as a raw material for my work of the Somali experience.

So therefore, Minneapolis has been home for me.

And without Minneapolis and the community that I have, the Somali community, I don't think my art would have that much of a resonance.

(light music) - How do we archive our history?

And who is responsible for that?

And can we pose that to all Somalis wherever they are?

So we take a hold of this and make sure that our histories get passed on to generations, generations after us.

(music continues) The archive that I'm currently working on are primarily archives from Somalia, colonial archive to be exact.

And they are in between late 19th to mid 20th century, so 1885 to 1960.

- You know, we always says a community without archives like eyes without a sight.

Or, (foreign) in Somali.

So to know where you came from is important.

To know where you're located is very important.

To know where you're going is very important.

And this is the root idea of what artist does, questioning, searching, looking.

- We really think that the artist themselves are also archivists.

And we are really trying to make sure that the artist is aware of that history, is aware of coloniality, is aware of what's going on in the world so that they make space and place within their own present to make a change for themselves, for their communities, but also for their culture moving forward.

- Much of our history has been lost in transition.

There are so many people, when I talk to them about, you know, dance and, you know, music and poetry or... Or even like plays that we used to watch as a kid, they're like, "Wait, what?

"That used to happen in Somalia?"

And these are Somali young people who were born in the United States or who were born in refugee camps.

And I think it's important for them to know that we weren't people who were deprived of the important role art plays in a society.

And we shouldn't continue to be people who are deprived of that.

- There's some sort of a calm that you find, the pace that you find in the Midwest, especially in Minneapolis, and even in Columbus, where I lived for a couple years.

It's sort of like a place where work is rooted as part of who you are and a sense of community.

And the pace was very conducive to the way my work evolves, which is very slow, research-based, and unfolds over time.

- So we found a lot of people and connected a lot of Somali artists actually through the social media and through websites and through word of mouth.

And wherever we found them, we hope to connect with them and see how we can collaborate, work with each other, coexhibit.

So we went as far as going back, like Muhamud has done now and I've done it before in 2018, just going back home.

And you know, you know one artist, you'll find out 10 more artists.

And then you connect and see how you can work and collaborate.

We've gone to Scandinavia.

We went to Norway.

We went to Denmark, Sweden.

We went to London as well.

We've connected a lot of people.

And, you know, the way we find each other, I think, is indicative of our moment.

- We fled war.

Many of us have gone through the transition of what it means to live in a refugee camp, find a new home.

So a lot of our identity of who we used to be and what we were all about has been lost.

And so I think that there is now a sense of pride, right?

To say, "No, me expressing myself this way "is also a part of what it means to be Somali "and what it means to be part of the Somali diaspora."

- We live trying to satisfy somebody else's vision of us, whether it's our parents putting their hopes and dreams on us or if it's American society kind of expecting us to somehow leave behind our identity and assimilate to a new culture.

And for Soomaal House to really be a space that just asks you to just be rather than define yourself or explain yourself, I think that is a monumental space that is required in any capacity.

And so the fact that they're doing it for Somali immigrants and Somali diaspora is incredible.

- To say, "No, me expressing myself this way "is also a part of what it means to be Somali "and what it means to be part of the Somali diaspora."

And I see young people pushing back against their parents and feeling confident about who they are and what they're trying to do.

So no, you don't just have to be a teacher and a doctor.

You can be an artist, and that's okay.

- You know, the Augsburg Galleries and Soomaal House of Art, they both are dedicated to engaging the community and supporting artists.

We run the Soomaal fellowship, and it's a year-long project that supports two emerging Somali artists.

The community is invited to kind of be part of this creation and celebration of culture.

And that creates these enriching ties, this understanding.

And then it's normalizing a career in the visual arts for Somali youth, and also supporting the development of ideas and explorations of artistic goals for the emerging Somali fellows.

- Whenever we invite people, we don't charge them.

To us, art should be free, especially for our community to be able to come see art.

It reflects their experience, so how would you charge somebody's experience back to them?

- When we show a young artist's work or have their work exhibited here at Soomaal, we're not only investing in their work, it is an investment for the community as well because these are the young artists that are going to be able to contribute and ask the questions that the older generation have not asked.

- The work we do at Soomaal is really motivational on its own.

We see a lot of artists from young, emerging artists to really well-established artists come through our doors.

Whether they're new to the craft or they've been doing it for decades, the ownership of this space and the support that they have for the space is really something that keeps us going.

- Art in all its form essentially tell a story.

And we are part of the American story, whether it is the story of Minneapolis, the story of Minnesota, the story of the Midwest or America in large.

We get to tell our story through the arts.

- It's really key for the younger generation to have a base, which Soomaal House has become, a base for them to start.

If you don't pass on what you know, it's not so much about what you have in your possession in terms of material possession, but knowledge.

If you don't pass that down to the next generation, I think you've died a poor man or woman.

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