North House Folk School

Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe), founder and owner of Makwa Studio in Minneapolis, shares about her arts practice, knitwear, and journey of growth while speaking to how art, activism, and community intersect in her work.

Part of Fiber Week 2026 

More about the artist: 

Maggie Thompson had her first solo exhibition Where I Fit at All My Relations Gallery in Minneapolis in 2014, and was most recently included in the 2025 exhibition Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation at the Detroit Institute of Art. Recent solo exhibitions include Intentions, Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM (2025), Loves Me, Loves Me Not, Mardag Gallery, Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, MN (2023); Just Friends, Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN (2022), and Dakobijige/ She Ties Things Together, Watermark Center, Bemidji, MN (2021). She has exhibited in numerous group exhibitions including Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the 2023 Renwick Invitational, the Plains Art Museum, Minnesota Textile Center, Walker Art Center, and Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Thompson has been awarded grants and awards, including the All My Relations and Bockley Gallery Jim Denomie Scholarship, Jerome Foundation Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, and First Peoples Fund Seeding Cultural Treasures and Business Leadership Grants. Others have been awarded from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Her work is collected by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Minnesota Museum of American Art, Minnesota Historical Society, North Dakota Museum of Art, Hood Museum, Tia Collection, and Field Museum, among others.

In addition to her fine arts practice, Thompson runs a knitwear business known as Makwa Studio. She has also worked on curating special exhibits in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, including at Two Rivers Gallery, the McKnight Foundation and the Minnesota Museum of American Art.