"Art, to me, is experience. Art exists as not just the final image or film or performance, but all the moments leading up to it, and all the moments that follow." - Moira Villiard

 

Through public art collaborations across Minnesota, Moira Villiard (pronounced "Miri") is a multidisciplinary artist who uses art to uplift underrepresented narratives, explore the nuance of society’s historical community intersections, and promote community healing spaces. The outputs of her work include murals, community spaces and programming, exhibits, installations, animated light projections, film, and digital design. Moira grew up on the Fond du Lac Reservation in Cloquet, MN, and is a Fond du Lac direct descendant through her father; her mother is enrolled with the Moravian Band of the Thames in Canada, and her paternal grandfather was a member of the Lac Courte Oreilles of Lake Superior Ojibwe. A lifelong Minnesotan, Moira feels deeply connected with the history and lands throughout the Great Lakes region. 

 

She currently works as a freelance consultant, designer, teacher, speaker, and grant writer and is the lead artist behind organizing the Chief Buffalo Memorial Mural site in Duluth. Her educational, activism-rooted exhibit "Waiting for Beds" (partnership with Carla Hamilton) has toured across Minnesota and Wisconsin, and she is the founder of the Minnesota nonprofit Aanjichigeng, which aims to maintain and protect the site of the Chief Buffalo Memorial while also uplifting Native artists and culture bearers in Northeastern Minnesota.

 

In 2021 she debuted her first animated work for Illuminate the Lock, a 10 minute, 150’ projection piece titled “Madweyaashkaa: Waves Can Be Heard”, and has since collaborated with Indigenous musicians and writers to create animations for "A Winter Love", "Mináǧi Kiŋ Dowáŋ: A ZitkálaŠá Opera", "Jonathan Thunder: Good Mythology" (PBS American Masters), and "Extraction" (poem by Tanaya Winder), among other films. She is also the illustrator of the children's book Ishkode: A Story of Fire and Thomas Peacock's forthcoming book, A Dream For You. 

 

Her work has been featured in numerous shows around the Midwest including her solo show, “Rights of the Child” at Zeitgeist, and group shows “Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation” at Detroit Institute of Art, the touring "Dreaming Our Futures: Ojibwe and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ Artists and Knowledge Keepers" exhibit, and “We the People” at the Minnesota Museum of American Art.

 

She received her Bachelor's Degree in Communicating Arts (Global Studies Minor) from the University of Wisconsin-Superior in 2016 and an Associate of Liberal Arts degree from Fond du Lac Tribal & Community College. She is a 2026 graduate of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs with her Master of Human Rights, focusing on Carceral Studies, and a minor in Public Policy. She currently works variable hours as a COMPAS teaching artist as well as a Grant Program Associate for the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council. She has previously worked as an Artist Career Consultant through Springboard for the Arts, and prior to that, the Arts & Cultural Programming Coordinator for a tribal nonprofit.

 

Moira Villiard is a recipient of the MCAD-Jerome Emerging Artist Fellowship, 2023 McKnight Foundation Community-Engaged Practice fellowship, and was a 2024-2026 Bush Fellow.