A New Heaven and a New Earth, May It Continue | Lacey Prpić Hedtke.

In tribute to Slavic embroidery, these tufted and satin photo banners contain protective symbols for the climate crisis, one for each station on the wheel of the year, and in tribute to the circular kolo (“wheel”) dance. They act as altars and placemarkers for our journey through the year, the wheel of the year also representing the cycle of life. Creating symbols is a bid to create our future, while also acting as a record of what the concerns of a society or community were.

Bio:
Lacey Prpić Hedtke is a photographer and artist working in textiles, photography, and public art. She has participated in residencies at the Wedding Cake House and Walkaway House and recently had a solo show at The Neon Heater.

She has participated in programming and shown work at institutions including: Mia, MCAD, and Boston Center for the Arts, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Fitchburg Art Museum, Franconia Sculpture Park, and the American Swedish Institute.

She has participated in and been a part of organizing public art projects: Art Blocks, Art Shanty Projects, the MayDay Festival, BareBones, the Floating Library, and is a co-founder of Free the Deeds and Constellation: A Backyard Art Expedition.

She is the founder of The Future, a shop, project space, and former artist residency in Minneapolis, open since 2017.

She holds a Masters of Library and Information Science from St. Catherine University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from Lesley University College of Art and Design, and completed auctioneer training at the Worldwide College of Auctioneering and trained to be a medium at the Greater Boston Church of Spiritualism.

Artist Statement:
I work in photography, public art, processional banners, and tufted rugs and wall hangings. The throughline on all my work (photographic, public art, banners, and rugs) is the intention of energetically impacting the people and environment that interact with it. I’ve always wanted to continue in the lineage of my seamstress grandmothers, but haven’t had the skills, time or patience. I am part of the Yugoslovian diaspora–growing up around Slavic textiles informed my interest in continuing the lineage of symbolic textiles in the Slavic tradition.

My work is a continuation of the Slavic arts of embroidery, rugwork and folk ritual costumes, all of which incorporate magical symbols of protection and declarations of identity into the designs, and I explore how we carry on the craft traditions of our ancestors using the technology available to us today. I’m interested in how folk art and rituals are incorporated into everyday housewares, and how regularly interacting with art containing symbols impacts our reality. Slavic textile designs aren’t purely aesthetic–they are encrypted names, phrases, and symbols. I’m using modern tools to adapt an evolving practice of embroidery, and incorporating symbols into the textile designs in similar ways that traditional artisans have been doing for centuries.

My work is about believing in our power. It’s a rebellion to stay connected to our heritage, especially ones that occupiers tried to erase. It addresses healing through creating and sharing art, and using protective symbols as bids for change.

Working with the softness of yarn and using a tool called a “gun” is good for my nervous system after surviving gun violence. Connecting with my Slavic ancestors through creating textiles has been a way to call in their protection.

I am influenced by the religion of Spiritualism, public art and ritual, family heirlooms, astrology and mythology, Minneapolis, the Mississippi River and lakes, the Iron Range, my grandparent’s patterned textiles, mutual aid, the history of photography, libraries, archives and public records, and old buildings.

My photography and textile art have been presented at museums, galleries, performances, and on telephone poles and alleyways. I’ve hosted banner-making workshops and led public processions. My work contributes to the field of craft and traditional knowledge through its inventive combination of history, ritual, symbol, and public art with roots in the history and sensibilities of photography

Gallery Hours:
Daily from 9 am - 5 pm.

Image: Mayday (detail), machine tufted wool, 30"x 32", 2025