The University of Wisconsin-Superior’s Indigenous Alumni Speakers Series will continue with Moira Villiard on Monday, October 7, at 3 p.m. in the William “Pope” Wright Student Center. This event, available both in person and online via Zoom, is free and open to the community.

A 2016 graduate with a degree in communicating arts, Villiard 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. She is proficient in a variety of artistic genres but considers her primary medium to be space and people’s interactions with it.

Villiard grew up on the Fond du Lac Reservation in Cloquet, Minnesota, and is a Fond du Lac direct descendent of mixed settler and Indigenous heritage. She works full time as a freelance consultant, designer, speaker, and is the project director and lead artist of the Chief Buffalo Memorial Murals. As a community organizer and arts educator, Villiard concentrates her efforts around issues of equity and justice. Her overall work seeks to bridge gaps in community memory and recognition. 

In 2023, Villiard was selected as a McKnight Community Engaged Artist Fellow and the following year was selected as a Bush Fellow. Her mental health-focused project “Waiting for Beds,” a collaboration with Carla Hamilton and the community, has toured throughout the region, uplifting the narratives around extensive wait times for care.

Highlighting the stories of Indigenous alumni of UW-Superior and honoring their accomplishments and perspectives, the Indigenous Alumni Speakers Series will continue November 18 with Patricia Northrup; and December 3 with Jason Schlender. Events are sponsored by the UW-Superior Indigenous studies program, Indigenous Cultures Resource Center, Alumni and Friends Foundation and Social Inquiry Department.

The William “Pope” Wright Student Center is in Old Main, Room 232.