Ivy Vainio Art, Climate & Culture Program Coordinator

Ivy Vainio is the Art, Climate, and Cultural Program Coordinator for the American Indian Community Housing Organization. She is African American and is a direct descendant of a Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe member. One of her roles is coordinating once-a-month Community Pop Up educational events that are focused on healthy Indigenous foods, food systems and local food producers/farmers. She is also the Lead Coordinator for an upcoming Indigneous Foods Expo that will feature Indigenous foods, arts, cooking and food processing demos, music and much more. This Expo is set for September 21 at Niiwin Indigenous Foods Market and Central Hillside Park. Vainio also coordinates Anishinaabe cultural awareness programming and events for AICHO that deal with environmental sustainability and cultural arts. Outside of AICHO, she is an executive board member of the Duluth Branch NAACP and is a photographer. Her work has focused mainly on diverse community members and events, and has been published nationally and internationally.