Holy Ground: The Oyster
Public Art
Holy Ground: The Oyster
Holy Ground: The Oyster is a site-responsive sound performance by Danielle Olana Jagelski that activates Alan Michelson's large scale public artwork and explores the wisdom of the oyster, land, and human relationship to the Earth.
When
October 10 + 11, 2026
Where
at the site of The Oyster, Governors Island
Danielle Olana Jagelski, photo by Dark Listed Photography.
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About the artist
Holy Ground: The Oyster is a site-responsive sound performance by Danielle Olana Jagelski (Red Cliff Ojibwe and Oneida) that activates Alan Michelson’s large scale public artwork and explores the wisdom of the oyster, land, and human relationship to the Earth.
The work brings together voice, percussion, and spatial movement to create an immersive sonic experience rooted in land, ancestry, and collective gathering. Inspired by Indigenous traditions in which music, sound, storytelling, and ritual function as interconnected systems, the performance considers how these forms can serve as vessels for cultural continuity and communal reflection.
Holy Ground was selected via More Art’s 2025/26 Engaging Artists Commission open call, which supports emerging artists creating socially engaged work in the public realm.
Danielle Jagelski
Danielle Jagelski is a composer, conductor, and creative producer, and the Artistic Director and Co-founder of Renegade Opera.
Described by I Care If You Listen as “a prime example of socially responsive artistry in the 21st century,” her work has been presented nationwide at venues including Roulette Intermedium, the National Gallery of Art, and Performance Space New York.
An enrolled citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and Red Cliff Band of Ojibwe, Danielle centers collaboration with Indigenous artists and is deeply committed to kinship building and decolonial practice. She also serves as a consultant on equitable producing, working with institutions such as NYU, University of Portland, Handel and Haydn Society, and First Nations Performing Arts.
As a conductor, she is recognized for her work in contemporary repertoire by the National Opera Association with engagements including projects with International Contemporary Ensemble, Beth Morrison Projects, Harlem Opera Theatre, Voices of Ascension, and Anchorage Opera, among others.
Her recent commissions and upcoming commissions include Portland Opera, American Composers Forum, ChamberQUEER, Voices of Ascension, and New Native Theatre. Danielle is a recipient of the 2026 Opera America Discovery Grant, a First Peoples Fund Performing Arts Fellowship, More Art Engaging Artists Commission, and additional support from organizations including the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation and Opera America.
daniellejagelski.com