As a senior budget analyst for the city of St. Paul, Nichelle Bottko Woods often attends meetings of the St. Paul City Council.

She has found a creative way to stay focused.

“As I sit and watch, I crochet to stay quiet and pay attention,” Bottko Woods says.

These two worlds — the city council and the creative arts — came together for Bottko Woods during the historic inauguration of the first all-women St. Paul City Council on Jan. 9.

“It was an amazing event, and it really just inspired me,” she says.

So did the inauguration photos of Mitra Jalali, Anika Bowie, Rebecca Noecker, Saura Jost, HwaJeong Kim, Nelsie Yang and Cheniqua Johnson. Specifically, one photo by John Autey, Pioneer Press photojournalist.

The photo of the seven women standing together on stage at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in downtown St. Paul, the site of the inauguration, is a tapestry of colors and cultures and textures. The women, dressed for the occasion in outfits ranging from a tweedy pastel suit to a purple pantsuit to a traditional Hmong Xiengkhouang outfit and purple hat (Phuam Txoom Suab) to a gown made in Ghana — look joyful as they smile and wave, one with hand over heart, standing there like the American history they were making.

St. Paul City Council members, from left, Mitra Jalali, Ward 4; Anika Bowie, Ward 1; Rebecca Noecker, Ward 2; Saura Jost, Ward 3; HwaJeong Kim, Ward 5; Nelsie Yang, Ward 6, and Cheniqua Johnson, Ward 7, are introduced at the start of the St. Paul City Council Inauguration at Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. Voters elected an all-women City Council, with all members under 40-years of age and with a super majority minority representation. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Here’s how we found out about the project:

“I recently crocheted a photo you took of the City Council Inauguration, and I am hopeful to ask for your blessing, or guidance in officially requesting permission to display this photo alongside dolls I crochet which I plan to display at the Smallest Museum in Saint Paul (a display outside Workhorse Coffee Shop),” Bottko Woods wrote in an email.

Our editor did grant permission, by the way — more about the museum display below.

But first, we called up Bottko Woods to find out more about her handiwork.

Crochet artist

Seven crocheted dolls, made by Nichelle Bottko Woods, of St. Paul City Council members, are on display at The Smallest Museum in St. Paul, located outside of Workhorse Coffee Bar in St. Paul on Friday, July 26, 2024. (Devanie Andre / Pioneer Press)

“I’ve been crocheting on and off for about 20 years,” says Bottko Woods, 39, of St. Paul. “I started making these amigurumi dolls about 10 years ago.” (Amigurumi is Japanese for a crocheted/knitted stuffed toy.)

While she uses the art of crochet to focus the mind when she needs to “sit still and pay attention,” it’s also bigger than just a way of staying fidget-free.

“I make weird projects for the State Fair,” she says.

In fact, this could have been one of them. But with seven dolls representing seven council members, that was a veto as the artist interpreted the rules.

“The State Fair rules only allow groupings up to five,” Bottko Woods says. “So I had to find a different place for my City Council project.”

Too bad.

“That’s OK,” she said. “I have Mayor Melvin Carter for the State Fair.”

(Also, in separate entries, Beyoncé and Prince.)

To crochet and knit the dolls and their fashion, she looked at our photos and watched a video of the inauguration, which she frequently stopped to take photos of the outfits as the newly elected walked across the stage.

“So I have all these grainy pictures on my phone of our council members,” she says with a laugh.

It took a while to get the details right, especially since she has also juggled other creative projects and life and work along the way.

“I started making one of them the day of the inauguration,” she says, “and I just finished last week.”

Just in time for the museum installation. How did that come about?

The Smallest Museum

Artist Nichelle Bottko Woods, left, and curator Shannon Forney with the seven crocheted dolls Bottko Woods made of St. Paul City Council members, on display at The Smallest Museum in St. Paul, outside of Workhorse Coffee Bar in St. Paul on Friday, July 26, 2024.(Devanie Andre / Pioneer Press)

Shannon Forney, founder of The Smallest Museum in St. Paul, also is Bottko Woods’ colleague at City Hall.

“We work together, so we talk all the time,” Bottko Woods says. “She was talking about a different display of a coworker’s (about voting) and it came up that way. Essentially, I asked her.”

It felt funny to explain the project, at first.

“It’s a weird thing, I have dolls of the city council in my home,” says Bottko Woods, laughing. “If I could find a place to put them, it would not be quite so weird.”

Forney didn’t think it was weird; she thought the timing was perfect with the Great Minnesota Get-Together approaching and took on the role of curator of this exhibit.

“When she told me that she couldn’t submit seven dolls at once, I thought it would be really cool to have an adjacent exhibit at the Smallest Museum while she had other pieces at the State Fair,”  Forney says.

The timing — opening on Friday and running through September — works well for other reasons, too.

“I thought it was a great St. Paul connection, first and foremost,” Forney says. “And, not to wax poetic, but we are in a time when there’s a national conversation about representation.”

This timing — coming as Vice President Kamala Harris suddenly makes a White House bid after President Joe Biden’s abrupt exit from the race — was coincidental, she says.

“We had already decided,” Forney says of the doll display. “It just affirms why the exhibit is important.”

In addition to the dolls and Autey’s photo, the museum exhibit includes two quotes. One is from Ruth Handler, the inventor of Barbie, about the power of dolls, and the other is from Jalali, the president of the St. Paul City Council, on the power of voting.

The dolls knit together these two powers into art; it is Bottko Woods’ hope that girls will come to see the display.

Muses

Nichelle Bottko Woods adjusts one of the seven crocheted dolls she made of St. Paul City Council members, in a display at the Smallest Museum in St. Paul, outside of Workhorse Coffee Bar in St. Paul on Friday, July 26, 2024.(Devanie Andre / Pioneer Press)

The members of the St. Paul City Council were alerted to their muse status on Wednesday, when Forney emailed the council and Mayor Melvin Carter about the exhibit.

“We are delighted to share that the Smallest Museum in Saint Paul will host an exhibit opening this weekend through the end of September, honoring this historic Saint Paul City Council,” the email began.

It’s not the only work of art that the council has inspired. Another colleague created a portrait of the seven out of seed art; there have been drawings from children and who knows what other masterpieces (please tell us!).

Others were inspired by Autey’s photos as well: A high school student from California and a college student from Iowa, both researching this apparent first, also reached out about the inauguration photo.

“It makes me happy to see my photos of the inspiring event inspire others,” Autey says.

We reached out to the council members for their reaction to the news of the crochet/photo exhibit.

“I love the creativity from our residents,” wrote Ward 4 council member Jalali. “In general I’ve been really moved by the outpouring of excitement by the community.”

“It’s personally amazing to see the impact that this has had on so many people,” said Ward 7’s Cheniqua Johnson said in a phone call. “To see the colors and cultures and dresses captured in knit yarn, that’s pretty impressive. It’s really cool, and it definitely made our day.”

“These knitted dolls are adorable!” wrote Nelsie Yang of Ward 6. “It’s been incredible to see the many ways people are capturing St. Paul’s milestone of having an all-women city council through arts and crafts. These knitted dolls are a beautiful reflection of the diversity and strong leadership that exists all throughout our city and democracy! It is also symbolic of the resilience that our community and many people before us carried generation after generation in order to make this progress possible.”

See the dolls

The council-inspired dolls are on display through September at The Smallest Museum in St. Paul, which exists inside a vintage fire-hose cabinet outside Workhouse Coffee Bar, 2399 University Ave. W., St. Paul. More info at smallestmuseumstpaul.com.

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