Artist in Residence, Volkenkunde Museum, Leiden Netherlands- September 7th- 14th 2019

September 2019

First Americans: Honoring Indigenous Resilience and Creativity.

Consistent with our emphasis on peoples and their experience, the museum will in this way contribute to the Leiden 400 events and year. FIRST AMERICANS will present the themes of histories, resilience, community and the future, with an emphasis on indigenous self-representation. 

Works held by the museum, made by unknown artists, will be shown alongside, painting, print, photographic, textiles, jewellery, fashion pieces by living artists, some created especially for the exhibition. FIRST AMERICANS will showcase the creativity and resilience of indigenous communities in North America.

Leiden 400

In 2020 it will be 400 years since the Mayflower, a ship carrying refugees from religious persecution and adventurers from England, arrived in America. Prior to this, the ‘pilgrims’, had lived in Leiden for several years. This historic event will be marked in a number of ways. Leiden 400 has inspired Museum Volkenkunde to organise the FIRST AMERICANS exhibition.

Thank you Henrietta Lidchi & Rik Herder for your amazing hospitality, friendship and opportunity to share my work with the Netherlands and Volkenkunde Museum Community.

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Voices From the Drum

The Osage Nation Foundation debuted the traveling exhibit, “Voices From The Drum,” on June 25 in Pawhuska, Oklahoma on the Osage Nation Museum’s lawn with more than 150 people in attendance. The exhibit consists of 19 handmade bison-hide drums, each given to an Osage artist to pour their creativity into – and they did.

“I knew everyone would like the exhibit, but I didn’t anticipate the emotional reaction we received,” said Bill Webb, the Foundation’s executive director. “There were tears in some people’s eyes as they viewed the drums.”

Each artist’s style was showcased in their drum. From Jessica Rosemary Harjo’s painted imagery of creation, to Norman Aker’s heartland, to the naming of all past Drumkeepers by Jennifer Tiger. Beautifully painted and imagined, each drum unique.

The exhibit was only available for public viewing for two days in Pawhuska, but it will be back for display at the ONM in 2020, Webb said. Currently, finishing touches are being made to a 15-minute documentary on the artists and their drums that will accompany the exhibit. Webb said he has been in talks with the Denver Art Museum and Crystal Bridges in Bentonville, Ark., who are interested in displaying the drums. He said the exhibit will travel the country for the next five to seven years. 

The documentary explains the role of the drum to the Osage people according to each artist and the emotions and history they bring with them from their respective families to create the artwork seen on each drum. The project promotes the Osage people, Osage art, culture and each artist, Webb said.

The drums were handmade by drum maker and singer Rock Pipestem, Osage/Otoe, 

finger weaving drum by Yatika Starr Fields

finger weaving drum by Yatika Starr Fields

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Drum by Yatika Starr Fields

Drum by Yatika Starr Fields

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with Mother Artist Anita Fields

with Mother Artist Anita Fields

Drum by Anita Fields

Drum by Anita Fields

Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now

OCTOBER 6, 2018, THROUGH JANUARY 7, 2019 Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, AR

The exhibition features over 80 artworks from the 1950s to today, including paintings, photography, video, sculptures, performance art, and more, all created by Indigenous US and Canadian artists. Spend some time with artworks by an artist who creates social critiques through basket weaving, three sisters who challenge heavy topics with humor and heart, an artist who created a large-scale mural based on her Northwest Arkansas environmental experience, plus many more.

Listed as one of the ‘most promising museum shows around the world’ by ARTNews and ‘one of the 10 US art shows you have to see this fall’ by AFAR Magazine, Art for a New Understanding will broaden your definition of contemporary art with a new understanding of Indigenous art.

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