Six visiting artists have been chosen to conduct research in museum collections located in Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia and Boston; one artist will develop a Community Arts Symposium; and one artist will participate in the Youth Public Art Project. Established in 1996 and with continued support from the Ford Foundation, the Native Arts Program selects and awards annual awards to enrolled and non-enrolled indigenous artists.

Visiting Artists

The Visiting Artist award recipients are Michael Belmore, Terrill Hooper O'Brien, Cody Sanderson, Robin McBride Scott and Guillermina Ortega.

Michael Belmore, from Ontario, Canada, works primarily in sculpture. Belmore will focus his museum research on iconography of the many large and small stone markings across the Americas and then incorporate these concepts into new works.

Terrill Hooper O'Brien is a beadwork artist from Virginia. Hooper O'Brien will use this research opportunity to search the museum collections from the East Coast for beaded amulet bags made prior to 1840. Her goal is to verify that these bags were made first in North America and then became popular in Europe during the Victorian era.

Cody Sanderson is a full-time metal smith living in New Mexico. Sanderson's primary metals are sterling silver and 18-karat gold. During a 21-day research trip of East Coast museums, he will focus on documenting metal smithing for personal adornment and jewelry from different cultures and periods, such as Roman, Greek, Mayan and Aztec Indians.

Robin McBride Scott lives in Indiana and works with rivercane basketry. For the past nine years, McBride Scott has been influenced by diverse examples of basketry contained in museum collections. Learning to understand the complicated float weave patterns that exist in ancient pieces is like learning a new language. According to McBride Scott, "One must spend a considerable amount of time studying a weaving technique, its designs and the specific materials used before that person can really understand and actually "think" in that language."

Guillermina Ortega lives in Veracruz, Mexico, and specializes in painting, installation art and ceramics. As a ceramic artist and professor, she is focused on studying the ceramics from Ancient Mexico and completing a ceramics project in the Native community of El Tajín, Papantla, Veracruz, in the Gulf of Mexico, with a group of Totanaca potters who still use the traditional ceramics techniques.

2008 Community Arts Symposium

Chloe French lives in Washington state and is a Chilkat weaver who makes button robes, traditional regalia and beads. French will help to coordinate the Northwest Coast Artists' Gathering in Juneau, Alaska, in June 2008. According to French, "The Gathering brings artists together to discuss topics that are not easily communicated via the Internet or by phone. Our symposium topic is a complex one, involving the relationship of art to tradition, heritage, clan ownership, contemporary Native society and the mixing of cultures. The symposium panel will work hard to bring all of this together and to find and build common ground."

2008 Youth Public Art Project

Annette Jimenez is a painter, traditional craft and mixed media artist from Minnesota. Jimenez will create and coordinate a youth mural project targeting about 15 youths from the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. "New People/Seventh Generation Be Strong" is the theme of the mural project that will provide a safe environment to explore traditional values by working together to strengthen the community. Jimenez will collaborate with the youth to design a collage of many images that will encourage creativity, inspire passion, pass along wisdom and teach valuable life skills. The dedication is expected to occur during the Mii-Gwetch Manoomin Days Powwow in late August 2008.

Participants were selected through a competitive application process and a review panel of international artists and arts administrators. The review panel included former program participants Virginia Yazzie-Ballenger; National Museum of the American Indian assistant curator Kathleen Ash-Milby; New York artist John C. Thorpe; First Peoples Fund President Lori Pourier; and museum educator Maria del Carmen Cossu. -- www.si.edu