First American Art Magazine No. 13, Winter 2016/17 | Page 12

Contributing Writers

HEATHER AHTONE( Choctaw-Chickasaw) is the James T. Bialac associate curator of Native American and non-Western art at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, where she remains committed to supporting the Oklahoma arts community and the cultural life of her tribal communities.
JASON ASENAP( Comanche-Muscogee) is a writer, filmmaker, and information specialist at the Fine Arts and Design Library at the University of New Mexico. He holds a BA in English from the University of Oklahoma and an MFA in screenwriting from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Asenap was a Sundance Institute Native Lab fellow in 2011. He developed an interest in Indian art by watching his father Hollis Asenap( Comanche) paint in his garage for the WPA. Asenap grew up in Norman, Oklahoma, around many notable Oklahoma Indian artists, such as Comanche painters Rance Hood and Doc Tate Nevaquaya, who were close family friends and regular visitors to the Asenap house. Asenap is currently in the post-production phase of his latest short film, Captivity Narrative, and is working on a feature-length, noir script for Navajo filmmaker, Blackhorse Lowe.
DAWN BIDDISON is assistant curator at the Alaska office of the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center. She worked collaboratively with Alaska Native elders, tribal representatives, scholars, and artists on the website, Sharing Knowledge, and the exhibition, Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage: The First Peoples of Alaska. She is project coordinator for the exhibition Dena’ inaq’ Huch’ ulyeshi: The Dena’ ina Way of Living at the Anchorage Museum. Biddison works with Alaska Native communities though programming including language workshops, artist residencies, and public lectures.
KATHRYN BUNN-MARCUSE, PhD( English- American), is the curator of Northwest Native art and director of the Bill Holm Center for the Study of Northwest Coast Art at the Burke Museum, and assistant professor of art history at the University of Washington. Her publications focus on the indigenization of European-American imagery, 19th-century Northwest Coast jewelry and other body adornment, and the filmic history of the Kwakwaka’ wakw. In her role as curator, she collaborates with First Nations communities and artists to identify research priorities and to activate the Burke Museum’ s holdings in ways that are responsive to cultural revitalization efforts.
MARTINA DAWLEY( Hualapai-Diné) is the assistant curator for American Indian Relations and faculty member at Arizona State Museum( ASM) at the University of Arizona. Primary among her responsibilities is management of ASM’ s Southwest Native Nations Advisory Board, facilitation of tribal consultations related to repatriation and programs at the museum, and providing training and technical assistance to tribal museums, libraries, archives, and cultural centers. She earned her PhD( 2013) and MA( 2009) in American Indian studies and her BA( 2006) in anthropology with a minor in geoscience at the University of Arizona. Dawley has worked collaboratively with Native artists on Neoglyphix: All-Indigenous Art Exhibition and exhibits featuring Jeremy Singer( Dinétah Landscapes, Dinétah People), and the
1519 Rebellion collective on their exhibit, Itom Luturia( Our Truth). Martina cofounded and co-organizes Neoglyphix, the all-Indigenous aerosol art collective.
ROSEMARY DIAZ( Santa Clara Tewa) is a freelance writer based in Santa Fe. She studied literature and its respective arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Naropa University, and University of California, Santa Cruz. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including Beadwork, Collector’ s Guide, Native Peoples, and the Santa Fean, and she is featured online at Indian Country Today Media Network.
MICHOLE ELDRED( Catawba Nation-Eastern Band Cherokee) is a writer, curator, and educator. She received her bachelor’ s degree in art and museum studies at University of South Florida and her master’ s in education from Berry College. Much of her work is focused on curating Indigenous art and historical exhibitions. She believes that the process of art making and enjoyment of the arts should be accessible to all peoples. Her work in writing art curriculum and teaching the arts to people with disabilities is reflected in the interpretive planning she implements when creating exhibitions.
SUZANNE NEWMAN FRICKE, PhD( Ashkenazic- American), wrote her art history dissertation at the University of New Mexico on 20th-century Native pottery. She has taught art history at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. She co-curated two exhibits that traveled in Russia in 2012 and 2014. She curated a third show, Woven Together: Celebrating Spider Woman in Contemporary Native American Art, which exhibited in two Russian museums in 2015.
NADIA JACKINSKY, PhD( Alutiiq), is an art historian and an adjunct instructor at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. She works as a program officer for a grant program dedicated to supporting Alaska Native artists at the CIRI Foundation. Her research interests include Alaska Native art, cultural revival, and identity.
LARS KRUTAK, PhD, is a research associate in the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. His dissertation research focused on Rarámuri( Tarahumara) arts-and-crafts producers in Mexico. He is the author of Tattoo Traditions of Native North America: Ancient and Contemporary Expressions of Identity( LM Publishers, 2014), among other books on the subject of Indigenous tattooing. Krutak is a curatorial consultant and photographer for the current Royal Ontario Museum exhibition in Toronto, Tattoos: Ritual. Identity. Obsession. Art., and Museum of International Folk Art exhibition, Sacred Realm: Blessings and Good Fortune across Asia, in Santa Fe.
MICHELLE LANTERI is a contemporary art scholar and curator currently serving as interim director of the New Mexico State University Art Gallery. In December 2016, she will complete her master of arts degree in art history with a minor in Native American studies and a certificate in museum studies.
THOLLEM McDONAS is a peripatetic pianist, keyboardist, vocalist, composer, improviser, collaborator, activist, teacher, and author. He has released over 50 albums across the stylistic spectrum on 20 different vanguard labels. He performs
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