First American Art Magazine No. 6, Spring 2015

Recent Developments MUSEUMS The Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa appointed Jim Pepper Henry (Kaw) as its new executive director. Henry was the founding director of the Kanza Museum, a tribal museum in Kaw City, Oklahoma; associate director of the National Museum of the American Indian; director and CEO of the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center; and most recently, the executive director and CEO of the Heard Museum. GALLERIES Vancouver’s Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art appointed Alexandra Montgomery as its new CEO. Previously Montgomery served as executive director of the Gardiner Museum in Toronto. Michael Robinson, who served as CEO of the Bill Reid Gallery since 2009, will serve as the president of the nonprofit Bill Reid Foundation. Judy Kardosh, director of Marion Scott Gallery in Vancouver, passed away on November 30, 2014. In 1975 Kardosh’s mother, Marion Scott, founded the gallery, the first to feature Inuit art on the West Coast. Judy Kardosh fought for recognition of Inuit artists, particularly women artists. ART FAIRS The Autry National Center held its 24th annual American Indian Arts Marketplace in Los Angeles. Best of Show winner was Melissa Cody (Navajo). Dyanni Hamilton-Youngbird (Navajo) won the Jackie Autry Purchase Award. The category winners were John Spotted Eagle Bradley (Cherokee-Comanche), basketry; Glenda McKay (Ingalik Athabascan), beadwork and quillwork; Sho Sho Esquiro (Kaska Dene), clothing and personal attire; Glenda McKay, diverse arts; Victoria Adams (Southern Cheyenne), jewelry; Ryan Lee Smith (Cherokee Nation-Choctaw), painting and mixed media; Tedra Begay (Navajo), photography; Wallace Nez (Navajo), pottery; Raymond M. Chee Sr. (Navajo), sculpture; Etta C. Peacock (Navajo), textiles; and Eric Kayquaptewa (Hopi), woodcarving. 10 | The chief financial officer of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) Charlene Porsild resigned and will move to Montana. SWAIA organizes the annual Santa Fe Indian Market. PROJECTS Eighty Quechua youth, aged 15 to 25, in Pilahuín, Tungurahua, Ecuador, produced short films in a project funded by the Ecuadorian Culture Center of Tungurahua and the Savings and Credit Cooperative Chibuleo. Wayra Films of Peru provided technical assistance. Participating director Curicama Llanganate (Quechua), directed Yawar’ (“Blood”) and was named a cultural ambassador by Mushuk Nina, a nonprofit. Light in the Attic Records, based in Seattle, released Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966–1985. This 34-song anthology features rare tracks by Indigenous musicians from Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The City of Kamloops, British Columbia, commissioned Haida artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas to create a monumental public sculpture at Riverside Park, near the confluence of the North and South Thompson Rivers. His aluminum and steel sculpture Rivers stands over ten meters tall. AWARDS AND HONORS The 2014 Sobey Art Award, one of Canada’s most prestigious art awards, went to Nadia Myre (Kitigan Zibi Algonquin) of Montreal. The Sobey Art Foundation and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia administer the annual award, which celebrates emerging Canadian contemporary artists under 40 years old with a $50,000 honorarium. Myre is interviewed in this issue; see page 54. The National Endowment for the Arts provided Shan Goshorn (Eastern Band Cherokee), Sarah Sense (ChitimachaChoctaw), and the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa a $40,000 grant to curate the show Intertwined: Stories of a Splintered Past and residency for the two artists at the Hardesty Arts Center (AHHA) in Tulsa. W W W.F IR S TAMER I C AN ARTMAG A ZI N E.C OM Dyani White Hawk (Sicangu Lakota) and Donald M. Varnell (Haida) were awarded Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grants. The foundation gave unrestricted grants of $25,000 to 25 American artists for career support. White Hawk is a painter from St. Paul, Minnesota, and Varnell is woodcarver and cedar-bark weaver from Ketchikan, Alaska. The 2015 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellows are Luzene Hill (Eastern Band Cherokee), Brenda Mallory (Cherokee Nation), Mario Martinez (Pascua Yaqui), Da-ka-xeen Mehner (Tlingit-Nisga’a), and Holly Wilson (Delaware Nation-Cherokee). Since 1999 the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, located in Indianapolis, awards the fellowships on alternating years. These include a $25,000 grant, an exhibition, and catalogue. This year’s winners of the Master Artist Initiative grant programs, administered by the Longhouse Education and Cultural Center at Evergreen State College, were David Boxley (Tsimshian), Marvin Oliver (Quinault), Paul Rowley (Tlingit-Haida), Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos), and Dawn Walden (Ojibwe). The Native Creative Development winners were Gary Bigbear (Ho-Chunk), Shawn Brigman (Spokane), Neeka Cook (Tlingit-Haida), Kunu Dittmer-Bearchum (Northern Cheyenne), Nahaan Eide (Tlingit), Denise Emerson (Skokomish), Vicky Engel (Squaxin Island Tribe), Kaila Farrell-Smith (Klamath), Roger Fernandes (Lower Elwha Klallam), Spayne Martinez (Warm Springs), Emma Noyes (Colville), Paul Rowley (TlingitHaida), and Demian DinéYazhi’ (Diné). On the 102nd anniversary of its founding, Quitilipi, Argentina, was named the provincial capital of Indigenous art by Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies. The first Sunday of December will now mark celebrations of Quitilipi’s role in promoting Indigenous arts. Quitilipi is in the Chaco Province, home to Chorote, Mocoví, Pilagá, Qom, Vilela, and Wichí peoples. Haida Raid, a video by brothers Jaalen and Gwaai Edenshaw (both Haida) and Ken Raj Leslie, won the grand prize of the People on the Pipeline Video Contest, sponsored by the University of British Columbia’s Eco Art Incubator. Director Helen Haig-Brown (Tsilhqot’in) judged the contest. Haida Raid is a series of three stop-motion videos

First American Art Magazine No. 6, Spring 2015 | Page 12