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

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.
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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