When news broke last December that a local artist had been posing as Indigenous — and profiting from those lies — it felt like a betrayal to many in the arts community. To some, media coverage of the controversy seemed to target the very people who were most vulnerable.

“Frustrating for myself, and talking with other Indigenous people … it felt almost like an attack on the community, putting blame on the Indigenous community,” said Dakota Mace, a Diné artist in Madison and 2019 recipient of the Forward Art Prize.

“The media was targeting individuals and not talking to the Indigenous communities that are based here in Wisconsin.”

Mace’s desire to re-center the narrative on supporting Indigenous artists led to the first Native Art Market, organized by Mace and Paige Skenandore, a member of the Oneida Nation and a recent University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate.

The market, featuring 17 artists from nine tribes, will have a preview showcase on Friday night. (This is at the same time as the citywide Gallery Night, though not officially part of that event.) The full market runs Saturday and Sunday, May 6-7, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  

There will be art for sale and demonstrations of beadwork and quill work. All events are at Arts + Literature Laboratory, 111 S. Livingston St.  

“What really inspired this market was to show that Madison can still support the community that we have here,” Mace said. “But also really showcase the importance of our ways of making.

“For myself, it’s always been (about) supporting the community that’s supported me, and to give back … to support these artists and support the work that they create. For many Indigenous people, making is part of sustaining ourselves.”

Beadwork and cultural education

Mace keeps a studio on the third floor of the Arts + Lit Lab and is well-established as an textile artist, photographer and educator in Madison. She earned two master’s of fine arts degrees in photography and textile design from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she now works as an object photographer for the Department of Design Studies.

Like many artists, Mace wears many hats. She serves as an MFA mentor and advisor for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. She’s represented by Bruce Silverstein Gallery in New York City.

Mace met Skenandore last fall at an “EcoWell” event funded by the UW-Madison School of Human Ecology, focused on Indigenous beading. That was held at ALL, too.

“We had five artists, from all different tribes in Wisconsin, Menominee, and Little Shell (Chippewa),” said Skenandore, who grew up on the Oneida Reservation and began to learn beadwork in middle school.

“We allowed them to sell stuff if they wanted to, but it wasn’t like we were pushing for them to make a big inventory,” Skenandore said. “We wanted to just be in community and show current projects that they were working on, or how to do different styles.”

Skenandore gave a beading workshop to about 50 people, teaching them how to make medallion earrings and keychains. And Mace, working through Design Studies, taught a workshop on cultural appropriation. It’s a complex topic, she said, so facilitators allow for lots of questions.

“Oftentimes the idea of cultural appropriation gets misinterpreted,” she said.

“People think they can’t wear Native jewelry,” Skenandore added. “You just have to buy from Native artists that are true.”

“Exactly,” Mace said. “That’s our model in the workshop. We allow students to ask questions, to ask themselves about things. Hopefully that leads to a better future in terms of people being inspired by different communities and cultures.”

“Just interacting with Indigenous art, some people don’t know if they can touch it, or take a picture of it, or even use it as inspiration,” Skenandore said. “It’s very dependent on the artist.”

Skenandore has spent time since her graduation continuing to make art, teaching when she has the opportunity in spaces like the Madison Public Library and the school district in Tomah, and developing her business, a collective called Moody Indian (moodyndn.com).

Among the artists who are scheduled to set up at the market are members of the Ho-Chunk nation, Oneida, Cherokee, Menomonee and Taos Pueblo artists. Mace, who grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is organizing a shared table of work by Southwest artists.

Skenandore is looking forward to the variety that will be on display.

“It’s all different for every tribe — beadwork and pottery and paintings and photography,” she said. “There are a lot of non-Native people who really want to support Indigenous artists.

“At a lot of Native art markets, when you buy something, they give you a story with that piece, why they did that design or those colors.”

The first of many

There is already a second Native Art Market planned for this fall, and Mace hopes it will become a regular event. She wants to address the most exploitative practices of art markets, which “historically have not been very supportive of artists,” charging “absurd fees” and requiring expensive travel with no guarantee of sales.

The Native Art Market, by contrast, has provided support in the form of stipends (an assist from UW-Madison) and free or reduced housing for participants.

“Indigenous art markets have really taken advantage of Indigenous people,” Mace said. “I’m hoping that we continue to build even more support for this market … not only from the Madison community, but Wisconsin.”

That’s the goal, she said — “showcasing the importance of Indigenous arts, and how much it’s deeply connected to not only our identity, but also this larger conversation about community.”