Washington, DC—The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is pleased to announce more than $103 million in recommended grants in the second major grant announcement of fiscal year 2023. Organizations in all 50 states and U.S. jurisdictions will carry out arts projects in three NEA funding categories: Grants for Arts Projects, Our Town, and State and Regional Partnerships.

“The National Endowment for the Arts is pleased to support a wide range of projects, demonstrating the many ways the arts enrich our lives and contribute to healthy and thriving communities,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “These organizations play an important role in advancing the creative vitality of our nation and helping to ensure that all people can benefit from arts, culture, and design.”

Grants for Arts Projects

Grants for Arts Projects (GAP) is the National Endowment for the Arts’ largest grants program for organizations. Matching grants range from $10,000 to $100,000, and are recommended for organizations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. In July 2022, 1,927 eligible applications were received requesting more than $98 million in FY23 support. This round, 1,129 projects are approved for funding totaling more than $31 million. 

Project-based funding will support opportunities for public engagement with the arts and arts education, the integration of the arts with strategies that promote the health and well-being of people and communities, and the improvement of overall capacity and capabilities within the arts sector.

Through this grant category, the NEA provides comprehensive and expansive funding for communities across a variety of artistic disciplines and fields. Recommended grants this round support a range of activities, including:

• The commission of a site-specific public artwork by artist Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977) by Association for Public Art (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)—The artist will create a large bronze sculpture for the city of Philadelphia which will be located on its main cultural artery, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The creation of the work will address the city’s need for diverse voices and perspectives in public spaces.
• A technical theater workforce development program at THEARC Theater through Building Bridges Across the River (Washington, DC)—Participants will learn the art and science of technical theater and acquire skills in lighting, sound engineering, set design, stage management, and arts administration.
• Photography and the Holocaust: Then & Now, an exhibition and accompanying publication by Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts (Buffalo, New York) —The project will feature as many as 15 artists whose work utilizes historic photo-documents, archival materials, and new imagery to investigate photographic evidence and explore the role of personal perspective in interpreting images. Public programming will provide audiences with opportunities to address issues of antisemitism.
• Engagement in outdoor arts programming, artist residencies, and public programs by Indigenous Creatives Collective (Seattle, Washington)—Comprising works by resident Indigenous artists knowledgeable about Native ecological systems, multidisciplinary arts programming will include an exhibition and other public arts events hosted on the organization’s wooded property in South Seattle.
• The Appalachian Teaching Artist Fellowship by Partners for Rural Impact, Inc. (Berea, Kentucky)—Teaching artists in rural Eastern Kentucky will participate in paid professional learning opportunities, including workshops, a mentorship, and a teaching practicum. Workshops will include training in arts integration, development of standards-aligned lesson plans, and best practices for successful school and community arts partnerships in the rural Appalachian context.
• The creation and presentation of enVISION: The Next Chapter, an immersive dance-theater work by ShaLeigh Dance Works (Rougemont, North Carolina)—The performance will be accessible to sighted audiences and to people who are blind or have low vision. Accompanying engagement programs will train local dancers to accompany movers who are blind or have low vision to dance classes and help other organizations learn best practices to replicate the program across North Carolina while documenting the process.
• An interactive touring exhibition program of Space Messengers by STEMarts Lab (El Prado, New Mexico)—An initiative exploring the intersection of arts and science using new media technologies, with a focus on students from Northern New Mexico, will introduce audiences to video mapping, virtual reality design, and sound design, while exploring science concepts and examining complex ethical impacts of new technologies.
• In-person and online workshops for writers at all stages of their careers by Torch Literary Arts (Round Rock, Texas) —The project will focus on creating advancement opportunities for Black women writers, as well as a retreat where participants can share ideas and receive professional advice while working on a manuscript in progress.

The next deadline for organizations interested in applying for Grants for Arts Projects is Thursday, July 6, 2023; visit arts.gov for guidelines and application resources.

Our Town

Our Town is the NEA’s creative placemaking grants program. Our Town projects advance local economic, physical, or social outcomes in communities, ultimately laying the groundwork for systems change and centering equity. Matching grants in this category range from $25,000 to $150,000 and support projects that will take place in 34 states. Of the 175 eligible applications, 57 projects are approved for funding totaling $4,175,000. 

Our Town projects require a partnership between a nonprofit organization and a local government entity, with one of the partners being a cultural organization. Project-based funding will support activities that integrate arts, culture, and design into local efforts that strengthen communities. Recommended grants include:

• The City of Wheeling, West Virginia—to support the development of an arts and culture master plan. In partnership with ARTWORKS around Town, Inc., the City of Wheeling will work with area stakeholders to produce an arts and culture master plan that includes a cultural asset map, a regional tourism assessment, a wayfinding signage plan and design, and an action plan for the creation of a new cultural district, gathering input from community members. Building on a $25 million-dollar award from the state’s department of transportation, the city plans to connect community members to area cultural assets, elevate civic engagement opportunities, and align investments in arts and culture with current infrastructure development in Wheeling.
• Clockshop in Los Angeles, California—to support community engagement activities and cultural asset mapping to influence the design and engineering of 100 acres of parkland along the Los Angeles River. In collaboration with the University of Southern California’s Los Angeles River Integrated Design Lab, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, California State Park system, and the City of Los Angeles’ Bureau of Engineering, Clockshop will facilitate the inclusion of community histories into the development of the River Futures Model, a 60-foot hydraulic model of the Los Angeles River.
• Epicenter in Green River, Utah—to support engagement activities and temporary art and design installations that address affordable housing and downtown revitalization in rural Green River, Utah. Epicenter will invite as many as six artists and designers to collaborate with community stakeholders on temporary art and design installations, concepts for public spaces and cultural facilities, and affordable housing design ideas. Led by Epicenter’s in-house design team and building on local planning efforts, the project will highlight Epicenter’s Canal Commons, a new affordable housing complex under development on a three-acre parcel downtown which was donated by the town of Green River, Utah.
• The Town of Killingly, Connecticut—to support community engagement, arts programming, and public art that celebrates the local Laotian and Southeast Asian community. Project activities will include the creation of a mural and a short documentary film focused on uplifting local residents and their stories, along with musical performances and other arts activities that center Laotian culture. Killingly Historical and Genealogical Society, Killingly Public Library, Killingly Business Association, and Laos Cultural Community of Connecticut will engage residents and high school students in collecting local stories and producing cultural programming. 

The next deadline for organizations interested in applying for Our Town is Thursday, August 3, 2023; visit arts.gov for guidelines and application resources.

More information about all of the National Endowment for the Arts’ grant opportunities is available at arts.gov/grants. This section also includes resources for first-time and returning applicants as well as information on how to volunteer to be an NEA panelist.

State and Regional Partnerships

Each year, approximately 40 percent of the NEA’s appropriated program funds are awarded to state arts agencies, regional arts organizations, and the national service organization to support the work of the states and regions. In total, up to $67.9 million is recommended for these partners in FY 2023, with up to $55.1 million of that total designated for State Arts Agencies. 

State & Regional Partnership Agreement grants extend the NEA’s reach to even more communities, reflecting investments in locally-determined priorities, and translate national leadership into local benefit. To learn more about how the National Endowment for the Arts is impacting individual states and regions of the country, select a state or territory on the state impact page or visit the regional map.
 

Inviting.

That best describes the new Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock, renamed and reopened in late April of 2023 following a four-year, $150-plus million renovation.

The refreshed museum is bright, open and airy. Artworks on view are big, colorful and uplifting.

Featured are striking masterpieces from modern art history’s top names, particularly the Impressionists, who remain the most inviting artists to much of the museum-going public. Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Pierre Auguste Renoir– fine examples of each are on display. The Morisot, in particular, is a knockout; as good as you’ll find.

Diego Rivera’s cubist Dos Mujeres (1914), nearly 7-feet-tall, a large Louise Nevelson assemblage, Elaine de Kooning’s Standing Bull (1958), another massive painting, this one donated to AMFA in 1973 through a gift arranged by the artist after teaching a workshop in the Museum’s studio art school, highlight the debut installation of the permanent collection.

The Museum shows off its emphasis on drawings and works on paper with examples from Georgia O’Keeffe, Andrew Wyeth, Paul Signac, John Marin, Henri Matisse, Willem de Kooning, Stuart Davis, Norman Lewis, Lee Krasner, Marsden Hartley, Roy Lichtenstein, Elizabeth Catlett, Edward Hopper, a fascinating deconstructed sketchbook from Arthur Dove and a wonderous Egon Schiele nude, that one utterly unexpected.

Oh, and two Paul Cézannes. And a Gustave Courbet. And Thomas Hart Benton.

The museology equivalent of an all-star game, if that all-star game included the best players from the 100 years spanning roughly 1860 to 1960.

Curators aren’t trying to put over their thesis work by highlighting obscure artists unfairly left out of the canon or niche movements, instead, they’ve brought familiarity and accessibility to what, for many, can be unfamiliar and intimidating spaces. But everyone can like and recognize a Monet. On the walls are names people have heard of.

The install is heavy on figurative paintings and landscapes, not so much pure abstraction.

Again, inviting.

Big artwork from major figures that are vibrant, lively and approachable. Catchy. Dare it be described as “fun?” In the right hands, art can be that too, and it is here.

The 4-year-old showing off his floss dance to the security guard–who showed the good sense to let him do so–on the day Forbes.com visited for this review was having a ball at the art museum with his mom and sister.

AMFA’s choice of contemporary artworks are equally suitable for making a great first impression.

Kerry James Marshall, Derek Adams, Robert Colescott, Marie Watt (Seneca), Titus Kaphar, Bisa Butler, Howardina Pindell. Essential figures in the genre.

Each of them is African American, except for Watt, a Native American.

The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts achieves a level of diversity in work on view for an historic museum that could only result from a complete reboot, which the renovation provided for. Black artists share equal footing with white artists. Native American, Asian American, Latin American artists receive more than token representation. Ryan RedCorn’s (Osage) monumental photograph of a Plains Cree mother and daughter just inside the gallery door makes a dramatic statement.

Women artists are equal to men.

For every white face represented staring back from the walls, there’s a Black face.

Inviting.

It’s working, too. On the day of my visit, AMFA galleries were filled by a racially diverse audience the likes of which is rarely seen in these spaces.

The entire presentation seems to say, “Come on in. Look around. This is art. It’s for you.”

Wall text is concise.

There are no ropes or alarms or barriers placed in front of the art.

Visitors were smiling. Talking. Joking.

The building and installation fostered that.

Supporting this invitation, admission to the AMFA is free. Parking is free.

The museum front and back intentionally open onto shaded park space, welcoming passersby to pop in, or giving youngsters a quick exit to run around and play outside.

The museum is open from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 5:00 PM on Sundays. I am unaware of any other art museum in the country with that many extended nighttime hours, AMFA recognizing working people should be afforded the opportunity to see art as well, and not just on the weekend.

The most inviting art museum in America.

A New Old Museum

In 1914, a group of Little Rock women formed the Fine Arts Club with a mission of bringing the arts to Arkansas. The Fine Arts Club planted the seeds for the Museum of Fine Arts, which was built by the Works Progress Administration and opened in 1937. It became the Arkansas Arts Center in 1959.

Unifying the original building and eight subsequent additions, the redesign from MacArthur Foundation “genius award” winner Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects and Kate Orff of SCAPE Landscape Architecture, herself a “genius” grant winner, the first for a landscape architect, increases indoor space almost 50 percent and adds 10 acres of new outdoor grounds.

As part of the architectural project, which began in 2016, the original Art Deco façade from 1937 bearing the name “Museum of Fine Arts” has been revealed once again, part of the north entrance of the new building. Outside that entrance you’ll find Henry Moore’s bronze sculpture Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge. If it looks familiar, you may be recognizing it for its co-staring role in “The Breakfast Club.” Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, Emilio Esteves and Anthony Michael Hall clowned the sculpture–a copy–in scenes taking place in the high school library.

The redesign features a restaurant, gift shop, 350-seat performing arts center and expansion of the Windgate Art School which boasts multiple studios for students of all ages and skillsets with a faculty comprised of working artists in drawing, painting, ceramics, glass, metals, woodworking, printmaking, and more. An exhibition for Chakaia Booker headlines gallery space outside the classrooms.

A Black woman.

AMFA included a New Media Gallery in its redesign. This space allows for the display of audio-visual works designed for projectors, television monitors, speakers, and even interactive digital platforms, allowing programming to reflect the myriad ways artists work in the 21st century. Sun Xen initiates it.

A Chinese man.

The delightful Art Perch, a large window in the northernmost gallery with built-in seating, gives arriving guests a framed “sneak peek” of featured artworks displayed inside. Within the gallery, the window provides a view of the outdoor landscape and a comfortable place to rest and view the art. Natasha Bowdoin’s vivid, oversized, cartoony floral arrangements fill the space.

Another female artist.

Inviting.

A Cultural Living Room on the second floor with views onto the grounds acts as a gathering space. Here, AMFA welcomes guests to informally gather, relax and socialize with comfortable lounge furniture and a coffee and cocktail bar. A living room for the city.

Inviting.

Sustainability was a key consideration throughout. Most prominently, the distinctive design of the roof shades and cools the building, reducing energy use, while also catching stormwater and channeling runoff into a series of native plant rain gardens intentionally placed and planted to filter and disperse the water and attract pollinators and migratory birds. The landscape design also incorporated the planting of 250 new native trees which will mature to combine with existing trees on site to form a shade canopy covering the grounds.

Make a Weekend of it

The William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum has served as Little Rock’s top draw for visitors since opening in 2004. The buildings and grounds occupy formerly abandoned industrial brownfield sites and have spurred development in the city’s long overlooked “east of I-30” area along the Arkansas River.

The icon of Little Rock tourism, however, remains Little Rock Central High School. Here, America’s most beautiful high school served as backdrop for America’s ugliest display of racist, segregationist hostility to court mandated equality in public education, and, simultaneously, a courageous action of self-worth from nine Black teenagers who walked a gauntlet of screaming, hostile bigots–many future classmates–to enter the building which was previously whites only.

The Little Rock High School National Historic Site interprets this history for the public. A visit to the school, where classes are still held, should be compulsory for American citizens.

Two miles from the high school, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center further shares Little Rock’s Black History. Many of its exhibits are currently undergoing a renovation with a full return to programming expected for fall of 2023.

Less than a half mile from Mosaic Templars and suitable for walking when the weather allows, Fat Jaws Soul Food & Southern Eats cooks up comfort food that would make Big Mama proud. Chef Will’s on site much of the time, you can’t miss him, he’s about 6-foot-5 and one of the few people who can finish off the enormous portions without needing a to-go box. His loaded brunch biscuit with gravy, bacon, egg and cheese–have him add hot sauce on top–is a big eater’s dream.

Biscuit lovers hungry for more on Day 2 should visit The Root Café in Little Rock’s lively South Main (SOMA) district less than a mile from the museum. Try getting there by 10:00 AM; not long after, the brunch rush starts backing up out the door.

The Historic Arkansas Museum’s “We Walk in Two Worlds” exhibition does a fine job introducing visitors to the area’s indigenous inhabitants–the Caddo, Osage and Quapaw. Arkansas was central to Indian Removal and the Trail of Tears. Each of the so-called “Five Civilized Tribes” of the American southeast–Seminole, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Creek–traveled through the state on their way to Indian Country.

Those with an extreme interest in Native American history should also check out the Sequoyah National Research Center on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. More of a research facility than public exhibition space, the Center houses the largest collection of Native American written material in the world and if you pop your head in, staff are happy to show you around.

Arkansas calls itself the “Natural State” and visiting the Little Rock Audubon Center on the outskirts of town–on a site where a segregated housing project once stood–shows why. Paved and unpaved walking paths across a prominence with commanding views of the surrounding area are a feast for the senses any time of year. The trails are open sunup to sundown.

Finally, don’t leave town without enjoying a sampling of Little Rock’s robust craft beer culture. Lost Forty Brewing serves up suds ranging from hoppy IPA’s to fruity radlers and its pizza’s dang good, too. One block from the original tap room, Camp Taco at Lost Forty combines summer camp memories with beer, tequila and–you guessed it–tacos.

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Wednesday, May 24, 2023
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At a recent international conference on Italian art, a University of Texas at Arlington history professor argued that 16th-century painter Annibale Carracci changed his drawing style in response to his access to the drawings of Michelangelo and Raphael—two of the most well-known visual artists of the Renaissance period.

Distinguished Professor of Art History Mary Vaccaro presented her research on the drawings of Carracci at the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute in Rome, Italy. She was one of three scholars traveling from the U.S. to present their work at the international conference, Accident or Strategy: The Collecting of Drawings in 16th and 17th Century Italy.

Carracci’s drawings from his time in Rome look much more finished and self-consciously beautiful than those he previously made in Bologna, Vaccaro said. This was likely due to the breathtaking drawings by Michelangelo and Raphael that he would have seen in the Roman palace of his patron, Cardinal Odoardo Farnese. Vaccaro argues that Carracci was trying to put himself on the same level as Michelangelo and Raphael and deliberately made more finished drawings so they could become prized collectable keepsakes.

“Before going to Rome, Carracci didn’t have particularly high regard for keeping his drawings,” Vaccaro said. “And from what we know from biographers, he and other members of his family are said to have even cleaned their printing plates and frying pans with them.”

Vaccaro’s interest in the Carracci drawings comes from her original studies of artists from Parma, Italy. She has spent over three decades looking into Parmigianino and other artists in the school of Parma and has become a world-renowned expert of 16th-century painting and drawing in the region.

More recently, Vaccaro has expanded beyond Parma and looked into the draftsmen from Bologna, Italy, including Carracci and his brother, Agostino. The brothers, along with their cousin Ludovico, founded an important art academy in their native Bologna.

Vaccaro has had the opportunity to look at original Carracci drawings all over the world. In 2015, as a visiting professor at the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti in Florence, Italy, she studied the Carracci Holdings at the Uffizi Gallery. She has also spent much time in the two major repositories of Carracci drawings, the Louvre and the Royal Library at Windsor Castle.

“I knew I wanted to do something on Carracci, and I was glad to hear my proposal was accepted,” she said. “I was extremely excited to be sharing my work and to be back in Rome.”

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A privately funded visitor center is emerging from the wilderness at the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Maine that will tell the story of the region through the eyes of Native Americans.

The striking building is already under construction and will formally open to the public next spring. It bears the name “Tekαkαpimək” from the Penobscot Indian language, which translates to “as far as one can see.”

“It’s going to be pretty incredible. It’s an amazing building. And it’ll be focused telling the history of this place through the Wabanaki world view,” said Lucas St. Clair, whose family donated the land for the monument.

Friends of Katahdin Woods & Waters formally unveiled on Tuesday a capital campaign called “A Monumental Welcome” to raise the final $12.5 million of the $35 million needed for the welcome center and several other projects. It’s being funded by donations from individuals, foundations and corporations, officials said.

The welcome center is a key step for accessibility for the 87,500-acre property east of Baxter State Park, and will include historical exhibits and restrooms.

Managed by the National Park Service, Katahdin Woods and Waters was the brainchild of St. Clair’s mother, Roxanne Quimby, who founded Burt’s Bees and made tens of millions of dollars when she sold it. It includes a 17-mile loop road with stunning views of Mount Katahdin, the tallest mountain in Maine, and trails for hiking, mountain biking and snowmobiling, along with paddling on the Penobscot River’s East Branch.

The land’s deeds allow construction of a visitor contact station on Lookout Mountain, and the foundation partnered with the Wabanaki tribes in Maine. Those include the Penobscots whose ancestral homeland includes the property, along with the Maliseet, Mi’kmaq and Passamaquoddy tribes. The Wabanaki and their ancestors have been in what’s now Maine for thousands of years.

The exhibits created by Wabanaki artists and teachers will provide “a profound welcome” to visitors of the monument, St. Clair said.

The Quimby family and foundations have donated $10 million to the capital campaign, which will fund projects beyond the visitor center. About $2.7 million will be used for National Park Service priority projects and $1 million will be used for a fund for Wabanaki projects as defined by the Wabanaki Advisory Board.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is delighted to announce the appointment of internationally acclaimed artists Renée Fleming and Pretty Yende as Goodwill Ambassadors for Arts and Health. This prestigious announcement was made as part of WHO’s 75^th Anniversary commemoration during the 76^th World Health Assembly on 22 May 2023.

Renée Fleming, one of the most celebrated singers of our time, and Pretty Yende, an extraordinary soprano known for her dazzling performances, have been selected for their artistic achievement and advocacy for improved health outcomes through creative means. On 8 April 2023, Fleming and Yende performed for a special concert titled Healing Arts, dedicated to WHO’s 75^th anniversary in Geneva, Switzerland.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said, “WHO is honoured to have Renée Fleming and Pretty Yende join as Goodwill Ambassadors for Arts and Health. Their unparalleled talent, dedication to the arts, and commitment to advancing health and well-being make them ideal ambassadors for this important cause. Their involvement will inspire individuals, communities and policy-makers to recognize and harness the transformative power of the arts in the pursuit of better health for all.”

Fleming brings a wealth of expertise to her new role. She has captivated audiences worldwide with her luminous soprano voice and compelling artistry. Beyond her remarkable vocal talent, Fleming has been a fervent advocate for research at the intersection of the arts and health. Her presentations worldwide with scientists and practitioners, her leading role in major initiatives, and her association with WHO demonstrate her commitment to harnessing the transformative power of the arts to better society.

“I am elated that the preeminent global health agency is recognizing the powerful impact of the arts in health, and I am deeply honoured to be entrusted to share this message,” said Fleming. “Every day, advances in neuroscience and clinical research reveal more about the benefits of arts therapies, experiences, and education, with implications for well-being throughout the human life span. However, we have only just begun to realize the amazing potential of this work, and I look forward to expanding awareness and access as a WHO Goodwill Ambassador.”

Pretty Yende has mesmerized audiences with her exquisite voice and stunning performances. As a soprano with a deep understanding of the power of music, she has demonstrated her commitment to using her talent to improve society. Yende’s passion for sharing the healing aspects of music and her dedication to social causes align perfectly with WHO’s Arts and Health agenda.

Yende said, “I am delighted to be appointed a WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health. I hope to help establish a foundation for continued investigation into the arts being a fundamental ingredient in improving our physical, mental, and social well-being. I am grateful to WHO for paving the way for new research and providing their global platform to spread the word and generate research on the connection of arts and health.”

I look forward to all the possibilities to do essential work in my native South Africa and globally for a better and healthier tomorrow,” added Yende.

The appointments of Fleming and Yende underscore the profound link between arts and health. Engagement in creative activities, such as music, art, and dance, positively impacts physical,  mental health, social well-being, and overall quality of life. Through their roles as Goodwill Ambassadors, Fleming and Yende will promote the integration of arts into health-care systems, advocate for access to creative arts therapies, and champion the importance of artistic expression in improving health outcomes globally.

Fleming and Yende join other distinguished WHO Goodwill Ambassadors such as Alisson and Natalia Becker, Brazilian professional footballer and his physician wife; Ivorian retired professional footballer Didier Drogba; Michael Bloomberg, entrepreneur and three-term Mayor of the City of New York; Cynthia Germanotta, President of Born This Way Foundation; former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown; and broadcaster and writer James Chau, among others.

The Forge Project, a regional Native-led organization focused on decolonial education and Indigenous art, recently announced the winners of its 2023 Forge Fellowship. WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief Dave Lucas spoke with two of six winners.

Brent Michael Davids is a member of the Stockbridge Munsee Community. He’s a flutist, composer, and designer of musical instruments, who for five decades has written and performed different varieties of music of nearly every genre.

“Orchestral, concert band, theater, ballet, jazz, folk music, American Indian music, modern dance, films and film scoring. And TV and radio,” said Davids.

Davids, who founded a recording studio on the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation in Wisconsin, says he is happy to have connected with the Forge Project.

“One obvious connection for me is in the arts, you know, for music and working on music,” Davids said. “The other is that the Forge is located in my tribal homelands, our territory.”

The Forge Project started in 2021 in the Hudson Valley. The group’s executive director Candice Hopkins spoke with WAMC in October 2022, outlining its goals.

“We’re a Native women-led organization that focuses on fellowships for Native cultural workers in the United States and Canada, working on things like decolonial governance, or even experimental music, seed savings, for example. And we host six fellows a year, at the residences at Forge. We do programs in decolonial education and Indigenous-led education. And we have founded a journal as well called Forging. And so we’re working in publication, too. Forge was created, not only because in this area, in the Mahicanituck Valley, another word for the Hudson Valley, there’s a great absence of Native folks, because a lot of people were displaced, and they were displaced to even as far away as Wisconsin. The Stockbridge-Munsee Community, for example. And so with Forge what we’re dedicated to is increasing Indigenous presence in this area,” said Hopkins.

Dr. Suzanne Kite is a visual artist and composer, one of the first American Indian artists to utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning in art practice.

“I moved to Ancram in January of this year,” Kite said. “And I moved there, basically, to be closer to this booming indigenous art world that is kind of rooted in the work of the Forge Project. And so also I could teach at Bard College, and I think my work is very much indebted to the artists who have come before me and really pushed boundaries. So I’m able to make experimental sound work, video work and artificial intelligence work, because of all the amazing people that are in collections, like the Forge collection.”

Kite sees her art as a reflection of the philosophy and spirit of the Lakota people. She praises Forge and hopes it will encourage other collections throughout New York state to attract contemporary indigenous work.

“Currently I’m making a lot of embroidery work,” said Kite. “And so usually it’s on large deer hides that are dyed black, and I use silver embroidery thread and beads. And I also work with conductive thread, and I embroider different designs in the Lakota visual language, because I’m Oglála Lakȟóta. And I try to make designs that I’ve had dreams about trying to combine like hand beadwork and machine learning experiments and digital embroidery.”

Davids says the Forge Project giving direct support to artists is a move in the right direction.

“In this day, and age artists, you know, working artists who are, you know, working on commission are working project by project by project, we’re constantly searching for money,” said Davids. And we spend a lot of time jumping through hoops and writing big research papers and things when we should be working on our art and working on projects. So we live dual lives, we spend our times as administrators searching for funding, funding agents, looking for funds, and then at the same time trying to do our work as well. And we’ve kind of split our lives in half.”

Each Forge Project Fellow receives a $25,000 grant toward their practice. They also have full access to the Forge Project site, libraries, and collection of contemporary art by Indigenous artists during three-week rotating fellowships on-site at Forge. There’s more about Forge and the six fellows here.

Bowling Green native and internationally-acclaimed sculptor Russ Faxon has been commissioned for an art project at the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center.

The new work will be located at Burr Plaza, a public common area in front of SKyPAC.

Folllowing a news conference on Tuesday, Faxon declined to give details about the sculpture, other than it will be figurative.

“I’ll just say it’s full of energy and movement,” Faxon told WKU Public Radio. “Everybody will have a different impression of what that story is, what it means to them. Art means different things to different people.”

Faxon is a graduate of Western Kentucky University who also studied art in Italy.

He’s best known for creating Tennessee’s Korean War Memorial and sculptures of Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.

At WKU, Faxon created campus statues of Coach E.A. Diddle, as well as Sergeant First Class Robert Guthrie, who died fighting in the Korean War. The art outside SkyPAC, which is about year-and-a-half away from unveiling, will be free for public viewing.

“So many more people are able to appreciate it and be inspired by it,” Faxon said. “We’re affecting other people’s lives by the stories we wind up telling, and we have to continue to grow as people, and the way we do that is through thinking, creative thinking.”

The SKyPAC sculpture is being funded through a $100,000 gift from local businessman Joe Davis, the current chair of Arts of Southern Kentucky. It’s the first project to come from the group’s Public Art Committee. That group’s goal is to tap regional artists to provide free exposure to the arts.

An artist based in Washington state has been sentenced to 18 months of federal probation for violating the Indian Arts and Crafts Act (IACA) after misrepresenting himself as Native American to sell his work. 

Over the course of a decade, Jerry Chris Van Dyke, also known as Jerry Witten, sold more than $1,000 worth of carved pendants based on Aleut masks in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. In doing so, he claimed to be a member of the Nez Perce Tribe, despite having no Native heritage. 

Van Dyke, 67, pleaded guilty this March to misrepresentation of Indian produced goods and products. In handing out his sentence at a hearing last week, U.S. District Judge Tana Lin cited Van Dyke’s long history of “undermining a community and identity,” according to an announcement from the United States Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Washington. 

“Artwork is full of our culture… it is a piece of who we are,” said Shannon Wheeler, Chair of the Nez Perce tribe, at the hearing. The sale of fake Native art “continues a process of devaluing us as a people,” she added. 

The investigation into Van Dyke began in early 2019, when the Indian Arts and Crafts Board (IACB) received a tip that he was erroneously representing himself as a Nez Perce member. Undercover authorities from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service purchased the artist’s work and learned that he had been provided with ivory, antlers, and animal bones from the owner of the gallery.  

In interviews with agents, Van Dyke admitted that he was not enrolled with the Nez Perce Tribe and was aware of IACA, a 1990 truth-in-advertising law that prohibits the false marketing of Native arts and crafts products. He was charged in 2021.  

“The prosecution of Jerry Van Dyke under the Indian Arts and Crafts Act for counterfeiting Alaska Native art is another critically important step in protecting the economic livelihoods and rich cultural heritage of contemporary and traditional Indian artists, as well as preserving the vitality of the Indian art market in the Northwest and nationwide,” said IACB Director Meridith Stanton in a statement. 

In a separate case that paralleled Van Dyke’s, another Western Washington artist, Lewis Anthony Rath, was charged with misrepresenting himself as a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe through his work. He too pled guilty in March. Rath’s sentencing hearing is scheduled to take place on September 27, 2023. 

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