Events and Programs

Thursday, September 26, 11:00am via Zoom

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The ZMA will present an online conversation between an expert Cherokee syllabary scholar and printer, Frank Brannon and the curator of the KSU Cherokee collection held in the Bentley Rare Books Museum, JoyEllen Williams. Brannon will discuss his work creating a letterpress typeface of the Cherokee syllabary and using it to create hand-bound, hand-printed letterpress printed books in the Cherokee language.

Friday, October 11, 10:00am at Chastain Pointe

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Rhiannon Skye Tafoya is an interdisciplinary artist from the Eastern Band of Cherokee and the Santa Clara Pueblo Tribes. She earned a BFA in printmaking from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM, and an MFA in print media from Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, OR. She published her first artist book, Ul’nigid’ in 2020, and has exhibited work nationally and abroad in numerous group and solo exhibitions. She has been an artist-in-residence at notable institutions such as Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts (Pendleton, OR) and Kala Art Institute (Berkeley, CA) and University of Iowa Center for the Book (Iowa City, IA.) Her work is housed in many special collections, including the US Library of Congress, Kohler Art Library, the Bainbridge Museum of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Museum of the Cherokee People. She currently lives and works in Cherokee, NC. Tafoya will present an artist talk along with a selection of her prints, paper weavings, and artist books for viewing before presenting a demonstration on processes related to her artistic practice. 

Saturday, October 12, 12:00pm - 4:00pm at Chastain Pointe

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Rhiannon Skye Tafoya is an interdisciplinary indigenous artist from the Eastern Band of Cherokee and the Santa Clara Pueblo Tribes. Influenced by a strong lineage of basket-weavers both paternal and maternal, she continues to use paper-weaving processes to honor her loved ones and ancestors. Her meticulously crafted designs, patterns, prints, and weavings are influenced by basketry and contain themes of cultural teachings, Cherokee language preservation, motherhood and personal and family narratives. Her work is created to archive, preserve and share stories, language, culture, and experiences. Tafoya will present a selection of her prints, paper weavings, and artist books for viewing before conducting a workshop on processes related to her artistic practice. Utilizing the spacious printmaking studios at the School of Art and Design, workshop attendees will explore various relief printing and paper weaving techniques focusing on color, pattern, design and typography.  

Thursday, October 17, 7:30pm at the Morgan Concert Hall

In association with INTERCHANGE

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Jeffrey Gibson: They Teach Love From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation presents a sweeping survey of over thirty-five objects spanning fifteen years. The exhibition includes prints, photography, painting, sculpture, installation, and video. The inclusion of contemporary adornment in fashion is influenced by intertribal powwows as well as the dance clubs where Gibson found safe spaces as a teenager. The exhibition’s centerpiece is an expansive and immersive work titled To Name An Other—fifty-one printed elk hide drums and fifty wearable garments, which was originally commissioned as a performance by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in 2019. Born in Colorado in 1972, Jeffrey Gibson is of Cherokee heritage and a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw. His vibrant work, which is represented in more than twenty permanent collections across the United States, is a call for Indigenous empowerment as well as queer visibility. Gibson has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received a Master of Fine Arts from the Royal College of Art, London. Gibson is representing the United States at the Venice Biennale 2024—the first indigenous artist to have a solo exhibition in the American Pavilion. This traveling exhibition is organized by the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Washington State University and curated by Ryan Hardesty, Executive Director. 

_{Organized by the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Support for this exhibition and related education and outreach programs has been made possible by a grant from the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation.}  

Friday, November 15, 1:30pm at the ZMA

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The Artistic Practice of Wearable Art: Indigenous dress, Collaboration, and Community 

Inspired by her late Setsuné’s (grandmother) incredible garment making, hide-tanning and adornment, Catherine Blackburn’s work grounds itself in the Indigenous feminine. Join us for an artist talk in which she reflects on her wearable art practice and its intersection between Indigenous dress, collaboration, and community.   
  
Catherine Blackburn was born in Patuanak Saskatchewan and is a member of the English River First Nation (Denesųłiné). She is a multidisciplinary artist and jeweler, whose common themes address Canada's colonial past that are often prompted by personal narratives. Her work grounds itself in the Indigenous feminine and is bound by the ancestral love that stitching suggests. Through stitchwork, she explores Indigenous sovereignty, decolonization, and representation. Her work has been included in renowned national and international exhibitions including Radical Stitch, Àbadakone, Santa Fe Haute Couture Fashion Show, and Toronto Indigenous Fashion Week. She has received numerous awards including the Sobey Art Award longlist (2019/2023), a Forge Residency Fellowship (2022), and an Eiteljorg Fellowship (2021).