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Don't miss Pathbreakers: Ten years of the Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, 9 p.m. EST, Monday, Dec. 17, on WFYI-TV (PBS).

 

 

 

  

 

Beginning November 10, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art will celebrate the 10^th anniversary of its biennial Eiteljorg Museum Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, presented by Lilly Endowment. The fifth cycle of the initiative features an exhibition of artwork created by 2007 Fellows:

 

James A. Luna (Luiseño), Distinguished Artist

Dana Claxton (Lakota)

Gerald Clarke (Cahuilla)

Larry McNeil (Tlingit/ Nisgaa),

Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Inupiaq / Athabascan)

William Wilson (Dine) 

 

The display includes more than 45 examples of contemporary, engaging and challenging photography, installation work, four-channel DVD, drawing, printmaking and painting. The museum is grateful for the generous and longstanding support of the Lilly Endowment that made this nationally renowned initiative possible.    

 

The 2007 Fellowship exhibition launches with opening weekend activities, including a gala on Fri., Nov. 9, that celebrates 2007 Fellows and a day-long symposium of artists and scholars discussing issues related to contemporary Native art on Sat., Nov. 10.

 

 

When you visualize Native American culture and art, what do you see? Many people may envision stereotypical Native American images. However, the Eiteljorg Museum’s Fellowship program is confronting this perception and proving that Native culture is alive and dynamic today – beyond the romanticized or conventional views of traditional Native art forms.

 

In the 2001 catalog for the Eiteljorg Museum Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, Jennifer Complo-McNutt, Eiteljorg Museum curator of contemporary art, describes the Fellowship’s mission as providing Native American artists with the prospect of “greater influence and more visibility within the mainstream contemporary art world.”

 

“The Fellowship program helps dissolve the distinction between Native American contemporary fine artists and simply, contemporary artists,” Complo-McNutt says.

 

Established in 1999, the Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art provides support and national visibility for Native American artists. Participating artists submit works from a wide range of mediums. Only five are selected as Eiteljorg Fellows by an independent jury consisting of art critics, curators and former Fellows. Selected Fellows receive a $20,000 honorarium, exposure in the Eiteljorg Fellowship Catalogue and participation in the Fellowship Exhibition. A Distinguished Artist is also selected and recognized for his/her lifetime contributions.

 

Says Amei Wallach, international art critic: “The [Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art] is the only [program of its kind] in America…as far as I’m concerned, the only one in the world. It’s important, because it encourages contemporary artists.”

 

Last year, the museum received an additional grant from the Ford Foundation to support the Fellowship program. Among other initiatives, the grant will allow the museum to host a “homecoming” of past Fellows on Nov. 11. During the homecoming, participants will reflect and discuss future recommendations for the Fellowship program. The grant will also increase the museum’s capacity to involve Native Americans in the museum and to further Native arts on a national scale. The Eiteljorg will join a cohort of seven elite, diverse institutions across the nation to further these goals.

 

The 2007 Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art exhibition closes Feb. 10, 2008.



The Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art is presented by

 

With additional support from the Ford Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The symposium was supported by the Indiana Humanities Council.