"Tradition & Innovation: Artists of the Eastern Woodland Tribes"
Hera
Gallery & The Tomaquag Museum Present:
Tradition & Innovation
Artists of the Eastern Woodland
Tribes
March 5th
– April 2
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 5th, 6-8pm
Indigenous Culture Workshop: Saturday, March 12th, 1pm
Stories in Stone Film Screening: Tuesday, March 29th, 7pm
Hera Gallery is pleased host the Tradition
& Innovation: Artists of the Eastern Woodland Tribes. Through this
collaborative venture, Hera Gallery and the Tomaquag Museum seek to promote a
dialogue about Native American arts & culture and its role in the
contemporary arts. We invite the public to join us Saturday, March 5th from 6
to 8pm for the opening reception of Tradition
& innovation.
This exhibition will present
work that represents traditional approaches to Native American arts,
specifically those from the Eastern Woodland tribes, as well as contemporary
approaches and media. Participating artists are:
Monica Alexander, Metis/Mi’kmaq, East Otis, MA
Sharon Alexander, Narragansett, North Kingstown, RI
Rhonda Besaw,
Canadian Metis/Abenaki, Whitefield, NH
Jon Campbell, Penobscot, Narragansett, RI
Jeremy Dennis, Shinnecock, University Park, PA
Graham Gruner, Narragansett, Mystic, CT
Nancy Oakley,
Wampanoag/Mi’kmaq, Eskasoni, Nova Scotia
Ayanna Proctor, Piscataway Conoy, White Plains, MD
Angel Smith,
Narragansett, Mystic, CT
Yolanda Smith, Seaconke/Wampanoag
Dawn Spears,
Narragansett Choctaw, Ashaway, RI
Lorén M. Spears Narragansett/Niantic, Charlestown, RI
Robin Spears,
Narragansett, Charlestown, RI
Olive Alexander Whitford, Narragansett, Exhibiting
Post Mortem
Indigenous Culture Workshop
Saturday, March 12th, 1pm
Led by Lorén M. Spears, Executive
Director of the Tomaquag Museum
Traditional items will be
brought to share regarding Indigenous culture and the Spears will share the
history, culture and the arts of Eastern Woodland people, with a focus on the
Narragansett. There will be opportunities for participants to interact with the
presenter through Q & A and other forms of interaction. The program will
include some music and dance along with the oral history of Narragansett
People.
Stories in Stone
Film Screening with Marc Levitt
Tuesday, March 29th, 7pm
Stories in Stones is the first film that looks at the
Narragansett wall building tradition from multiple perspectives, artistic,
spiritual, multi-generational and as a story of tribal affirmation. While some
would see wall building as the haphazard placement of rocks, Stories in Stone,
demonstrates that the wall’s beauty is the result of a finely honed and ever
evolving sculptural aesthetic. While some see the walls as ‘the only option’
for the Narragansett, Stories in Stones makes clear, that more often than not,
becoming a mason is a choice, a choice that allows freedom of movement, freedom
from ‘inside’ work, freedom from working for others and the freedom to join a
long and illustrious line of ancestors. While many believe that ‘tradition’
among New England Tribes is long gone, Stories in Stone makes clear that wall building
remains a means to assert and perpetuate Tribal identity; in the choice to be a
mason, in the placement of symbols, in the use of a particular aesthetic, in
the visceral relationship to stone and in one’s spiritual connection to nature.
Stories in Stone elucidates the stories that lie beneath one’s initial
appreciation for the stone walls of Southern New England and in doing so,
illustrates how the seemingly ordinary, can be indeed be, quite extraordinary.
Marc Levitt is a writer,
storyteller, educator, radio and TV host, filmmaker and audio artist living in
Wakefield, RI and NYC. He has won awards for his story recordings, for work in
his unique musical/narrative historical storytelling style, for his work in
radio and for his work in the arts and in the humanities.
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