Tuesday April 3, 2001

1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m

• Joan Benedetti, Cataloger, Balch Research Library, L.A. County Museum of Art
• Marilyn Russell-Bogle (Ojibwe), Fine Arts and Humanities Librarian and Assistant Professor, American Indian Studies and Art, University of Minnesota-Duluth

Sponsors:

• Museum Library Division; Diversity Committee; Indigenous Art and Culture Round Table; Women and Art Round Table

  Supported by Dagny Corcoran of Art Catalogues, Nancy Moure of Dustin Publications and Atlatl, Inc.

Abstract:

My Quest for Identity as Artist, Scholar, Librarian, and NativeAmerican, Marilyn Russell-Bogle, Ph.D.

Developing a meaningful identity is a long process for everyone.  It includes a realistic perception and an evaluation of one's journey through life.  This quest involves a constant renewal of the mind, an alertness to the spirit, and a willingness to choose paths to follow.

A search for identity is a continual listening to the heart.  This listening process is set apart by an openness to our experiences and inner reflections.  By remaining attentive, we can choose to become active participants in the dance and not just passive observers in our world.  As an American Indian woman seeking to learn more about my Ojibwe heritage and its effects upon this journey, my search includes many dimensions.  In this presentation, my process of defining multiple roles as an artist, scholar, and librarian will be shared.

The Role of the Native Artist in the 21st Century, Paul Apodaca

The role of American Indian artists in contemporary society is complex. Are native artists furthering traditional approaches to art, syncretizing culturally-based perspectives into new mediums, exploring new directions for their respective cultures, or simply exploiting images and themes in effective art marketing? Cultural continuance is a favored way of viewing many groups today for many academics and cultural adherents.  Is the marketing of American Indian artists in Fine Art galleries a continuance of culture or assimilation?

Articulating an Indigenous Aesthetic: Challenges from Indian Art Education and Contemporary Native Art Curation, Nancy Mithlo

Drawing from both institutional and community-sponsored initiatives, Mithlo will explore how standard art terminology such as curation and aesthetics is defined in native art settings.  Although Western art practices and values are often appropriated in communal arts initiatives, their meanings are altered resulting in hybrid cultural interpretations.  Thus, while the viewer may assume that Western art paradigms are maintained due to the use of standard art speak, actual internal values may vary greatly from dominant readings.  Reports of how these various art meanings are manipulated in actual practice are examined with an analysis of the first Native American Arts exhibition "Ceremonial" at the Venice Biennale in 1999 and educational initiatives at the Institute of American Indian Arts. 

Growth and the Creative Process: 43 Years of Work, Harry Fonseca

The connections made in my work are not exclusively cultural.  Myth and history comprise the thematic elements of my art.  My paintings incorporate simple forms, basic color and design, and abstract landscape.  Ancient symbols are rendered as contemporary and relevant without losing the past.  In a passionate confrontation with this subject matter, images unfold and hint at the creative process itself. Mythology, transformed into a sense of myth, reveals its drama, its magic, its presence and life.

As an artist with 43 years of work, my art continues to grow and change.  This growth and its process reveals the many cultures and the universal artistic exploration of passion, struggle and fight, and its subsequent transformation into art.