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Mihtohseenionki The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art partnered with Christel House Academy to bring art into this Near Southside neighborhood. A grant from the Christel DeHaan Family Foundation allowed the Eiteljorg to connect students at the Christel House Academy with Native American photographer and installation artist, Will Wilson (Diné), for a mural project that not only introduced students to art and indigenous cultures, but it also helped them give back to the Indianapolis community by beautifying a neighborhood building. As part of the project, Wilson talked to the students about Diné culture and the influence of his culture on his art.
Mihtohseenionki means “the people’s place” in the Miami language, referring to what local indigenous peoples (the Miami, Delaware, Potawatomi, and others) think of the Indiana region.
The students assisted Wilson in tracing and filling in the mural celebrating the Indians of Indiana. The mural, which was placed on a vacant building, was created in part of Christel House Academy’s efforts to bring a multicultural education to their students.
William (Will) Wilson is a Diné photographer who spent his formative years living in the Navajo Nation. Born in San Francisco in 1969, Wilson studied photography at the University of New Mexico (Dissertation Tracked MFA in Photography, 2002) and Oberlin College (BA, Studio Art and Art History, 1993). In 2007, Wilson won the Native American Fine Art Fellowship from the Eiteljorg Museum, and in 2010 was awarded a prestigious grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Wilson has held visiting professorships at the Institute of American Indian Arts (1999-2000), Oberlin College (2000-01), and the University of Arizona (2006-08). From 2009 to 2011, Wilson managed the National Vision Project, a Ford Foundation funded initiative at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, and helped to coordinate the New Mexico Arts Temporary Installations Made for the Environment (TIME) program on the Navajo Nation. Read more about Wilson at http://willwilson.photoshelter.com/index
Minuteman Don Gummer: Back Home Again is presented by the Central Indiana Community Foundation in honor of the 100th anniversary of The Indianapolis Foundation and in partnership with the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, Inc. This outdoor exhibition is located on the Indianapolis Cultural Trail and it features eight sculptures by Indianapolis-native, New York-based artist Don Gummer.
The artist, Don Gummer was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1946. When he was seven years old Gummer and his family moved to Indianapolis, Indiana. As Gummer grew up in Indianapolis he attended Ben Davis High School where he demonstrated his artistic talent by winning local awards. Gummer attended Herron School of Art in Indianapolis before moving to Boston, Massachusetts to attend School of the Museum of Fine Arts. From Boston, he went on to Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he completed both his Bachelor of Fine Art and his Masters of Fine Arts.
Gummer prefers that each individual bring their own interpretation to Minuteman and his other sculptures along the Cultural Trail.
Don Gummer: Back Home Again runs from August 31, 2016 to August 7, 2017.
Morning Prayer Allan Houser was a sculptor and painter who altered expectations of Native American artists in the 20th century. Houser is known as the patriarch of Native American contemporary fine art and is credited with pushing Native American sculpture into the modern era without sacrificing its traditional and enduring quality.
Morning Prayer was originally shown as part of the 2001 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship (then called the Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art). That year, Allan Houser was awarded the designation of Distinguished Artist posthumously.
See more at: http://www.eiteljorg.org/explore/outdoor-spaces/outdoor-sculpture#sthash.uGCsCPGN.dpuf
Myaamionki, Seekaahkwiaanki and Oonseentia Gerald Clarke states that his “ultimate goal as an artist is to give Indian culture back the humanity that has been taken from it by stereotypes created over the past five centuries…In my work, I look for the unconventional beauty one finds only in TRUTHS. It celebrates, it mourns, and it outshines all else.”
Clarke created these three signs for the Eiteljorg Museum’s 2007 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship (then called the Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art) , connecting with Native peoples of this region and addressing them as his audience. The signs are written in Miami and were created in collaboration with Scott Shoemaker, a Miami artist and historian.
This artwork is currently in storage and not visible.
See more at: http://www.eiteljorg.org/explore/outdoor-spaces/outdoor-sculpture#sthash.uGCsCPGN.dpuf
Southwest Summer Showers Doug Hyde (Nez Perce, Chippewa, and Assiniboine) was born in 1946, studied and taught at the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is well-known for monumental works in California, Arizona, and elsewhere. He sensitively portrays Native peoples in a way that conveys pride and dignity. He is best known for his work in stone and for bold bronze castings with brightly colored patinas. His work is in the collections of major museums throughout the country, including the Smithsonian Institution. The woman holding the umbrella in this sculpture wears traditional Southwestern clothing and jewelry.
See more at: http://www.eiteljorg.org/explore/outdoor-spaces/outdoor-sculpture#sthash.uGCsCPGN.dpuf
The Greeting Renowned artist George Carlson was born in Illinois in 1940 and studied art in Chicago. He is an Academician of the National Academy of Design and a Fellow of the National Sculpture Society. The subject of this work is a Blackfoot man welcoming visitors; he holds an eagle wing fan up in a gesture of friendship. The work is an allegorical expression of welcoming friendship. Carlson has been the subject of numerous exhibitions and publications, is represented in many public and private collections, and has received many awards at major shows across the country.
See more at: http://www.eiteljorg.org/explore/outdoor-spaces/outdoor-sculpture#sthash.uGCsCPGN.dpuf
Time Landscape With the 1989 opening of the Eiteljorg Museum, Alan Sonfist, an internationally-known environmental artist was commissioned to create Time Landscape. This piece is a re-creation of the virgin forest and indigenous plants found in Indiana. The bronze casting acts as a gateway to this environmental sculpture.
See more at: http://www.eiteljorg.org/explore/outdoor-spaces/outdoor-sculpture#sthash.uGCsCPGN.dpuf
Water Whispers Truman Lowe’s Ho-Chuck heritage and love of the woodlands landscapes is at the heart of his work. He has the ability to distill into very simple and elegant terms the essence of his subjects. Often his work reflects his love of water and canoeing. Water Whispers utilizes the idea of flowing glass as the manifestation of a waterfall.
See more at: http://www.eiteljorg.org/explore/outdoor-spaces/outdoor-sculpture#sthash.07EOLCVU.dpuf
Watercarrier Allen Houser’s Watercarrier was created in 1986 and is the 8th in an edition of 8 identical bronze sculptures. On loan from a private collection, Watercarrier is one of two Houser sculptures featured on the Christel DeHaan Terrace at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. The monumental piece features an abstracted Native American woman balancing a container of water on her head. Watercarrier is an example of Houser’s use of elegant abstractions to depict Native American subjects.
Allan Houser (1914-2004) was a Chiricahua Apache sculptor, painter, and book illustrator born in Oklahoma. He is considered one of the most renowned Native American painters and Modernist sculptors of the 20th century. As the father of contemporary Native American sculpture, Houser was instrumental in helping generations of artists discover and express themselves in contemporary media through a uniquely Native perspective. Houser’s work can be found at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC., and in numerous major museum collections throughout North America, Europe, and Japan.
Whitetail Deer Kenneth R. Bunn (born 1938), works to convey a sense of action and movement in his sculptures and clearly succeeded in doing so when he created this dramatic bronze of deer running through a pond for the opening of the Eiteljorg Museum in 1989. A close student of animal anatomy and behavior, the artist masters his work through observation of creatures in the wild. He has traveled throughout the world studying wildlife in natural habitats and at zoos and private preserves. Bunn’s work can be found at museums throughout the country; he is an Academician of the National Academy of Design and a Fellow of the National Sculpture Society.
See more at: http://www.eiteljorg.org/explore/outdoor-spaces/outdoor-sculpture#sthash.cdPt3bhd.dpuf
Wisdom Keepers Bruce LaFountain was raised on the Turtle Mountain Reservation. He is of Chippewa, French and Cree and often refers to himself as Metis. Drawing on his Native American heritage, he feels like sculpture is a meditative process that allows him to chip away at his materials until he the excess gone and he can see the simple truth and spirituality of his subject. Wisdom Keepers reflects both LaFountain’s heritage and spirituality with the warrior transforming into an eagle.
See more at: http://www.eiteljorg.org/explore/outdoor-spaces/outdoor-sculpture#sthash.uGCsCPGN.NkU2qwZi.dpuf
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