ICDC announces Oklahoma centennial exhibition
MEDFORD, Ore. - Indian Country Development Corporation recently announced plans to produce a major Native American art exhibition for the Oklahoma statehood centennial. The non-profit organization is now soliciting artists and works for the exhibition that will travel in the Southern Plains region from 2005 to 2008. The exhibition will present Oklahoma Native American artists' perspectives in response to the Oklahoma statehood centennial of 2007.
The exhibition will feature approximately 80 newly created art objects that reflect Native American perspectives on 100 years of statehood. A catalogue of nearly 100 pages that will include black and white photographs, color photographs, historic and interpretive essays and literary arts from Oklahoma Native American poets and writers will accompany the exhibition.
The curators expect a complex mix of political statements, history, traditional art forms, abstraction, pure aesthetics and the written word. The commissioned pieces will cover a full range of mediums, including paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, literature, traditional objects, media presentations and installations. Kevin Smith (Cherokee), interpretive projects manager at Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum and Fred Nahwooksy (Comanche), executive director of ICDC, are the co-curators for the exhibition.
The exhibition process has begun with an open call for proposals from Oklahoma Native artists. The curators will review all proposals, establish a proposal priority ranking, negotiate with the artists and confirm a commission fee for creation of the new works. One of the project goals is to purchase the art in whole from the artists and donate the assembled collection to a worthy museum or educational institute in the Southern Plains region once the exhibition completes its traveling tour in 2008. The exhibition will travel to approximately eight venues from 2005 to 2008 for four to six months at each venue in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico.
Request for Proposal forms are available from ICDC, and the completed proposals are due in October. Artists are encouraged to call, write or visit the ICDC Web site at www.indiancountrydevelopment.org for more information and to access RFP forms
"We believe that this is an important opportunity for Oklahoma Native Americans," Nahwooksy said. "We hope that the quality and beauty of the artwork will overwhelm the exhibition's visitors and focus new attention on Native art forms and economic opportunities for artists through other exhibitions, sales and public education. We intend that the artists will earn money through the purchase of their artwork for the exhibition, that a broad general public will see and learn Native perspectives on Oklahoma history and that the artwork and artist's statements will live on though donation of the exhibition collection to a museum or educational institution in the Southern Plains region."
The exhibition of artwork, catalogue, production costs, advertising and promotion, curatorial and administration fees for the project are $350,000. ICDC has begun fundraising efforts and is seeking major tribal, corporate and foundation sponsors.
ICDC is incorporated in New Mexico with 501(c) 3 status. The organization's mission is to help indigenous peoples develop their cultural, social, economic, environmental and governmental resources toward individual and community stability and prosperity.
Indian Country Development Corporation was founded in 1999. The ICDC home office is in Medford, Ore., but the region of focus is New Mexico and Oklahoma, the homes of the board members.
The board includes the following:
Nahwooksy is a non-profit arts manager and consultant who lives and works from his home office in Eagle Point, Ore. He is a former director of the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum and a current member of the Advisory Board for the Fund for Folk Culture, both in Santa Fe, N.M.
Tonia Moro, secretary of the board, is an assistant federal public defender in Medford, Ore.
Tessie Naranjo (Santa Clara Tewa), director, of Santa Clara Pueblo, N.M., is a sociologist, consultant, vice-president of the Indigenous Language Institute and a member of the New Mexico Historical Records Advisory Board.
Wallace Coffey (Comanche), director, is the tribal chairman of the Comanche Tribe of Oklahoma and a member of the board of the Native American Right Fund in Boulder, Colo.
Karita Coffey (Comanche), director, is an artist who lives in Santa Fe, where she teaches ceramics and business classes at the Institute of American Indian Arts. She has served as a member of the Handmade in American Advisory Council and the National Council of Education on the Ceramic Arts.
Susan Nahwooksy (Comanche), director, works for the American Cancer Society in Lawton, Okla., and is a participant in the Comanche Language Program and an active member of the Rainy Mountain Kiowa Indian Baptist Church.
For more information, write to Indian Country Development Corporation, ATTN: Fred Nahwooksy, Executive Director, P.O. Box 8087, Medford, OR 97504; phone or Fax (541) 826-7718; email fnahwooksy@earthlink.net; or visit the Web site at www.indiancountrydevelopment.org.