Focusing on Our Artist Family in 2020

The Waniyeta (Winter season) for the Lakota is a time for reflection and historically when the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires) gathered to share significant events depicted in a Winter Count. A Winter Count is a recorded history in pictograph form in a chronological circular pattern drawn onto a buffalo hide. Waniyeta also represents a time of reflection for First Peoples Fund as we look back on the success of our programs, our partnerships and family of artists and culture bearers while preparing to transition into our next three year strategic plan.

For First Peoples Fund (FPF) and our family of culture bearers, artist entrepreneurs and community based partners, this promises to be an outstanding year. We enter the calendar year by welcoming 2020’s four Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award Honorees who will join more than 100 culture bearers and 60 tribal nations. Such as those honorees who came before, these individuals have dedicated their lives to passing on their ancestral knowledge and Indigenous lifeways. We look forward to joining their Nominator and community members as we prepare to honor them in their respective tribal Nations.

A significant milestone in August will be the grand opening of Oglala Lakota Artspace on the Pine Ridge Reservation, the home of the Rolling Rez Arts bus that has traveled more than 30,000 miles since 2017. We are anxious to see artists occupying the building and programing from the Rolling Rez Arts expanding into the building as well as a branch of the Oglala Lakota Federal Credit Union housed in the space. These artists possess abilities to have a greater impact on the economy of many families and the Pine Ridge Reservation as a whole through this new arts center. We humbly thank Artspace and Encompass Architects (Tammy Eagle Bull, Oglala Lakota tribal member) who have led the construction and the many donors who have made this vision a reality.

The Rolling Rez Arts (RRA) Bus will continue travelling across Pine Ridge delivering traditional Lakota arts classes, banking services through the Lakota Federal Credit Union, and buying days for Red Cloud Heritage Center. RRA will continue to extend its programming in partnership with the Cheyenne River Youth Project’s annual Red Can Graffiti Jam in Eagle Butte, slatted for June, Native POP Art Market in Rapid City in July, and the Indigenous Film Festival, coinciding with Oglala Lakota Nation Fair and Rodeo in August. We invite you to attend these events to see and support our artists.

Coming in March, 25 Artist in Business Leadership and Cultural Capital Fellows will gather in Minneapolis. This will be an opportunity for the Fellows to meet and network with each other and learn about business elements necessary for managing a thriving arts business. We are confident the Fellows will return home inspired with the knowledge added to their tool-kit for success.  

The Emerging Poets Fellowship Pilot Program is underway. Each of our four partners in the inaugural program — Dances with Words, Cheyenne River Youth Project, Nisto Inc., and Indigenous Peoples Task Force — have been hosting bi-weekly writing and professional artist development workshops with seven youth poets in their communities. At the end of this spring, each poet will create a chapbook and the groups will host a poetry reading for their communities.

A new spoken-word curriculum is nearing completion. We are eager to share it with mentors this spring for use with poets in the 2020-2021 school year. What do you suppose we will hear from our young poets this year?

Whether you are an artist or simply have an interest in the arts or our programs, check out the FPF Resource Library found on our website under the Programs Tab. There is information in the Resource Library about how to apply to our programs, networking, touring, community engagement, and even establishing a Native art market. We invite you to give it a look — you are sure to discover some useful information for your arts business.

Wherever you are, from the FPF family to yours, we sincerely hope each new season provides the best of all things to you and that our paths will cross until we find ourselves in the next Winiyeta.