Description
Journalism is one way to ensure that the work of Native knowledge makers is made visible; another is exhibiting that work publicly—especially in places that are strongly identified with Indigenous people but do not make Indigenous people and culture as visible as they could.
Yellowstone National Park—the nation’s first national park—receives some four million visitors each year who enjoy its natural beauty, recreate, and learn. Most know little about the 27 tribes that once lived and hunted in Yellowstone and have regarded its features and places as sacred for some 11,000 years. The 150th anniversary of the park’s establishment is an opportunity to educate visitors about this heritage and—perhaps more important—to remind them that those tribes are living, sovereign nations and vital cultures whose identities are bound up with the land on which the park sits.
Mountain Time Arts (MTA) has assembled a coalition of tribal colleges, Native scholars, community members, National Park staff, and artists. This coalition are developing together a series of public art installations for the 150 th anniversary celebration. Called “Yellowstone Revealed,” the projects will not only educate and inspire visitors and affirm the continued presence of Indigenous people in and around Yellowstone, it will also model a way of working collaboratively that will set the stage for constructive partnerships between Indigenous people and the Park in the future.
MTA is a Montana-based arts organization that has produced public art projects in the region for the last six years. Founded by a group of artists, its work has been recognized and supported by ArtPlace America, the Warhol Foundation, and the NEA, among many others. MTA came to the Luce Foundation’s attention when it submitted a response to our recent call for ideas. Although the project was not an ideal fit for the new initiative, it made a great deal of sense for INAIL.
In the coming months, a planning group will continue to meet to develop plans for 3-5 public art projects that will be installed during and in the year following the 150 th anniversary. Luce Foundation monies will be used to cover the costs of these planning meetings, to pay artists, and to support curation and coordination of the projects.