Once upon a time, museums throughout this country would invariably display or organize their "art" and their "Native American art" in two distinct categories; a piece would "belong" to one or the other camp, but never both. That's increasingly not the case anymore, thankfully --- and our guest today talks about why. We're pleased to welcome Rick West back to ST; he'll be the keynote speaker for a day-long Native Art Symposium tomorrow (Saturday the 5th) at the Philbrook Museum of Art here in Tulsa. The event is entitled "Identity & Inspiration: Creativity in 20th & 21st Century Native American Art," and it's described more fully at this link. ("Identity & Inspiration" is also the name of an exhibit of 20th-century Native American Art on display at Philbrook Downtown; this show, which closes on June 29th, features selections from Philbrook's vast Native American collections to investigate themes of preservation, adaptation, innovation, and integration.) West --- who grew up in Muskogee and is the son of "Dick" West, a highly regarded Cheyenne painter and art teacher who chaired the art department at Bacone College --- is the president and CEO of the Autry National Center in Los Angeles. Formely, he was the founding director of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. The address that West will give at Philbrook tomorrow is called "Native Art in the 21st Century: From Verticals to Horizontals in Interpretation."
Philbrook Presents "Identity & Inspiration: Creativity in 20th & 21st Century Native American Art"
