Hearts of Our People: Centering Collaboration in Museum Work

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Please join us on September 3rd, 2020 for a conversation with artist Teri Greeves, Dakota Hoska, Assistant Curator of Native Arts at the Denver Art Museum, and Jill Ahlberg Yohe, Associate Curator of Native American Art at Minneapolis Institute of Art. Centering the talk around the landmark exhibition “Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists,” Greeves, Hoska, and Yohe will share their perspectives on the collaborative work that was pivotal to the exhibition’s development, which included the formation of an Exhibition Advisory Board. The panel of 21 Native artists and Native and non-Native scholars from across North America provided insights from a wide range of nations at every step in the curatorial process. Highlighting the unique nature of this kind of museum work, Greeves, Hoska, and Yohe will speak to the productive markers, the challenges, and the key takeaways from such an endeavor.

Teri Greeves is a beadwork artist who lives in Santa Fe, NM. She is enrolled in the Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma. Teri follows and updates the Kiowa tradition of beadwork, to tell the story of the American Indian, both contemporary and historical. Her works include beaded books, jewelry, and even high top sneakers. Her work is found in such public collections as the Heard Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Brooklyn Museum, the Denver Art Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian, the New Mexico Museum of Art, and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.

Dakota Hoska is the assistant curator of Native Art at the Denver Art Museum. She is a citizen of the Oglála Lakȟóta Nation from the Pine Ridge Reservation in Wounded Knee, South Dakota, and joined the staff at the DAM after four years as a curatorial research assistant for the Arts of Africa and the Americas Department at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA), . She also worked on the exhibition, “Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists,” and cocurated “Brilliant! Pairing Continuity and Influence” (2016–17) and “Horse Nation of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ” (2018–19).

Jill Yohe is the associate curator of Native American Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia). In 2008, Ahlberg Yohe received her PhD from the University of New Mexico; her dissertation was a focus on the social life of weaving in contemporary Navajo life. Along with Teri Greeves, Jill co-curated Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists. At Mia Jill seeks new initiatives and to expand understanding and new curatorial practices of historical and contemporary Native art.

Supported by the Allene H. and Walter P. Kleweno Lecture Series Fund.