Moderator

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Sháńdíín (Hailee) Brown '20 is a citizen of the Navajo Nation, and a graduate of Dartmouth College, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts majoring in Anthropology as well as Native American Studies and minoring in Environmental Studies. She currently works full-time at the School for Advanced Research Indian Arts Research Center as an Anne Ray Intern. She also works part-time at the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum of Contemporary Native American Art as a curatorial assistant and at the Barnes Foundation as a Native American Art consultant. She is also a jewelry maker and runs the Instagram page, TB Designs. She dedicates her designs and work to her shimá sání (maternal grandmother) Thelma Begay. She primarily works with Navajo juniper seed beads harvested from her family's homeland in Coppermine, Arizona. 

Guest Artists

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Keri Ataumbi (Kiowa) was raised on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming where she was exposed to both traditional Native American aesthetics and contemporary art theory and practice from an early age. Her Kiowa mother ran a trading post and her Italian-American father is famous for his bronze sculptures. Ataumbi and her sister were encouraged to pursue their individual interests in art.

Ataumbi attended Rhode Island School of Design before moving to Santa Fe in 1990. After moving to Santa Fe she worked as a landscape designer while attending the Institute of American Indian Arts and eventually received a BFA in painting with a minor in art history from the College of Santa Fe. She currently lives and works in the Cerrillos Hills outside Santa Fe.

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Nanibaa Beck (Diné) is a 2nd generation Dine' (Navajo) jeweler. At 13, she was an assistant to her father, Victor Beck, Sr., and learned fundamental jewelry skills, such as how to fabricate metals and to inlay stones. During her academic years, she studied anthropology and museum studies. Her background includes work and fellowships with renowned museums and organizations, like the Heard Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Peabody Essex Museum and the Arizona Humanities Council. Through it all, her focus remains connected to the vibrant Native creative community.

In November 2013, Nanibaa founded NotAbove. Her a-ha moment to pursue jewelry occurred after a small thank you card project sparked the idea for the original language necklaces. The hand-sawn minimal jewelry collection's focus on native indigenous languages fulfilled a unique niche in the Native art market. Today, NotAbove/ Nanibaa Beck Designs is a reflection of Native creative expressions and the growth of a Dine' 'Asdzaa (Navajo woman) as a designer.

She continues to grow in her work today. She received the 2018 First People Fund Artist In Business Leadership Fellowship and the School of American Research's Ronald & Susan Dubin Native Artist Fellowship and Artist in Residency.

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Margaret Jacobs '08 (Mohawk) was born and raised in Northern New York and is a member of the Akwesasne Mohawk Tribe. She shows her work nationally including recent exhibitions at Boise Art Museum in Idaho and Two Rivers Gallery in Minneapolis, MN. Recent awards include a New Hampshire State Council on the Arts Entrepreneurial Grant, an Artist in Business Fellowship through the First Peoples Fund and the Rebecca Blunk Fund Award through New England Foundation for the Arts. Her work has been featured in various print and online press including at mic.com in the article 11 Native American Artists Whose Work Redefines What It Means to be American and she was a recent guest contributor for Native Perspectives at the Met.

Jacobs is known for her sculpture, jewelry and drawings, and uses all three approaches to explore cultural adaptation and resilience. She utilizes technological processes generally seen in commercial applications and frequently intermingles unexpected and contradicting materials.

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Tara Keanuenue Gumapac (Kanaka Maoli) is a Kanaka Maoli Artist that grew up in Kāneʻohe, Hawaiʻi. She graduated with a Bachelors in Studio Art in 2008 and a Masters in Education in Teaching in the Hoʻokulaiwi Program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa in 2010. Tara is an alumni in the HOEA Program in Waimea, Hawaiʻi and learned many traditional and contemporary Hawaiian Art practices.

As an artist, she took to jewelry throughout the HOEA program. Her teachers are Maori artist Stacy Gordine of Ngati Pārou Aotearoa and Chugach Sugpiaq Alutiiq Denise Wallace from Seattle, WA. Engraving and jewelry making have taken her drawing and illustrations to a whole new level. She is able to translate her thoughts, beliefs, and interpretations of her Hawaiian moʻolelo or stories into wearable art. With the help of her husband, she has been able to bring her jewelry line, Maoli Jewelry, to life. Throughout the past few years she has been an active participant with MAMo or Maoli Arts Movement with the PAʻI Foundation and participated in their MAMo Wearable Arts Show. Tara is also the Fine Arts Department Head at Kalāheo High School and as an artist and teacher, her goal is to inspire and share with others to create and express themselves.