Wyoming Arts Council

Now Accepting Native Art Fellowship Applications

Featured News, Fellowships | March 12, 2024

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Applications are currently being welcomed by the Wyoming Arts Council for the Native Art Fellowship, a prestigious accolade recognizing the exceptional work of Native artists residing in Wyoming. Up to two $5,000 fellowships will be awarded. The Native Art Fellowship is awarded based on the artist’s portfolio and is open across various artistic disciplines, including visual, literary, performing, folk, and traditional arts. Its primary aim is to elevate the visibility of Wyoming’s remarkably skilled Native artists and commend their creative endeavors. Open exclusively to residents of Wyoming, the deadline for submissions to this fellowship is May 15, 2024.

Noted Native artists from outside the state will evaluate all applications. Applications must be submitted online through Submittable. Serving as jurors for this year are Ben Pease and Dakota Hoska.

Ben Pease is a native Montanan artist of Tsitsistas and Apsáalooke descent. He is Newly-Made Lodge clan from the Valley of the Chiefs District on the Crow Indian Reservation. His educational background includes studies at Minot State University, Montana State University, and Little Big Horn College. Pease uses his work to seek understanding and perspective as an Indigenous person, as reflected in his diverse projects and collaborations. His work has been featured in major exhibitions at museums such as the Field Museum of Chicago and the New York Historical Society. His works have been collected worldwide and are represented in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Whitney Western Art Museum and the Plains Indian Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Montana State University, and the Mulvane Art Museum.

Dakota Hoska (Oglála Lakȟóta Nation, Pine Ridge, Wounded Knee) serves as the Associate Curator of Native Arts at the Denver Art Museum where she has been employed since 2019. Previously, she served as a Curatorial Research Assistant at the Minneapolis Institute of Art supporting the ground-breaking exhibition “Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists.” Hoska completed her MA in Art History, focusing on Native American Art History, at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN (2019). She also completed two years of Dakhóta language at the University of Minnesota (2016) and received her BFA in Drawing and Painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (2012). Dakota has participated in multiple curatorial programs such as the EPIC international curatorial exchange program sponsored by the Association of Art Museum Curators, the Otsego Summer Seminar sponsored by the Fenimore Art Museum, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Native American Museum Fellowship at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the American Indian Museum Fellowship at the Minnesota Historical Society. She currently serves on multiple national advisory councils and frequently writes about and presents on issues related to curating Native North American art collections.

Recipients of the Native Art Fellowship will also be given support to find a venue to showcase their work.

Additional information can be found on the Arts Council website. Complete eligibility requirements can be found on Submittable

For more information, contact Kimberly Mittelstadt at the Arts Council, 307-274-6673 or kimberly.mittelstadt@wyo.gov.

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