Wyoming Arts Council

Wyoming Arts Council Announces 2024 Native Art Fellowship Recipients

Featured News, Fellowships | August 5, 2024

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The Wyoming Arts Council is pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s Native Art Fellowships. This year’s Native Art Fellowship recipients are: Jackie Dorothy (Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone) of Thermopolis and Bruce Cook (Haida) from Riverton.

Jackie Dorothy is a distinguished writer, podcaster, and journalist with a deep expertise in Wyoming history. Her accolades include the Emerging Voices Award from the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators, the Wyoming Governor’s Journalist of the Year Against Impaired Driving, four Bronze Telly Awards, two Communicator Awards, and the title of Small Business Administrator Journalist of the Year for the Rocky Mountain Region.

Her historical narrative podcast, “Pioneers of Outlaw Country,” can be found on most podcast platforms, and Jackie actively engages with her audience through a dedicated Facebook group. Recently, she joined Cowboy State Daily as a freelance reporter, where she continues to share compelling historical articles about Wyoming’s rich past. Always eager to challenge herself, Jackie remains dedicated to expanding her knowledge and sharing the stories of Wyoming.

Bruce Cook is a Haida artist residing in Wyoming, “I am driven to explore and innovate. The woods and natural materials I used that were once abundant in the Pacific Northwest are now scarce. This scarcity of resources has led to a creative drive that has been vital to my survival as a Haida artist in the high plains desert. My subject matter is Haida, both traditional and contemporary. As Native artists, we are capable of inhabiting both forms simultaneously. I am free to create without the confines of being bound to one or the other.”

When talking about his art, Cook says “My favorite mediums are yellow cedar and fresh red alder. Their suppleness, delicacy, strength, and willingness to be transformed in both form and texture make them perfect mediums for exploring Haida art. However, since there is no longer a supply of yellow cedar and alder, my inspiration has now shifted to creating 2D Haida art on canvas. Using acrylic paints to create the designs, I explore the abstract use of the ovoid and U shapes to create the art of the Haida.”

“I have also been exploring my Arapaho side by creating ledger art as well as designs inspired by the beadwork of my Arapaho ancestors. This has led to interesting combinations of Haida and Arapaho designs.” Cook goes on to say, “Each day brings a new desire to practice the forms of those who have come before me and a push to innovate in the forms that are yet to come. This inspiration is my daily spirit to create.”

Submissions are juried anonymously by jurors from outside the state with extensive backgrounds in each artistic area. This year’s jurors were Karen Ann Hoffman, a Haudenosaunee Raised Beadwork artist and citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and artist Daniel McCoy, of the The Muscogee Nation, who resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his family.

The Native Art Fellowship is an award of merit, based on the artist’s portfolio, honoring the work of Native artists working in any medium or discipline, who are based within Wyoming. This fellowship is designed to raise the profiles of the highly talented Native artists in Wyoming and celebrate their artistry.

For more information on this program, please visit www.wyomingartscouncil.org or contact Kimberly Mittelstadt at 307-274-6673 or kimberly.mittelstadt@wyo.gov.

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