Yellowhawk receives visiting Artist Award
Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian Selects
2006 Native Arts Program Participants

WASHINGTON D.C. – The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian announces the 2006 Native Arts Program participants. Established 10 years ago and with continued support from the Ford Foundation’s New Works program, the Native Arts Program selects and awards annual grants to Native artists. Six Visiting Artists have been selected to conduct research on museum collections in Washington, New York, Philadelphia and Boston, one artist will develop a Community Arts Symposium and two artists will participate in the Youth Mural Project.
Participants were selected through a competitive application process and a review panel of international artists and arts administrators. The review panel included former program participant Bernice Akamine (Hawaiian), National Museum of the American Indian curator Cynthia Chavez (San Felipe Pueblo/Hopi/Tewa/Navajo), painter Brad Kahlhamer, theater producer/director Abel Lopez and painter Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Confederated Salish and Kootenai).

Visiting Artists
The Visiting Artist award recipients are Edward Ned Bear, Kevin “Mooshka” Cata, Mario Otoniel Chavajay Cumatz, Johnny Bear Contreras, Michael Kabotie and James Mark Yellowhawk.

-Edward Ned Bear (Plains Cree/Wolastoqiyik) is a mask carver in New Brunswick, Canada. He will research how masks relate to storytelling from the precontact and immediate postcontact periods. 
-Kevin “Mooshka” Cata (San Juan Pueblo) is a mixed media artist working in textile sculpture and assemblage art in San Francisco. He will research the healing process as an art form in Native American culture through objects, songs, recipes, foods and other materials. 
-Mario Otoniel Chavajay Cumatz (Tz'utuhil Maya) is a painter who works in oil on canvas and lives in Guatemala. He will research Native art from other cultures and shared experiences with other Native artists. 
-Johnny Bear Contreras (San Pasqual Band of Kumeyaay Indians) is a stone, wood and bronze sculptor in Valley Center, Calif. He will research museum collections that include Kumeyaay (Ipai-Tipai) utilitarian and funerary cultural objects. 
-Michael Kabotie (Hopi) is a painter, muralist and jeweler in Flagstaff, Ariz. His research will focus on stories, images and recurring symbols from the Southwestern (Puebloan), Ohio Valley (Moundbuilders) and Meso-American (Aztec, Mayan and Olmec) cultures from 500 A.D. to the present.
-James Mark Yellowhawk (Cheyenne River Sioux) is a multimedia artist who lives in Rapid City, S.D. His research will focus on exploring art of his tiospaye, or extended family, and his tribe, including winter counts, family hides, tipi designs, ledger art and other cultural materials. 

2006 Community Arts Symposium
Kelly J. Church (Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians) will develop the 2006 Community Arts Symposium. She is a black ash basket maker who lives in southwestern Michigan. The symposium will feature a discussion between traditional basket makers and environmental experts in the Gun Lake Tribal Community of southwest Michigan. The discussion also will explore the effects of the Emerald Ash Borer bug on black ash trees, which are used in basket making. 

2006 Youth Mural Projects
The participants of the 2006 Youth Mural Projects are Deborah Spears Moorehead and Benjamin Jacanamijoy Tisoy.
Deborah Spears Moorehead (Seekonk/Assonet Wampanoag) is a painter who works in oil and acrylic and lives in Hope Valley, R.I. She will collaborate with the Tomaquag Indian Museum and students from the Nuweetooun School to create a mural entitled “NuNeechun NuPeesh Kanashunun” or “Our Children, Our Future,” that will promote good health and positive cultural awareness.
Benjamin Jacanamijoy Tisoy (Inga) is a painter in Bogota, Colombia. For his Youth Mural Project, he will collaborate with youth from the villages of Arcanchi, Insoy, Insajoy Vichoy and Fusianoy through the Tamauca Manoy Native Foundation. The mural “Atun Puncha Yuyay” or “Thought of a Great Day,” will be painted in the Inca del Valle de Sibundoy community to commemorate gifts and blessings received from the rainbow and Pacha Mama, or Mother Earth.