Grantee: Delina White
Native Citizenship: Ojibwe
Location: Deer River, Minn.
Award: 2014 NACF Regional Artist Fellowship
Discipline: Traditional Art
Web Site: N/A
With the support of a 2014 NACF Regional Artist Fellowship, Delina White (Ojibwe) will begin her most ambitious project yet, a body of work that includes 20 full sets of women’s outfits.
Delina White is a mixed-media artist best known for her beadwork and applique pieces for regalia. The work of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Nation features delicate lines and forms that the Anishinaabe ancestors began innovating in the 1600s. White learned to bead at a young age. “Stringing and sewing glass beads when I was six is when the love for manidoominens, the Anishinaabe word for beads meaning “little spirits,” first captured my heart,” said the artist from her studio in Deer River, Minn.
White will bead medallions, create bandolier and hand bags, belts, moccasins, skirts and other items. Her work created in the fellowship year will be presented in a cultural show demonstrating an era when apparel changed dramatically for American Indians.
