Bennie Klain is a filmmaker creating documentary films that bridge Native concerns and social commentary, highlight universal themes and cultural inequities, and bring voice to Native communities on their own terms.
FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
Raiatea Helm
Raiatea Helm is a much-heralded musician with a singular and captivating voice, who possesses focused artistic vision and an innate and rhythmic giftedness.
Sherwin Bitsui
Sherwin Bitsui is a poet of exceptional depth whose visceral work is richly steeped in surrealistic imagery – the high desert, sage and piñon, black-eyed doves, the bricks and gasoline of the city – these sensuously dark psychic descriptions all inhabit his haunting verses.
Christen Marquez
Christen Marquez is a young filmmaker working to dispel the “Exotic Other” myths that surround indigenous peoples. “Through the fusion of cultures in my work, I intend to carry the message of non-indigenous and indigenous communities alike, that we refuse to be fossilized,” said Marquez.
Emily Johnson
Emily Johnson is a dancer, choreographer and performance artist who combines dance, storytelling vignettes, props and theater sets.
John Feodorov
John Feodorov is a conceptual artist whose work addresses contemporary issues of consumerism, the environment and identity.
Lisa Telford
Lisa Telford is a weaver who creates contemporary garments, shoes and other objects using Northwest Coast style weaving techniques. Her work serves as a commentary on Native identity, stereotypes and fashion.
Marie Watt
Marie Watt is a multidisciplinary artist whose work inspired by Native design, oral tradition and Western art history, centers on community engagement.
Ricardo Mendoza
Ricardo Mendoza is a seasoned muralist who follows in the tradition of the great Mexican muralists of the 20th century and the Chicano mural movements of California.
Sonya Kelliher-Combs
Sonya Kelliher-Combs is growing into one of the premiere Native Alaskan artists working today. Her work is rooted in painting but is interwoven and influenced by traditional skin sewing and sculptural elements using animal hides in the development of her installations.
William Wilson
William Wilson’s work focuses primarily on the Navajo people and their relation to the land. His large scale photographs illustrate Native Americans vexed relationship to an environment torn apart by industrial intrusion.