Grantee: Shan Goshorn
Native Citizenship: Eastern Band Cherokee
Location: Tulsa, Okla.
Award: 2014 NACF Artist Fellowship
Discipline: Traditional Arts
Web Site: http://shangoshorn.net/
Multidisciplinary artist Shan Goshorn, most known for expertly combining traditional weaving techniques with non-traditional materials, was awarded a 2014 NACF Artist Fellowship in Traditional Arts.
Goshorn weaves Cherokee baskets, vessels and other works from reproductions of historical manuscripts and photographs. The images document key themes in modern Native history, including removal, boarding schools, commercial appropriation of Native aesthetics and sovereignty. Her goal as an artist has been to pique interest and create space for audiences to begin long-overdue dialogue about the unique challenges impacting Native people today. In “Separating the Chaff” (2013), Goshorn weaves excerpts from textbooks about Indians into a Cherokee-style sifter basket, symbolizing the need for Native people to separate the truth of their history from misconceptions currently taught as fact in public school systems.
The NACF Artist Fellowship allowed Goshorn the opportunity to conduct research at archives and pour over vintage photographs and manuscripts to inspire new works. She has received an Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship, a Santa Fe Indian Market Innovation Award and has been collected by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the Gilcrease Museum of Art and other museums.
