LENFEST Outreach & Engagement Series: Kamen Gallery Exhibit "Indigenous Dress and Culture"

LENFEST Outreach & Engagement Series: Kamen Gallery Exhibit

POP UP EXHIBITION
"Indigenous Dress and Culture"  

Kamen Gallery/Lenfest Hall
Sunday, September 1-Monday, December 23, 2024

Kamen Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday, 9 am- 4 pm. Gallery is open during Lenfest performances and only when undergraduate classes are in session.

Kamen Gallery is proud to welcome community patrons to the "Indigenous Dress and Culture" pop up exhibit and artistry crafted and shared by Victoria Last Walker Ferguson, a citizen of the Monacan Indian Nation and Elizabeth Wislar, a citizen of the Northern Cherokee Nation. The pop up exhibition pays honor to Lenfest Center's first ever Indigenous-centered and Indigenous-led event October 8, 2024 with Red Sky Performance-a leading company of contemporary Indigenous performance (dance, theater, music and media) in Canada and worldwide.

The exhibit of traditional and modern-day Monacan regalia features Victoria Ferguson-artist, educator and enrolled citizen of the Monacan Indian Nation. She shares generations of historical and cultural knowledge passed down from her ancestors, the first peoples of the mid-Atlantic region. Each piece was created by Ferguson and is displayed to acknowledge and honor the past, present and future contributions to this area by the Eastern Siouan and Tutelo speaking peoples, among them the Monacan. Clothing options for the Indigenous people of Virginia's interior evolved over the centuries of European occupation and colonization. In the prehistory period, Indigenous people used the natural resources available to construct their clothes. This exhibit includes some examples of the early clothing options made from the inner bark of bass wood trees, hemp fibers dyed with natural colors and brain tanned deer hides.

Also included in the exhibit is a large-scale textile sculpture created by students in the Theater, Dance, and Film Studies Department Costume Shop, under the mentorship of resident Costume Designer and local artist, Elizabeth Wislar. The dress measures 12' high x 4' wide, and consists of 365 handmade silent metal cones, fabric, metal, wood, buttons and beads. The dress is modeled after a traditional Native American jingle dress honoring and bringing attention to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIW).

Sponsored in part by : Class of '64 Performing Arts Fund, Native American Indigenous Cohort Diversity, Inclusion and Student Engagement Art and Art History, Theater, Dance, and Film Studies Latin American/Caribbean Studies