Contact: Jason Smith, communications director or Rachel Bruya, exhibitions coordinator
James Watrous Gallery receives NEA grant for Oneida beadwork exhibit
MADISON—The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) recently announced awards totaling more than $27.6 million in its first funding round of fiscal year 2016, including an Art Works award of $10,000 to the Wisconsin Academy’s James Watrous Gallery for its fall 2016 exhibition, Beading Culture: Raised Beadwork and the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin.
In its first 50 years, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded more than $5 billion in grants to recipients in every state and U.S. jurisdiction, the only arts funder in the nation to do so. The Art Works category supports the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing work, lifelong learning in the arts, and public engagement with the arts through 13 arts disciplines or fields.
Beading Culture: Raised Beadwork and the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin is an exhibition focused on the revival of traditional raised beadwork among the Wisconsin Oneida of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Six Nations. Telling a story of cultural resilience and preservation, the exhibition will be augmented by interviews with the artists and public programs including panel discussions, lectures, and demonstrations. The completed exhibit, featuring examples of historic and contemporary raised beadwork, is designed to travel to several regional Wisconsin venues before being incorporated into the permanent displays in the Oneida Nation Museum.
Of the awards, NEA Chairman Jane Chu says, “The arts are part of our everyday lives—no matter who you are or where you live—they have the power to transform individuals, spark economic vibrancy in communities, and transcend the boundaries across diverse sectors of society. Supporting projects like this important James Watrous Gallery exhibition offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day.”
To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, please use #NEAFall15. For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, go to arts.gov.
ABOUT THE JAMES WATROUS GALLERY
Free and open to the public, the James Watrous Gallery is a program of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters, an independent, nonprofit organization that seeks to inspire discovery, illuminate creative work, and foster civil dialogue. The gallery’s primary focus is the work of contemporary Wisconsin visual artists. We also present exhibitions that explore the history of art in Wisconsin or topics that bridge the sciences, arts, and humanities. Our goals are to support Wisconsin visual art and artists through quality exhibitions and programs, to provide opportunities for viewers to actively engage in the visual arts, and to encourage a spirit of inquiry.
For more information, please visit wisconsinacademy.org/gallery or call 608-265-2500.
