Developed as a tool to help children focus in on a single object, the paper magnifying lens is simply a circle cut from cardstock with a printed image. It allows students to tune out extraneous visual information while they observe something in the museum.
Participant in a corn husk material exploration workshop at the National Museum of the American Indian
Materials laid out for a felt sewing activity that has the Seneca word for bean, Osae’da’, printed on each one.
Visitors were provided with tissue paper, paper-covered wire, clay, and glue sticks to create a model of a three sisters garden
Students constructed a 15” longhouse model from paper-covered wire with tape as lashing material
felt/cornhusk panels were one of a series of creations made by Seneca students in a summer program I co-taught with film maker Terry Jones
visitors designed their own motifs for a story-telling knife that was precut from wood for a children’s festival about Alaskan Native traditions
Interactive board recreating a wampum belt through the formation of beads by visitors to the 400 year Anniversary of the Two Row
The People’s Choice Awards was an activity I created when I oversaw the art building in the Six Nations Agricultural Society Indian Village at the NY State Fair. Over the years it yielded hundreds of supportive comments for the Native artists we exhibited at the fair. It was heartwarming to watch artists come into the building, taking delight at what people had gotten out of their art. Kids wrote the majority of the comments, like the one above, “best one here.”
This display was developed for the NY Power Authority to give visitors an understanding of lashing, the technique used to build longhouses. Each participant got to tie on a single attachment and learned about the materials and process used for building a full-scale home.
Visitors worked with layered tissue paper collage and colored pencil to create elements of the Haudenosaunee natural world and used content provided on the cards to draw connections with other naural elements needed for their existence. The activity helped visitors to understand the interconnected nature of the various elements of creation within the Haudenosaunee homelands.
Public program about Oneö:gën (Iroquois White Corn) at the National Museum of the American Indian