Renowned Indigenous Artist Speaks At WA State

Juane Quick-to-See-Smith

PULLMAN, WA — WSU's department of women’s studies has named renowned artist Juane Quick-to-See-Smith as the 2011 Jo Hockenhull Distinguished Visiting Lecturer.

Smith will give her lecture titled “A Survey of Contemporary Native American Art,” at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, in Kimbrough Hall, room 101, with a reception immediately following.

30 years in art

Smith is a painter, print-maker, artist, activist and curator who has organized contemporary native exhibits for more than 30 years. Her multimedia work explores the ironies of myths and icons that bound in mainstream America about American Indians. She incorporates sign language, glyphs, pictograms, and collage to address issues such as the environment, Native American sovereignty, racism, and sexism. Through her imagery she educates and challenges misconceptions about indigenous culture.

Born in 1940 at the St. Ignatius Indian Mission in Montana, she grew up on the Flathead Reservation. She is an enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Indian Nation.

Awards and achievements

Amongst numerous awards and accolades, Smith is a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement award from the Women’s Caucus for the Arts and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters Grant. She has been a guest lecturer at more than 185 universities, museums and conferences around the world, serving as a spokesperson and activist for contemporary Native American art. Her work is featured in many private and public collections including: The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Museum of Mankind, Vienna, Austria, and many other prominent galleries around the globe.

Smith earned her bachelor’s in art education from Framington State College, Massachusetts, and master's in art from the University of New Mexico. Over the course of her career she has been awarded four honorary doctorates from Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts, Massachusetts College of Art and the University of New Mexico.

Brown-bag luncheon

Preceding her lecture the WSU Women’s Resource Center will host a brown-bag lunch for Smith from noon to 1 p.m. in CUE 316. All interested are welcome to attend. Smith will also lead a hands-on printmaking workshop on the same day from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Fine Arts, room 7094.

Lecture series

The Jo Hockenhull Distinguished Visiting Lecturer Series began in 1996-1997 in honor of Jo Hockenhull, a Washington State University professor emerita of fine arts. Hockenhull was the Director of Women’s Studies for more than a decade. Throughout her career at WSU, Hockenhull was committed to building programs and initiatives supporting diversity, the liberal and fine arts, free speech, and critical thinking.