Stories Shared Through Art Help Renew Native Communities

The Abbe Museum invites the public to a discussion panel comprised of contemporary Native American artists from 3:00pm to 5:00pm on Saturday November 14th. As part of the Museum’s exhibition Twisted Path: Contemporary Native American Artists Walking in Two Worlds, the panel will be moderated by Darren Ranco, Penobscot scholar and professor at the University of Maine, Orono who states “the discussion will explore the many ways that traditional and contemporary Native art forms represent and shape who we are as Native people.”

Panel artists Watie Akins, Penobscot, Rick Hunt, Abenaki, Lenny Novak, Abenaki, Jennifer Neptune, Penobscot and George Longfish, Seneca/Tuscarora represent indigenous people from the Northeast. They will discuss the ways they use art to express their personal and collective journeys in re-connecting with traditions, communicating untold stories, and healing our communities. Ranco notes “In particular, we will explore notions of cultural sovereignty, whereby we use art as Native people to structure our own norms and values in structuring our collective futures."

Rick Hunt, curator of Twisted Path relates that “Drawing, for me, is a way to meditate and pray. It is by pen on paper that I am able to be right there in the moment. If the purpose of art is to inspire, then I hope the viewer will simply experience and feel my art. If it talks to you then I hope that a positive dialogue is created.”

The Twisted Path Discussion Panel is free, open to the public and made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.