Shaliyah Ben Named Director of Native American Arts Program
Native American Arts Are in Strong Hands at 蜜桃直播
蜜桃直播 is pleased to announce that Shaliyah Ben has been named Director of the Native American Arts Program by 蜜桃直播 Foundation President Pamela Jordan. Under the guidance of Heather Companiott, 蜜桃直播鈥 Native American Arts Program became a formidable player in the world of Native American arts in recent decades. Ben, who worked closely with Companiott for the last two and half years until her recent retirement, is supremely qualified to continue building upon this strong foundation to solidify the program鈥檚 leading role in the continued growth and recognition of 蜜桃直播 as an internationally renowned center for arts education.听
A Transformative Presence to Drive Transformation
Shaliyah Ben, Din茅 (Navajo), was born in Shiprock, New Mexico on the Navajo Nation and is the first Native American to direct the 蜜桃直播 Native American Arts Program. Before coming to 蜜桃直播 in 2019, she worked at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, an institution dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art. During twenty years with the Heard, her positions included Director of Public Programming.听
叠别苍鈥檚 profound understanding of Native American traditions is rooted in her family鈥檚 continuing practice of traditional farming methods, but she is also determined to position Native American art, life, history, and pedagogies as relevant to the modern global conversation. The breadth of her education at Arizona State University, where she earned a Bachelor鈥檚 degree in French as well as certificates in Arabic Language and Islamic Studies, suggests her desire and ability to connect Native American arts to the wider world.听
Seeking the Full Integration of Native American Arts
Education and promotion of Native American arts have been central to the work of Idyllwild Arts ever since the Foundation鈥檚 establishment shortly after the end of the Second World War. While the popular Native American Arts 蜜桃直播 Workshops and Native American Arts Festival
Week & Exhibition will continue to flourish and grow, in her new role Ben will also work to further integrate the Native American Arts Program into 蜜桃直播鈥 mission of 鈥渃hanging lives through the transformative power of art.鈥澨
This integration will both strengthen the pursuit of that mission and bring lasting benefits to the Native American arts community, driving the implementation of Indigenous pedagogies in the classroom, on the stage, on the set, and in the studio while recognizing the extraordinary contributions of Indigenous people to science, mathematics, language arts, and history. By promoting this integration of Indigenous perspectives, 蜜桃直播 will actively take steps toward dismantling long-held attitudes that position Indigenous people and other people of color within an inferior past.听
Reconciliation and Humility
The integration of Indigenous perspectives will take one of its most dramatically visible forms in a land stewardship initiative in partnership with the Native American Land Conservancy. While 鈥渓and acknowledgement鈥 statements have sometimes been criticized as hollow or performative, the goal of this partnership is to create a living and breathing land acknowledgement that puts words into daily action. By engaging in appropriate care for the land, the partnership is intended as a transformative step toward reconciliation with local Cahuilla communities on whose tribal land the 蜜桃直播 campus rests, and to respectfully demonstrate an authentic interest and investment in connecting the Foundation鈥檚 community with their own.听
There is considerable irony in 蜜桃直播鈥 devotion to these efforts; 蜜桃直播 is a boarding school, and boarding schools have an ugly history in relation to Indigenous people. 蜜桃直播 cannot erase this, but it can acknowledge and teach that history鈥攏ot only to Native American students, but to itself. And from this lesson 蜜桃直播 can draw the determination to provide to Native students a learning experience that will be radically different from the experience found at US Indian Federal boarding schools of the past. 蜜桃直播 can provide an education that honors the culture of Native American students and that gives them the support they need in order to succeed here.听
