The National Museum of the American Indian's (NMAI) Artist Leadership Program (ALP) has developed into two different tracks, the Artist Leadership Program for Individual Artists and the Artist Leadership Program for Museums and Cultural Arts Organizations. Both program strive to support Native American artists with opportunities to explore museum collections and artist programs for information and artistic inspiration. The Individual Artist program enabled indigenous artists to research, document, and network in Washington, D.C., then return home empowered with new artistic insights, skills, and techniques to share with their communities and the general public the value of Native knowledge through art. The program aimed to rebuild cultural self-confidence, challenge personal boundaries, and foster cultural continuity while reflecting artistic diversity. The program's primary objectives were for individual indigenous artists to focus on artistic processes while researching the vast collections of the Smithsonian Institution (SI); meet and consult with staff at SI and other arts organizations; participate in a public art panel discussion, speaking as voices of authority on their art; break down stereotypes about indigenous art; and, through a personal artistic narrative, speak to social justice issues and current events important to indigenous communities. The Artist Leadership Program (ALP) for Museums and Cultural Arts Organizations invited local museums, arts organizations, and cultural institutions in the United States and Canada to collaborate with the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), Smithsonian Institution (SI): • To identify local and regional Native artists well qualified to research Native cultural objects in museums and other collections in the region; document their research; receive training in arts management, marketing and career strategies, and business and leadership skills; and network at the local institutional level. • Then to support the artists empowered with new artistic skills and techniques as they share—in their home communities or on-site at the museum or cultural arts organization—the value of Native knowledge through art. Organizations do so by hosting a Youth Public Art Project or Artist's Community Workshop. The program aimed to rebuild cultural self-confidence, enable local indigenous artists to think more broadly about themselves and their art, and conduct local community art projects that inspire and reflect artistic diversity. The primary objectives for local museums and cultural arts organizations were to engage indigenous artists in focusing on artistic process through research in local collections, create opportunities for local artists to meet and consult with staff members, host public art programs that present indigenous artists as voices of authority on their art, and break down stereotypes about Indigenous art. Though the programs were suspended after the retirement of the program director, Keevin Lewis, one of the products of its run are the videos shared in this playlist. These programs gave the artists and institutions the opportunity to create videos that documented their experiences while participating in the program and how those experiences furthered the artistic development of the artists and promulgated the goals of the institutions. In addition to the videos produced by the artists and institutions, the playlist includes two of the annual artist panels that were presented to the public and webcast live. Three other of the “Bringing It Home: Artists Reconnecting Cultural Heritage with Community” panels have their own playlists. Please see https://goo.gl/cxLzXj for the April 2014 panel; https://goo.gl/fEbXCu for the December 2014 panel; and https://goo.gl/hdGhfP for the December 2015 panel.
