Professor Nancy Marie Mithlo (UCLA) discusses the emergence of Indigenous arts in global contexts from 1997-2017 drawing from her work curating nine exhibits at the Venice Biennale. Mithlo’s archival papers are housed at Stanford University Libraries’ Special Collections. Red Skin Dreams documents and theorizes the presentation of contemporary American Indian art through memoir and storytelling. The improbable and messy business of staging international exhibits that were non-institutional, non-commercial and anti-hierarchical involved hundreds of collaborators from across the globe—Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, England, Norway, Germany, as well as Italy. These connections were made through Indigenous networks, institutions, and relationships, not the prestigious galleries, museums and art collectors that typically decide who is represented and where. Questioning the very notions of margin and center and asserting alternate frames of reference besides simple inclusion, this is a story that asserts that the world belongs to Native people. As Canadian First Nations arts professional Jim Logan stated, “We are a part of this world; we are a part of the human story. We are worth it.”

Dr. Milthlo will be joined in conversation with ​Professor Jennifer DeVere Brody (Theater and Performance Studies and African and African American Studies at Stanford University; Guggenheim Fellow in Fine Arts Research; recent curator of Edmonia Lewis: Indelible Impressions at Cantor Arts Center).

Books will be for sale at the Stanford Campus Bookstore and through the publisher, the University of Nebraska Press. Please preorder a copy and bring it to the event. Dr. Mithlo will be available for book signing at the end of the event.

All public programs at the Cantor Arts Center are always free! Space for this program is limited; advance registration is recommended. Those who have registered will have priority for seating.

RSVP here.

This program is co-sponsored by the Native American Studies, Cantor Arts Center, Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, and Native American Cultural Center​.

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Parking

Free visitor parking is available along Lomita Drive as well as on the first floor of the Roth Way Garage Structure, located at the corner of Campus Drive West and Roth Way at 345 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305. From the Palo Alto Caltrain station, the Cantor Arts Center is about a 20-minute walk or the free Marguerite shuttle will bring you to campus via the Y or X lines.

Disability parking is located along Lomita Drive near the main entrance of the Cantor Arts Center. Additional disability parking is located on Museum Way and in Parking Structure 1 (Roth Way & Campus Drive). Please click here to view the disability parking and access points.

Accessibility Information or Requests

Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University is committed to ensuring our programs are accessible to everyone. To request access information and/or accommodations for this event, please complete this form at least one week prior to the event: museum.stanford.edu/access.

For questions, please contact disability.access@stanford.edu or Oswaldo Rosales, orosal@stanford.edu.

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Book Cover Image by Shelley Niro. The Show Off, digital image, 2017. Courtesy of the Artist. Photo of Nancy Marie Mithlo by Marc Hausman​.