Santa Fe, New Mexico—The School for Advanced Research (SAR) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2024–2025 Native Artist Fellowships: Kevin Aspaas (Navajo), Lynda Teller Pete (Navajo), and Sheridan MacKnight (White Earth Chippewa, Hunkpapa Lakota). Each year SAR’s Indian Arts Research Center (IARC) offers three residential fellowships to support the work of mature and emerging Native artists. The program gives artists time to explore new avenues of creativity and invites them to grapple with ideas that advance their work and strengthen their existing talents. While in residence at SAR, artists can access the IARC’s collection of over 12,000 works of Native art for research and study. This year’s artists have proposed projects that will bring attention to an underexamined weaving technique, develop resources to better track and document single panel Diné dresses, and bring life to an English Lakota children’s book.
Kevin Aspaas. Photo by Minesh Bacrania.
Kevin Aspaas
2024 Ronald and Susan Dubin Fellow
In residence June 15–August 15, 2024
Known for his work with the Navajo wedge weave technique, Kevin Aspaas (Navajo) practices a process he likes to call “sheep to loom.” Aspaas raises a small flock of Navajo-Churro sheep from which he gathers and spins wool for his weaving. He works exclusively with natural dyes and notes that “producing textiles in the manner that [his] ancestors have done, honors not only [his] relatives from the past but also the land and animals.” During his residency, Aspaas will continue experimenting with the wedge weave technique. He hopes to combine the wedge weave technique with the two-face twill technique to produce a textile that will be the first of its kind in Navajo textiles. Of his proposed project Aspaas says, “As a young weaver, this is my contribution to our collective Navajo weaving history in hopes that it will encourage the generation after myself to do the same.”
Lynda Pete. Photo by Tia Howard.
Lynda Teller Pete
2024 Rollin and Mary Ella King Native Artist Fellow
In residence September 1–December 1, 2024
Lynda Teller Pete (Navajo) is a tapestry weaver born into the Tábąąhá (Water Edge Clan) and born for the Tó’aheedlíinii (Two Waters Flow Together Clan). For over seven generations, the Teller family has been producing award-winning rugs in the traditional Two Grey Hills regional style. Teller Pete works collaboratively with museums, cultural centers, and fiber arts guilds, among others, to educate the public on Diné history and the preservation of weaving traditions. While at SAR, Teller Pete plans to complete a tapestry and will continue to work on developing resources to help track and document single panel Diné dresses across institutions. Of her research-based work Teller Pete says, “At the end of the residency, I hope to create a model that is reproducible by museum staff . . . at institutions so they can similarly catalog and photograph their panels.”
Sheridan MacKnight. Photo by Leah Rose.
Sheridan MacKnight
2025 Eric and Barbara Dobkin Native Artist Fellow
In residence March 1–May 31, 2025
Influenced by the Santa Fe Studio art style, Sheridan MacKnight (White Earth Chippewa, Hunkpapa Lakota) tells the story of resilience through her work. While in residence, MacKnight plans to complete thirty paintings to illustrate a bilingual children’s book about a Hunkpapa Lakota woman’s journey across the country with her daughter. MacKnight will draw inspiration from works done in the “Studio Style” found in the IARC’s collection. MacKnight describes the time she has spent as an artist as “. . . a time of honor, to use [her] creativity to inspire and teach the history and spirit of [her] Native culture through her work.”
Since 1984, the Native artist fellowship programs have supported artists in diverse creative disciplines. Recent fellows have included Carly Feddersen (basketmaker), Michael Namingha (photographer), Heidi Brandow (multidisciplinary artist), Jana Avner (painter and light artist), Hollis Chitto (beadwork artist), Orlando Dugi (fashion designer), Neebinnaukzhik Southall (graphic designer), and Brandon Adriano Ortiz-Concha (micaceous potter).