ARTIST BIO

As the Director of Red Earth Studio Consulting/Productions, Nadema Agard is a curator, educator, museum professional and consultant in Repatriation and Multicultural/Native American arts and cultures.

Ms. Agard was born, raised and educated in New York City. In 1970, she graduated from New York University with a Bachelors of Science Degree in Art Education. In 1973 she received a Masters Degree in Art and Education from Teacher's College, Columbia University. As a Native American (Cherokee-Lakota-Powhatan) who has been educated and traveled internationally, she has been a bridge between urban and traditional cultures.

Ms. Agard, a former Art Educator with the New York City Board of Education became the Museum Educator/Project Director of the Native American Arts Program at the Museum of the American Indian (MAI) in 1981. At MAI she later received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship to develop the SOUTHEASTERN NATIVE ARTS DIRECTORY. Upon leaving the MAI, she continued her work as a Scholar in Residence at the Phelps Stokes Institute in New York and later as an adjunct instructor at Bemidji State University (BSU) in Minnesota where her Directory was eventually published in 1993. At BSU she taught studio arts, art methods, Multicultural and Native American arts. She consulted nationally and worked locally with the Plains Art Museum of Minnesota to co-author OJIBWE AND LAKOTA, A CULTURAL COMPARISON for the Native American Suitcase, an educational outreach project.

In 1995 She became the first Repatriation Director for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and was also a consultant to Sitting Bull College and the North Dakota State Historical Society.

In 2000, Ms. Agard accepted a position at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) to supervise and develop the Native Artists Program for Research and Residency Fellowships. During her time at the NMAI, she coordinated The NATIVE ARTS SYMPOSIUM 2001: CROSSING SPIRITUAL BORDERS, MAPPING INDIGENOUS BOUNDARIES: EXPLORING THE CULTURAL CONTEXT OF SACRED FEMININE ICONOCRAPHY IN WOMEN'S ART.

Since 2002, Nadema has consulted with and lectured at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Scholastic, Inc.and The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

In 2003, she was nominated and awarded the Ingrid Washinawatok Award for Community Activism, wrote for Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations and was Chair of WARRIOR MOTHER SPIRIT: NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN'S PANEL DISCUSSION sponsored by the New York Council for the Humanities. In 2004 she was received a Rhode Island Council for the Humanities grant as Project Director and Panel Chair for POCAHONTAS' LEGEND AND REALITY: AN ALGONQUIAN LEGACY.