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 studio art and art methods instructor at Bemidji State University (BSU) in Minnesota where her Directory was eventually published in 1993.

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. In connection with this symposium Ms. Agard was Guest Curator of a New York City exhibition, WHO IS THE VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE: WOMEN ARTISTS CROSSING BORDERS from 2001-2002.

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

In 2003, she received the INGRID WASHINAWATOK AWARD FOR COMMUNITY ACTIVISM, she chaired a Native artist's panel for ARTISTS TALK ON ART at Soho 20 Chelsea Gallery and she lectured as part of the New York Council for the Humanities (NYCH): Speakers in the Humanities Program (2003-2005). Also in 2003 she was Chair of WARRIOR MOTHER SPIRIT: NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN'S PANEL DISCUSSION sponsored by NYCH in connection with the exhibition, LADY LIBERTY AS A NATIVE AMERICAN ICON, for which she was Guest Curator.

In 2004 she received a Rhode Island Council for the Humanities grant as Project Director and Panel Chair for POCAHONTAS' LEGEND AND REALITY:AN ALGONQUIAN LEGACY.