Free with registration.

This program is presented as part of the International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF) at the Gardiner Museum, a 10-day celebration of contemporary ceramics, featuring talks, tours, performances, and more.

In celebration of Santee Smith’s artwork commission Talking Earth, Smithsonian curator Dr. Anya Montiel will discuss the role of Indigenous women artists in the field of contemporary ceramics and the Indigenous art world. Indigenous women artists, like Smith, Rose Simpson, and Raven Halfmoon, have been at the forefront of contemporary ceramic expressions. Their artworks continue to push boundaries of what constitutes Indigenous art. These artists also create multidisciplinary work that integrate organic materials and draw from Indigenous knowledge systems. The power of their works in clay speak to everlasting relationships towards land and community.

About Anya Montiel

Anya Montiel is a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Recently, she curated the exhibition, Ancestors Know Who We Are, featuring the art of Black-Indigenous women artists. Anya received her doctorate and master’s degrees in American Studies from Yale University and bachelor’s degrees in Native American Studies and anthropology from the University of California at Davis. She has written for American Indian magazine, Art in America, First American Art Magazine, Journal of Modern Craft, and the Oxford Handbook of American Indian History.