We are so pleased to announce the moment we’ve all been waiting for! Last month, the
benjamin harjo, jr. Artist Fund made our inaugural grant award to award-winning textile
artist Ksm Lx’sg̱a̱n, Ruth Hallows (Tsimshian). Ruth received a total of $500 to help her
with her attendance at the Heard Museum Guild’s 68th Annual Indian Fair & Market.
Ruth will be at booth D-24, so if you plan on attending, stop by and congratulate her.
Demonstration at Bill Holm Center
Image Credit: Chris Snyder at the Bill Holm Center for the Study of Northwest Native Art
Ruth weaves in the Chilkat and Ravenstail traditions of the Northwest Coastal People.
She travels to Tsimshian communities in Washington, Alaska, and British Columbia to
converse with first-language-speaking elders in Sm’algyax about these ceremonial
textiles and shares the skills and training she has gathered through workshops,
presentations, and lectures, as well as in traditional apprenticeships. She maintains a
daily practice of Chilkat and Ravenstail weaving in her home on O’odam and Piipaash
traditional lands near Phoenix, Arizona.
Ruth says about her art practice, “I weave for the wellness Chilkat and Ravenstail
textiles afford me. A single parent of four…I find respite and joy in engaging my full mind
and body in recording history and hope in the curvilinear and geometric shapes of
Northwest Coastal People. I value connection, wellness, and simultaneity. I weave
Tsimshian textiles on O’odam and Piipaash traditional lands, incorporating shared
values… Each part of life forms and is formed by all other parts, just as each part of my
artistic practice forms and is formed by all other parts. I grew up Urban – aware of my
heritage and disconnected from my lands, relatives, ceremony, and language. When I
reconnected to community, I realized that relatives who grew up in physical connection
experience the same longing for home I have always felt. Weaving ceremonial textiles
allows me to process and record both personal and collective identities and
experiences. I weave our histories of hope and healing with patterns from Ravenstail
and Chilkat regalia.” https://ruththewholeruth.art
merino wool, sea otter fur
8.5 in x 83 in x 0.5 in
Image credit: Ruth Hallows
We are so proud to have made this first award. We couldn’t have accomplished this
without our wonderful donors! The work isn’t done! We are looking forward to making
our second award to a deserving artist for the Santa Fe Indian Market later this year.
Additionally, we are still raising funds for our $80,000 for 80 campaign to honor Ben’s
80 th birthday this past September. Meeting this goal will enable us to establish an
endowment that will ensure the organization will continue to give for years to come!
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