We are growing by leaps and bounds here at the benjamin harjo jr. Artist Fund! At our
Spring quarterly meeting, we added a few new seats on the Board of Directors and
voted in new members. Let me introduce them, in no particular order:
- Valerie Couch: Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus at Oklahoma City University School of Law. She served as the 12 th Dean of the law school and prior to that as a federal magistrate in the Western District of Oklahoma. She has known Ben and Barbara Harjo for many years as their neighbor, collector and close friend.
- Debra Engle: retired Senior Vice President of the OSU Foundation and longtime friend of Ben and Barbara.
- Brent Greenwood (Chickasaw Nation): as a prominent artist he was a colleague of Ben’s, and is the current Fine Arts Director for the Chickasaw Nation
- Shoshana Wasserman (Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, Muskogee Nation): the Deputy Director of First Americans Museum. Ben and Barbara have always considered her one of the “nieces” having known her for many years.
And to our Advisory Board, we added Bobby C. Martin (Muskogee Creek Nation).
Bobby is a prominent multi-media artist who has known Ben and Barbara for many
years. We couldn’t be more pleased with these additions. Bringing in these very
accomplished members will enable us to grow and support more Indigenous artists.
Soon, you’ll be able to learn more about our new members on our website.
Stay tuned as we prepare to announce our second grant winner. The committee is
currently evaluating the applications, and we’ll have an announcement soon!
Don’t forget to check out our Facebook page or find us on Instagram!
You can donate to our 80K for 80 campaign as we honor what would have been Ben’s
80 th birthday all year long!
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