Urban Ark will be carpooling from the Westside to Los Feliz. Please email admin@urbanarktech.org to participate in this gathering. Arts & Community Identity Adivsory Board member Santi Romero will be among the artists featured.
Source: https://theautry.org/events/american-indian-arts-festival
Experience the richness of Native American art and performance at the American Indian Arts Festival. Meet artists from across North America and shop for unique art, jewelry, pottery, and more. Learn more about the Tongva culture and California’s Indigenous history through self-guided tours and cultural displays. Enjoy captivating performances, including pow wow and hoop dancing, poetry readings, and live theatre by Native Voices. Catch a short film from the Sundance Institute. Treat your taste buds to frybread and Native dishes by Chef Pyet DeSpain, season 1 winner of Gordon Ramsay’s Next Level Chef. Get your tickets below and explore our guides for cultural experiences and family-friendly activities.
Purchase Tickets, June 8
Purchase Tickets, June 9
EMBERS Young Native Playwrights Festival
Member Breakfast and Artist Award Ceremony
Dining at the Festival
Family-Friendly Activities
Artist Directory
Schedule of Events:
10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. | Linoleum Block Printing Workshop & Live Paint with River Garza
Ethnobotanical Garden
Discover the art of linoleum block printing, using designs created by artist River Tikwi Garza (Tongva), who was inspired by Tongva iconography, basket patterns and elements of his own artistic practice.
River will be live painting a new art piece on site throughout the festival, and you can also see some of his completed work in our exhibitions, California Continued: Human Nature and Reclaiming El Camino: Native Resistance in the Missions and Beyond.
11 a.m. – 12 p.m. | Waging Words: Poetry by Indigenous Women
Sprague Gallery
In-gallery poetry readings by established and emerging Native poets, exploring their lived-experience as Indigenous women living in Los Angeles and responding to the themes and ideas in the exhibition Reclaiming El Camino. Curated by Pamela J. Peters (Navajo).
11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Sundance Institute Short Film Screenings
Autry Theater
The 2024 Sundance Indigenous Shorts Tour comprises 7 shorts from the past two years of the Sundance Film Festival and one legacy short from Indigenous Program Alumni and creator of Reservation Dogs, Sterlin Harjo. Introduction by Adam Piron (Kiowa/Mohawk) Director, Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program.
Bay of Herons (2023) Directed by Jared James Lank
Winding Path (2024) Directed by Alexandra Lazarowich and Ross Kauffman
Headdress (2023) Directed by Tai Leclaire and David Spadora
Ekbeh (2023) Directed by Mariah Eli Hernandez-Fitch
Baigal Nuur – Lake Baikal (2023) Directed by Alisi Telengut
Hawaiki (2023) Directed by Nova Paul
Sunflower Siege Engine (2023) Directed by Sky Hopinka
Goodnight Irene (2005) Directed by Sterlin Harjo
2 p.m. | EMBERS Young Native Playwrights Festival
Autry Theater
Storytelling is a way to preserve culture and language, which is why Native Voices is thrilled to bring back its Young Native Playwrights program, but this time with a post-pandemic twist! With the help of Zoom, Native youth from across Turtle Island will participate in an eight-week playwriting course that will nourish, elevate, and amplify their voices. Plays written will be performed live onstage at the Autry, as well as livestreamed, so that these Young Playwrights, their families, and their communities can see that their voice is valid and their stories matter.
Performances in Heritage Court:
12:30 p.m. | Tongva Flute Music
Tongva culture bearer and artist Lazaro Arvizu opens the afternoon performances on our Festival Stage. Lazaro plays musical instruments that originate in the Los Angeles Basin Tovaangar. His indigenous music expresses the experience of being on this land for many generations and all of his instruments are made of local natural materials.
1 p.m. | Wildhorse Singers and Dancers
Since 1989, Wildhorse Native American Association has been assisting urban Native American children and adolescents with cultural preservation. Gather around the drum with these talented youth as they demonstrate traditional powwow dance styles and traditional songs.
2 p.m. | Hoop Dance Workshop
The art of hoop dance honors cultural traditions from multiple Indigenous communities that first employed hoop dance as a healing ceremony. Today, hoop dance is shared as an artistic expression to celebrate, share and honor Indigenous traditions. Try your skills in a workshop with world champion hoop dancer, Terry L. Goedel (Yakama/Tulalip).
3 p.m. | Wildhorse Singers and Dancers
Since 1989, Wildhorse Native American Association has been assisting urban Native American children and adolescents with cultural preservation. Gather around the drum with these talented youth as they demonstrate traditional powwow dance styles and traditional songs.
4 p.m. | Hoop Dancing with Terry L Goedel (Yakama/Tulalip) and n8tivehoop
See an extraordinary display of artistry, athleticism and tradition in a multigenerational performance by renowned hoop dancers from the Goedel Family. Each dancer presents their own variation of the intertribal hoop dance, weaving in aspects of tradition and culture.
Explore the Museum
Admission to the museum is included with the ticket price, where you will find works on display that explore the visual diversity and excellence of Native American arts including pieces from California Native artists Rick Bartow (Wiyot), Gerald Clarke Jr. (Cahuilla Band of Indians), Harry Fonseca (Nisenan Maidu), River Garza (Tongva), Leah Mata Fragua (yak tityu yak tithini Northern Chumash), Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) and Fritz Scholder (Luiseño). See these and other works, contemporary and traditional, by Native artists from across the country, integrated throughout our galleries.
American Indian Arts Festival is sponsored by:
David W. Cartwright · Snowdy Dodson · Leslie and Aaron Kern · The Plummer Family · Lora and Robert Sandroni · Davey Williams