Native North American Art

Catalog description

A survey of the arts of Native North America, from ancestral processes to contemporary trends. During the first half of the course, we will move across regions to explore different ancestral traditions from basket weaving practices of the Chumash people here in Santa Barbara to wampum belt making of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in the Northeast. In the remaining weeks, we will shift to pan-Indigenous art debates from the 20th century until today. Students will engage with concepts such as settler colonialism, stereotypes, visual sovereignty, environmental justice, material culture, institutional critique, and the politics of representation.