GILLETTE, Wyo. — Two women have been announced as the recipients of this year’s Native Arts Fellowship through the Wyoming Arts Council.
According to an Aug. 4 press release, Rose Pecos-SunRhodes of the Jemez Pueblo tribe in New Mexico and Taylar Stagner of the Arapahoe and Shoshone tribes were selected for their works in native clay pottery and writing, respectively.
The fellowship is a $5,000 unrestricted award of merit that is based on the artist’s portfolio that seeks to honor the work of Native artists based in Wyoming. Artists working in any artistic discipline or medium were eligible to apply and their submissions were juried anonymously by jurors outside the state.
Pecos-SunRhodes was born and raised with the tradition of pottery, learning from masters in her village who taught her to continue the age-old cultural practices, WAC says, adding that she has won numerous awards at Sante Fe Indian Market, Heard Museum, Red Earth Art Festival, Eiteljorg Museum and the Indianapolis Children’s Museum.
As a contemporary traditional artist/potter, Pecos-SunRhodes respects and takes from the old traditional methods of collecting the clays and paints and firing using a more contemporary, unique flair on the style of the clay piece she is working on, per the WAC.
Stagner is a writer and journalist from Riverton who focuses on Indigenous Affairs and has worked for Wyoming Public Media and High Country News Magazine. She has won an Edward R. Murrow Award for her podcast episode on rural drag queens in Wyoming with The Modern West Podcast, the WAC says.
Mentoring for NPR’s Next Generation Radio: Indigenous, Stagner holds a master’s degree in Amercian Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University.