Monica Raphael. Image courtesy of the Eiteljorg Museum.
Eiteljorg Museum hires artist Monica Raphael as curator of Great Lakes Native cultures
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art hired artist and educator Monica Jo Raphael (Grand Traverse Odawa-Ojibwe/Sicangu Lakota) to serve as its new Thomas G. and Susan C. Hoback Curator of Great Lakes Native Cultures and Community Engagement.
A fifth-generation quillwork and beadwork artist, Raphael has created pieces in numerous museum collections across the country. She is known for her known for flora and fauna designs. Raphael also has an impressive background in creating and implementing cultural, educational, and human services programs. She has worked with tribal communities and served as an instructor and guest speaker.
“Working with curators and the museum’s education and public programs staff, Monica Raphael has a major role in cultivating working relationships with artists and tribes and developing events for the public, with a special emphasis on Native cultures of the Great Lakes region, which is her background,” Eiteljorg President and CEO Kathryn Haigh said. “Monica’s past association with the Eiteljorg already has made an impact on the community we serve, so we are thrilled that she has joined the Eiteljorg team as the Hoback curator.”
Raphael’s Career
Before joining the Eiteljorg Museum last month, Raphael had been a full-time artist in Southwest Oklahoma since 2018. She created quillwork and beadwork jewelry and ribbonwork clothing. Raphael’s pieces have received awards at Native art markets such as the Artesian Art Festival, SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market, Heard Indian Market in Phoenix, and Eiteljorg Museum Indian Market and Festival. She has been featured in magazines, such as FAAM No. 35, “New Trajectories: Four Rising Stars to Watch” by Staci Golar, and FAAM No. 27, “Point of Contact: The Art of Quillwork, Then and Now,” by Matthew Ryan Smith.
Monica Raphael (Grand Traverse Odawa-Ojibwe/Lakota), Nagamo (She Sings), 2019, birchbark, porcupine quills, 12° vintage Italian glass beads, 13° 24k gold-plated Charlotte beads, smoked buckskin, collection of the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, 2019.3.1 A-B. Image courtesy of the Eiteljorg.
“I am thrilled to join the Eiteljorg team of dedicated individuals who have already made a positive and impressive impact sharing the Eiteljorg mission,” Raphael said, “and I am excited to bring my creativity and knowledge of Great Lakes Native American cultures, languages, philosophies, teachings and ways of knowing to the Eiteljorg, museum visitors and the greater Indianapolis community.”
An enrolled member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Monica Raphael grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and then lived near Traverse City in Suttons Bay, Michigan.
Understanding cultural dynamics was key when she worked for the Grand Traverse Band from 2002 to 2012, developing a behavioral health program for Native youth to increase local high school graduation rates. She obtained federal grant support for that program. That included managing a youth dance company, Mino Bimaadziwin. Raphael served as their artistic director, choreographer, and costume designer. Four of her students won champion hoop dancing titles. The program was so successful that a Hopi community replicated it.
After 25 years of helping to make data-driven change in tribal communities, in 2018, Raphael decided to follow her lifelong dream of becoming a full-time artist. In 2021, she was awarded the prestigious Native Arts and Cultures Foundation LIFT Award and the First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellowship. Her artistic work brought her to the Eiteljorg multiple times for the Eiteljorg Festival and an artist residency. These positive experiences led to her joining the museum staff as Hoback curator of Great Lakes Native cultures and community engagement.
Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. Photo: Jessica Strickland Photography. Image courtesy of the Eiteljorg Museum.
Cultural Engagement
“Her cultural knowledge, artistic expertise, and skill at engaging the public will help the Eiteljorg Museum expand its cultural offerings and establish or build on relationships with tribes in the Great Lakes region and the tribes who were forcibly removed from Indiana,” added Elisa G. Phelps, vice president and chief curatorial officer.
Raphael began her new duties as Thomas G. and Susan C. Hoback curator of Great Lakes Native cultures and community engagement in September. The public can meet her at upcoming events including a gallery tour on November 3, 2023, and a porcupine quillwork workshop on November 17, 2023.
Raphael succeeds the previous Hoback curator, Scott Shoemaker, PhD (Miami Tribe of Oklahoma). He left the museum to join the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. The position is endowed by Thomas G. and Susan C. Hoback, who are both longtime supporters of the Eiteljorg Museum. Thomas Hoback is a former chair of the Eiteljorg Board of Directors.
Links
- Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Arts, Indianapolis, IN
- Monica Raphael portfolio
- Monica Raphael Instagram
- Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Peshawbestown, MI
