The creation of the Oglala Lakota Arts Center on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota is a partnership between Artspace, First Peoples Fund (a Native American 501c3 non-profit organization), and Lakota Funds (a Native CDFI organization on Pine Ridge). Our goal is to create a centrally located, fixed structure where Native artists can have access to studio space, computers for digital work and electronic marketplace access, classroom and gallery space, and a hub to establish connections with other arts and cultural activities across the geographically vast reservation (which is roughly the size of Connecticut). It will complement an existing mobile arts lab, Rolling Rez Arts, that further meets the needs of Pine Ridge artists (as identified in a 2013 study, Establishing a Creative Economy: Art as an Economic Engine in Native Communities). Once complete, the Oglala Lakota Arts Center will establish connections with other arts and cultural activities and institutions on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and in Western South Dakota.
To support this project, please contact Artspace’s Vice President of National Advancement, Kathleen Kvern: Kathleen.kvern@artspace.org.
