Work by Tuscarora Artist Melanie Printup Hope

Tuscarora Artist Melanie Printup Hope to Deliver Hartwick’s Haan Lecture

February 8, 2019

Hartwick College’s Yager Museum of Art & Culture and Department of History will present the 2018-19 Haan Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, February 13 at 5 p.m. in the Museum. Melanie Printup Hope, an associate professor in the Faculty of Design at Ontario College of Art and Design University (OACD) in Toronto, will deliver a lecture entitled “Making Indigenous Activism More Creative.” The presentation is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be provided.

Hope is of Tuscarora (Haudenosaunee) and European descent, and raised on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation in western New York. An award winning and acclaimed artist, her talk will discuss linking traditional Indigenous forms, like beadwork, with electronic arts. Throughout her 30-year career, she has exhibited her work across North America and has received numerous fellowships and awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, among others. In addition to her position at OCAD, she is professor emerita at the Sage Colleges (NY), and has taught at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada.

“We are delighted to welcome Ms. Hope for what promises to be a really stimulating talk and conversation,” said Quentin Lewis, the Yager Museum’s collections and programs manager. “The Yager Museum originated with a collection of Native American artifacts, but the Museum has also been collecting and displaying contemporary Indigenous art for decades. Ms. Hope’s work is especially significant as she works to bring traditional artistic practices together with new media, and specifically around issues of activism and engagement that form the heart of this year’s Haan Lecture Series.”

The Haan Lecture Series is funded by the Richard L. Haan Fund for Native American Studies at Hartwick College.

Last November, as part of this series, the College hosted Dr. Rae Gould (Nipmuc), the senior tribal liaison at the University of Massachusetts. This April, the museum will welcome Amberdawn LaFrance, the cultural restoration program manager in the Department of the Environment of the St. Regis Mohawk, Hogansburg, NY.

Yager Museum of Art & Culture currently features three exhibitions on Native American culture:

Of Time and the River: 12,000 Years in the Upper Susquehanna Region, which features many Native American artifacts collected by the Museum’s founder, Willard Yager.
Contested Identities: Images of Native Americans, 1880-1930, draws on compelling photographs from the Museum’s Falconer Collection to illustrate the struggles of Native Americans in retaining their cultural identity in the face of government efforts to assimilate them into general American culture.
Along the Rails: Willard Yager, Native American Art and 20th Century Tourism is a student-curated exhibition that examines the Museum founder’s journey to the American Southwest, the cultures he encountered there and the artifacts he brought back to Oneonta.

Other exhibitions currently on view include:

Masterpieces of European and American Art: Hartwick College’s Art Treasure Room, a permanent exhibition of works ranging from the Italian Renaissance to 20th century pieces by Rockwell Kent and Childe Hassam.
In a Modern Vein: Contemporary Art from the Yager Museum Collection highlights the Museum’s modern art collections, featuring works by Rauschenberg, Calder, Warhol, and more.
Black Lives at Hartwick Then and Now is an exploration of the history of African Americans and African-American Life at Hartwick Seminary and Hartwick College from the 19th century to the present. The exhibition features photos and documents from the College’s Paul F. Cooper Jr., Archives and artifacts from the Museum collections.
Sculptures in Silver: America’s Standing Liberty Quarters, 1916-1930, which features all variations on this renowned coin designed by sculptor Hermon Atkins McNeil in 1916.

The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. when the College is in session. The Museum is closed Sundays, Mondays, and College holidays.

The Yager is the Oneonta area’s only museum of art and culture. Admission is free and parking is available near the entrance on the first floor of Yager Hall. To reach the Museum, take West Street to Clinton Street and turn right onto Cayuga Drive. Follow Cayuga Drive to Yager Hall. Parking is available adjacent to the Museum entrance.

For additional information on the Haan Memorial Lecture and related events, contact Lewis at 607-431-4481 or lewisq@hartwick.edu.

For more information on The Yager and its exhibitions, visit the museum’s website or Facebook page, call 607-431-4480, or e-mail Museum Coordinator Doug Kendall at kendalld@hartwick.edu.