Posted 10/03/2006
UALR’s Sequoyah Research Center opens its sixth annual symposium Oct. 19 to 21, with a major national conference on Native American topics that feature tribal speakers and presenters from throughout North America.
A highlight of this year's event will be the opening of the J. W. Wiggins Native American Art Collection at 3 p. m. on Thursday, Oct. 19, in the Fine Arts Building, followed at 4 p.m. by a talk on Native American art by noted Lakota artist Arthur Amiotte.
Art in the Wiggins Collection has been cited as some of the major examples of tribal work including paintings, watercolors, beadwork, and sculpture. The pieces will become a permanent part of the Sequoyah Research Center and UALR art collection.
Pieces from the Wiggins collection will be on exhibit at Galleries I and II at UALR’s Fine Arts Building from Oct. 19 to Dec. 2.
Muskogee-Creek poet and musical artist Joy Harjo will perform at 5:30 p.m. Friday in the Donaghey Student Center, Room A. Harjo, an internationally known figure, will read, play, and comment on a variety of topics in her presentation, Writing, Singing, Speaking and Dreaming the Next World into Place.
A member of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation, Harjo is the author of seven books of poetry including She Had Some Horses, In Mad Love and War, The Women Who Fell From the Sky, and her most recent, How We Became Human, New and Selected Poems, published by W. W. Norton. Currently, she is writer-in-residence at the University of New Mexico.
Presenters from many tribal groups will address the audience at sessions beginning at 8 a.m. on both Friday and Saturday and running throughout both days.
The public is invited to attend any or all of the sessions and to participate in the many opportunities for discussion. A list of sessions and presenters is available on the SRC web site http://anpa.ualr.edu/. The symposium is free of charge.
For more information, call (501) 569-8325 or e-mail jwparins@ualr.edu.