Native Indigenous Initiatives (NII)

Native Scholar in Residence (NSIR) 2023-2024

Laurie Steelink
Akimel O'otham, Gila River Indian Community

Multidisciplinary artist Laurie Steelink, born in Phoenix, Arizona and raised in Tucson, received a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and an MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. In 2012, Steelink founded Cornelius Projects, an exhibition space in San Pedro, CA which focuses on the cultural history and the artists of San Pedro and the Harbor Area. Steelink’s work has been exhibited internationally, and she has participated in Native American Indian Marketplaces at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, and with the Santa Fe Indian Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Meranda Roberts
Yerington Paiute Tribe, Chicana

Dr. Meranda Roberts has a Ph.D. in Native American History and an M.A. in Public History from the University of California, Riverside and Meranda has worked as a co-curator at the Field Museum of Natural
History, where she developed brand new content for the museum’s Native American exhibition hall, “Native Truths: Our Stories. Our Voices.” She curated the 2023 Native American Invitational Exhibition at Idyllwild Arts titled “Still We Smile: Humor as Correction and Joy” and is currently guest curating the exhibition “Continuity: Cahuilla Basket Weavers and their Legacies, ”which will open at the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College in Winter 2024.Meranda is also a visiting professor at Pomona College in the art history department.

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