The Southeastern Indian Artists Association (SEIAA) is an intertribal Native American nonprofit arts organization headquartered in northeastern

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

. The group promotes and protects the interests of Native American artists, particularly Southeastern Woodlands."Southeastern Indian Artists Association."
2013 (retrieved 11 November 2013). Group members are verified citizens of federally recognized tribes in compliance with the

Indian Arts and Crafts Act The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-644) is a truth-in-advertising law which prohibits misrepresentation in marketing of American Indian or Alaska Native arts and crafts products within the United States. It is illegal to offer or ...

Founding

The group was formed officially in as the Cherokee Artists Association after Native American artists came together and decided that they needed to begin helping each other to be successful artists in the art world. Many artists travel to

Santa Fe Indian Market The Santa Fe Indian Market is an annual art market held in Santa Fe, New Mexico on the weekend following the third Thursday in August. The event draws an estimated 150,000 people to the city from around the world. The Southwestern Association for ...

, Cherokee Art Market, and various other national Native art events. The group used to operate a cooperative

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

. Members included

Martha Berry Martha McChesney Berry (October 7, 1865 – February 27, 1942) was an American educator and the founder of Berry College in Rome, Georgia. Early years Martha McChesney Berry was the daughter of Capt. Thomas Berry, a veteran of the Mexican– ...

, Mike Dart,

Bill Glass Jr. Bill Glass Jr. is a Cherokee Nation ceramic artist, sculptor, and public artist, who was named a Cherokee National Treasure in 2009. Background and education Glass was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and spent his childhood there and in Arizona. ...

, Demos Glass,

Sharon Irla Sharon Irla (born 1957) is a Cherokee artist, enrolled in the Cherokee Nation. A self-taught artist, Irla began entering competitive art shows in 2003. Her collective body of works span the fields of painting, murals, graphics, photography, and cus ...

, Jane Osti, Troy Jackson, and

Shan Goshorn Shan Goshorn (July 3, 1957 – December 1, 2018) was an Eastern Band Cherokee artist, who lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her interdisciplinary artwork expresses human rights issues, especially those that affect Native American people today. Goshorn used ...

. The

Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ ''Tsalagihi Ayeli'' or ᏣᎳᎩᏰᎵ ''Tsalagiyehli''), also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It ...

provided the CAA a grant to expand their online web gallery. Sharon Irla, CAA Executive Officer says of the group, "These artists preserve our tribal culture and deserve to have their works represented in mainstream media."

Activities

The SEIAA now promotes artists from any Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. The organization hosts and promotes groups exhibitions, such as ''Indigenous Gender Identity'' (2022). Kindra Swafford (Cherokee Nation) is a member and officer of the organization.

References

External links

Official website
2004 establishments in Oklahoma Native American arts organizations Native American organizations Indigenous topics of the Southeastern Woodlands Art and design-related professional associations {{Oklahoma-stub