Today we are celebrating our student Nora Marshall who is an 8th grader at Isna Wica Owayawa (Loneman School) in Oglala.
Nora has been a student of ours for several years and we have watched her talent grow! We needed illustrations for an intro video for our new school art program and hired Nora for the project!
Check out the video here: https://vimeo.com/467886175/ae002f1071
2020 has been rough year. Let’s have it end on a bright note by providing some love to kids on Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations!
Holidays can be difficult, especially for kids living in extreme poverty. The pandemic has only amplified many of the very challenging circumstances that many kids live in. So we are working hard to extend our reach and serve as many kids as we can.
We are striving to provide holiday gifts for 400 – 500 kids… but can easily deliver to over 1,000 if more come in. As an arts and educational organization – we favor gender-neutral arts & educational toys and toys that inspire physical activity and creativity. But straight up fun toys are great too. We just ask that toys not promote violence – i.e. any type of weapons – and are culturally appropriate for First Nations youth.
Our WishList on Amazon has suggested items but feel free to order whatever you like.:
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3U6VYB0R90CQ2?ref_=wl_share
If the shipping address does not show up in your cart you can enter it manually:
Mitakuye c/o Ramsey Brown
333 French Creek Rd.
Buffalo, Wyoming 82834 (605) 454-4000
We also have secured special pricing for hand drums for kids. If you would like to contribute to that you can contribute to our “Drum Fund”. You can also donate to our “Toy Fund” and we can purchase the toys directly. Donate here and note “toy fund” or “drum fund” in the program box:
Delivery times are supposed to be extra long this year so we suggest that all purchases be made by December 1st and arrive at our headquarters by December 12th so they arrive in time to be delivered to the kids.
2020 has been a challenging year – but we haven’t let that stop our mission to provide empowering and life affirming arts education and opportunities to Lakota kids! We have been working on our biggest project ever!
Our Hoye Wayelo (“ I Am Sending A Voice”) School Art Program launched this fall and has supplied over 1,200 students with Art Kits and online weekly art classes!
We had been working on plans to offer year-round arts programming for kids by partnering with reservation schools. Our plans included providing curriculum, training workshops, and art supplies to schools so teachers could have the support, means, and materials to provide regular art curriculum to their students. When it became clear that the pandemic was not subsiding – we knew that the in-class model was not going to be an option. So we made the ambitious leap to creating an online program that would provide individual art kits to students and filmed lessons that teachers could download and use with their students in their online teaching platforms. These lessons would also be available to use in the classroom when in-person teaching became an option again.
Our deepest thanks to Lo Sprague and the Sprague Family Foundation for making this possible!
We will share a Behind The Scenes look into the process soon. But in the meantime – please enjoy the short intro video to the program – illustrated by our student Nora Marshall – who is an 8th Grader at Loneman School in Oglala.