Artist in Residence
Marjorie Kaniehtonkie Skidders to give a
Curator's talk August 3, 11 am.
The Frederic Remington Art Museum is proud to host Marjorie Kaniehtonkie Skidders as our 2024 Artist in Residence. As part of her collaboration with the Remington Museum, Kaniehtonkie will curate an exhibition of select Remington works. The public is invited to hear Marjorie speak about the selected works on Saturday, August 3rd, at 11:00 am in the Museum’s Addie P. Newell Gallery. A reception will follow. The talk is free with museum admission.
Marjorie Kaniehtonkie Skidders is an award-winning photographer. Among other awards, she earned first and second place at the prestigious Adirondack Mohawk and Abenaki Art Markets in 2018 and 2019. In 2021, she had a one-woman show at the Native North American Traveling College, in 2022, she won second place in the juried Ganondagan Museum’s Hodinöhsö:ni′ Art Show in photography, and in 2024 had a one-woman show at the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery at St. Lawrence University. As proud Ista of four children and twelve grandchildren, she is currently the editor of Indian Time newspaper.
“As a Indigenous photographer, I am always searching for beautiful moments occurring in everyday life. I view every photo shoot as an opportunity to capture those moments and share my Kanienkeha life with the world.”
The Lightness of Tasha by Marjorie Kaniehtonkie Skidders. Photograph. August 24, 2020.
Image courtesy of St. Lawrence University
Throughout her residency, Skidders’ artwork will be on display in the Frederic Remington Art Museum’s Hirschey Family Gallery.
This year, Marjorie will work directly with the Akwesasne Boys & Girls club to bring students to the Museum for photography composition classes. These classes will encourage Mohawk youth to tell their stories and express their identity, experience, perspectives, and culture through photography. One will be a beginner class for youth children, and the other will be for pre-teen to teen classes for students with some experience with photography. The students will also have a chance to explore Remington’s work with Educator and Museum Experience Manager, Julie Pratt.
Kaniehtonkie also served as juror for the Museum’s Annual Members’ Juried Art Exhibit, which opened in May and which will remain on view through September 7. As juror to the annual Members' Juried Art Exhibit, the resident artist provides fresh insight into and analysis of the work of the Museum’s community of artists, a number of whom are long-time participants in these exhibits. As with previous resident artists, Marjorie Kaniehtonkie Skidders is a skilled artist working in a field (photography) relevant to the Museum and its audiences. She has spent a career in education, and is poised to offer instruction to under-served youth and interpretation at the highest level. An Akwesasne Mohawk woman, Skidders’s curation of a new exhibit of work by Frederic Remington will offer a fresh perspective on the artist and his work.
Marjorie Kaniehtonkie Skidders, a member of the Bear Clan of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation Territory, has a bachelor’s degree in art and a master’s in education that turned into a 25-year career in education as a teacher, director, Indigenous content curriculum writer, and school principal. After retiring in 2007, she returned to her roots as an artist focusing on writing and photography. Her work has been acquired by the New York State Museum; Adirondack Experience, the Museum at Blue Mountain Lake; and St. Lawrence University.
About the Artist in Residence Program
The Artist in Residence program offers museum-goers an opportunity to experience a contemporary artist’s work as well as their perspective on Remington’s work. One of the Museum’s primary goals within our most recent strategic plan is to find new ways to make Remington relevant in modern times. Much of Remington’s turn-of-the-century work includes indigenous and military figures as well as scenes of conflict and violence. By considering Remington’s work in modern times through an Indigenous person’s perspective, the Museum’s audience, including the vast “Silver Wave'' of museum-goers, will be challenged to question their own preconceptions and understanding of race, violence, beauty, and culture. Artists across all spans of time connect to other artists’ work in various ways, and our artist in residence program has the potential to open eyes and arms, connecting our neighboring communities through art and discussion.
This exhibit is made possible in collaboration and with the generous support of the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery and St Lawrence University who loaned the framed artwork and allowed for image use. Thank you to Catherine Tedford, Raymond Whalen, and Carole Mathey from the Brush Gallery for their hard work and dedication to the arts in the North Country.
