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Bush Artist Program Introduces 2010 Fellows

Previous Recipients of Enduring Vision Awards

2009 Recipients: Mary Louise Defender Wilson * Kevin Locke * Michael Sommers

Mary Louise Defender Wilson (Wagmuhawin, “Gourd Woman”) (Dakotah/Hidatsa) grew up in a family of storytellers and midwives on the Standing Rock (Sioux) Reservation in North Dakota. Raised speaking Dakotah, she began telling her tribes’ ancient narratives as a young girl, marveling at how much her relatives knew and how tribal stories, which talked about values and human nature, taught them to think deeply. Celebrated for her gift of storytelling, she is the recipient of the coveted National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the nation’s highest honor for a traditional artist. She also has received the H. Councill Trenholm Memorial Award from the National Education Association for Human and Civil Rights, the 2009 Community Spirit Award from First Peoples Fund, and has been honored at the Native American Music Awards with the Best Spoken Word Award. Defender Wilson teaches the Dakotah language at Standing Rock Community College in Fort Yates, ND.



Kevin Locke (Tokaheya Inajin, “The First to Arise”) (Lakota, Hunkpapa Band/Anishinaabe) lives in Wakpala, South Dakota, and is known throughout the world as a Hoop Dancer, the preeminent player of the indigenous Northern Plains flute, a traditional storyteller, cultural ambassador, recording artist and educator. While his early instructions were received from his immediate family and community, from his extended family in every part of the world Locke has learned many lessons in global citizenship and how we each can draw from our individual heritages to create a vibrant, evolving global civilization embracing and celebrating our collective heritage. His joy is working with children on the reservations to ensure the survival and growth of indigenous culture. He is acknowledged to be the pivotal force in the now powerful revival of the indigenous flute tradition, which had teetered on the brink of extinction. Locke was awarded a 1990 National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. www.kevinlocke.com

Michael Sommers, from Minneapolis, has practiced the theatre arts as a designer, director, composer, performer, playwright and technician, both locally and nationally for thirty years. In 2000 he and his partner Susan Haas co-founded Open Eye Figure Theatre, and in 2007 the company opened an intimate venue in South Minneapolis. Sommers’ work has been seen in venues ranging from major cultural institutions to backyards and the street. Through these experiences, and drawing from traditional theatrical forms, classical text, populist entertainment, folk art and the comedy and “tragedy of our daily lives,” Sommers says he “creates original work that speaks in a contemporary voice directly to the audience.” His work has been presented at the Walker Art Center and in New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Canada, and Mexico. He is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota. www.openeyetheatre.org

2008 Recipients: Frank Big Bear * Janel Jacobson * Walter Piehl Jr.

Painter Frank Big Bear (Minneapolis, Minnesota) was born in Detroit Lakes and spent his early years on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota. Though largely self-taught, he began his art in earnest while a student at North High School in Minneapolis and later studied with George Morrison at the University of Minnesota. His colorful, intricate, Prismacolor pencil works provide a personal account of both the recent history and present-day experience of American Indians. Big Bear’s works have been seen at the Bockley Gallery in Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Heard Museum in Phoenix, and Institute of American Indian Arts Museum in Santa Fe. His drawings are in the collections of the Walker Art Center, the British Museum in London and the Frederick R. Weisman Museum, among others. In September 2008 the Tweed Museum in Duluth showed a retrospective of Big Bear’s work. Visit Big Bear’s profile to see a film about his work.


Janel Jacobson (Harris, Minnesota) is a wood carver whose exquisite works are collected and exhibited by many of the major museums in the country, including the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery and New York’s Museum of Art and Design. During more than ten years as a potter, she began carving in stoneware and porcelain clay. Her work eventually evolved into carving very small porcelain sculptures and then to carving hardwoods. Today her works have grown in scale and scope from small netsuke (functional, miniature sculptures used to suspend a pouch or small container from kimono sashes) and ojime (sliding beads on cords that hold the pouch or containers closed) to stand-alone small sculptures. She has received top awards in many of the premier craft shows in the country, including those of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Smithsonian.
Visit Jacobson’s profile to see a film about her work.


Walter Piehl Jr. (Minot, North Dakota), using acrylic on canvas or paper, treats Western Americana themes with modern art influences and interpretation. He combines an expressionistic style with literal and interpretive investigations of many facets of Western American life. His work is often large in scale (48 inches or more), in series, abstract, and saturated with color and contrast. His work has been exhibited at places as diverse as the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and Museum of the American Cowboy in Colorado, Eitelijorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art in Indianapolis and the Palm Gallery in San Diego. He has been a professor in fine arts at Minot State University since 1970. Visit Piehl’s profile to see a film about his work.

See a story about the first three Enduring Vision Recipients (from the Summer 2008 issue of Giving Strength). (1.7 MB)