EAU CLAIRE - The American Indian Arts Festival Exhibit, which features works by eight celebrated Native American artists in a variety of media, will be on display March 6-April 3 in the Foster Art Gallery of the Fine Arts Center at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

The event will inaugurate the new American Indian Studies major at UW-Eau Claire and preface the American Indian Arts Festival, which is in the memory of Veda Stone. Stone dedicated her life to the recognition and advancement of Native American people, and she was responsible for the first American Indian Arts Festival held on the UW-Eau Claire campus.

The featured artists in the festival exhibit include Roger Broer, Oglala Lakota; Jeffery Chapman, Ojibway; George Cramer, Potawatomi; Diane 'Ge-Baa-Bikwe' Defoe, Red Cliff Ojibwe Ikwe; Joe Geshick, Ojibway; Karen Goulet, White Earth Anishinabe; Truman Lowe, Ho-Chunk; and Dennis White, Ojibway Anishinabe. Also, the Sinte Gleska University from Rosebud, S. D., will feature works in the display case across from the Foster Gallery.

Visiting artist Roger Broer will give a talk at 11 a.m. Friday, March 7, in the Foster Gallery, and at 8 p.m. he will give a public lecture, which will be followed by a reception.

Adjunct events to the exhibit include a reception honoring the UW-Eau Claire American Indian Studies major; an exhibit of children and youth art at the Chippewa Valley Museum; a monoprint workshop with Oglala Lakota artist Roger Broer; Communiversity with the topic Native American art and spirituality; and American Indian Awareness Week (April 14-19).

The exhibit is sponsored by the Foster Gallery, art department, Arts and Science Outreach and the American Indian Studies program Eau Claire District Title IX Program.

The opening ceremony and reception for the exhibit will be 7:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday, March 6, with Gordon Thunder, Ho-Chunk elder, along with Spirit Bird, a La Courte Oreilles drum group. Karen Horan, art faculty, and Tom Wagener, director of the Foster Gallery, will curate the event. The exhibit will continue through April 3.

Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays and 1 to 4:30 p.m. weekends. For more information about these events contact the UW-Eau Claire art department, (715) 836-3277, or Arts & Sciences Outreach, (715) 836-2031.
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JB

Updated: March 24, 1997