This reading, writing, and drawing course will address the work of the legendary Yanktonai Dakota artist Oscar Howe. Born in South Dakota at the Crow Creek Reservation in 1915, Howe was well-educated in the arts, both culturally and academically, ultimately earning a Masters of Fine Arts in 1954. Over his career, Howe’s work became abstract and personal, helping to transform ideas about who a Native artist could be. He was an artist in residence and professor at the University of South Dakota, where he was thought to be “on the cutting edge of his generation in the exploration of ways to break out of the stereotypes imposed on Indian artists and to seek contemporary ways of communicating Native American values and ideas.”

Students will keep a sketchbook/poetry notebook with weekly two-dimensional art and poetry deliverables that interact with and celebrate Howe’s groundbreaking work. All levels. 4 credits. In Person (with some required elements on Canvas). Text: Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe.