The Millicent Rogers Museum kicks off its 2022 programming Jan. 6 with a discussion in the popular ‘Millicent Unplugged’ online series. Courtesy/MRM

MRM News:

January will be here soon, and the Millicent Rogers Museum kicks off their 2022 programming with another discussion in the popular “Millicent Unplugged” online series. 

Join moderators Karen Chertok and Sara Frances as they welcome guest panelists Dr. Julie Pearson-Little Thunder, author of A Life Made with Artists: Doris Littrell and the Oklahoma Native Art Movement; Gene Billie, well known Diné (Navajo) jeweler and silversmith; and Dr. Michelle Lanteri, Millicent Rogers Museum Curator of Collections and Exhibitions.

The discussion will center upon the most important aspect of giving, receiving, and collecting Native American artworks: how to care for newly or soon to be acquired Native American art. How do you safely store, clean, display, wear, or ship Native artworks? Good stewardship of artworks so lovingly purchased, whether for your own collection or to give as a gift, enhances and preserves the value while honoring the human spirit in which it was created.

Dr. Julie Pearson-Little Thunder is a visiting assistant professor with the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program at Oklahoma State University. She was the project lead for the Oklahoma Native Artist series, featuring interviews with Native artists, gallery owners and collectors. Little Thunder has published over a dozen articles on Native artists for Southwest Art and Oklahoma Today as well as scholarly articles on Native theatre for theatre journals and anthologies. In addition to her book, A Life Made with Artists: Doris Littrell and the Oklahoma Native Art Movement, she has written several plays, a documentary on Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, and a screenplay based on her husband’s first years selling art on the streets of Tulsa, Oklahoma at the height of the Oklahoma Native American art craze.

Gene Billie is a self-taught Diné (Navajo) Silversmith. He is a member of the Native Jewelers Society and a tireless advocate of Native arts and artists through the Council for Indigenous Arts and Culture. He works with traditional stone and metalsmithing tools and his work reflects the spontaneity and simplicity of the flow of creation. Billie grew up in the Navajo Nation and now makes his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Dr. Michelle J. Lanteri is the Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the Millicent Rogers Museum. She earned her PhD in Native American art history at the University of Oklahoma and master’s degree in art history and museum studies at New Mexico State University. Lanteri has served in curatorial roles at the Couse-Sharp Historic Site, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma, the Institute of American Indian Arts, University Museum and University Art Gallery at New Mexico State University, and GreenHill Center for North Carolina Art. She is also a contributor to First American Art Magazine.