Decolonizing Vassar

People standing in an art gallery smiling and talking.

Vassar has made an ongoing effort to acknowledge the displacement of Native peoples from the land where the campus has been built and to build relationships with those Native nations today. The College recently hosted a visit by the Tribal Liaison from the Stockbridge-Munsee, whose ancestors were forcibly moved from the land.

Photo of a green forest.

Lev Winickoff ’25 received a 2024 Barnabas McHenry Award to create a video project in collaboration with members of the Stockbridge-Munsee band of Mohicans. The video will document a Munsee story told by an elder (in English) with contributions by children in the tribe (in Mohican) and incorporate paintings reflecting the natural beauty of the Hudson River Valley along with Munsee symbolism.

Abstract or impressionist painting of birds.

New York Times art review

Image: Kenojuak Ashevak (Inuit, Cape Dorset, Canada, 1927–2013) and Johnniebo Ashevak (Inuit, Cape Dorset, Canada, 1923–1972)
Animals Out of Darkness, 1961
Stonecut on paper, 5/5019.5 x 21.75 inches
Reproduced with the permissions of Dorset Fine Arts