Through the multi-year agreement with CSIA, a print studio located on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in the foothills of Oregon’s Blue Mountains, the Loeb will purchase prints produced every year by Indigenous artists in residence at CSIA. Last year the Loeb acquired Raven Chacon’s lithograph Horse Notations. Chacon, an artist and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, was an artist in residence at Crow’s Shadow and spoke at Vassar last fall.

“We are all delighted about this new partnership with Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts, whose mission is to provide a creative conduit for educational, social, and economic opportunities for Native Americans through artistic development,” said T. Barton Thurber, the Anne Hendricks Bass Director of the Loeb. “I was fortunate to visit last fall and was truly awestruck by the quality of the prints, the engagement with a wide array of artists, and its ongoing commitment to local communities.”

“We are very grateful for the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center’s partnership and generosity in undertaking this three-year relationship,” said Crow’s Shadow board chair Kris Anderson. “It is always exciting when Crow’s Shadow works are shared with new audiences, but we particularly appreciate the opportunity for our remarkable artists to be featured in educational communities. We look forward to many more opportunities for dialogue and collaboration with the Loeb in the future!”

John Murphy, Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Loeb, has been connected with Crow’s Shadow since 2018, while working on a mid-career retrospective of prints by contemporary Seneca artist Marie Watt, who has a long history of collaborations with CSIA. Murphy said, “I’m thrilled to continue exploring opportunities for curricular tie-ins, programming, and exhibitions through the innovative works by resident CSIA artists like Marie and Raven.”

About Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts

Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts (CSIA) is located on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in the foothills of Oregon’s Blue Mountains. Crow’s Shadow is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization formed in 1992 by prominent artists James Lavadour (Walla Walla) and Phillip Cash Cash, PhD (Cayuse and Nez Perce). CSIA’s mission is to provide a creative conduit for educational, social, and economic opportunities for Native Americans through artistic development.

Over the last 30 years, Crow’s Shadow has evolved into a world-class studio focused on contemporary fine art printmaking. From 2001–2017, Frank Janzen was CSIA’s Master Printer. Under his tenure, Crow’s Shadow increased its focus on artist residencies and the publication and marketing of prints. In 2017, Judith Baumann joined Crow’s Shadow as the new Master Printer.

Printmaking is not the sole focus of Crow’s Shadow, however, since each year it hosts several one- to two-day workshops where participants can learn traditional art forms, such as basket making, beading, and the crafting of horse regalia from skilled artisans. CSIA also hosts printmaking and other workshops for regional youth, as well as regular community events and gallery talks.

Prints made at Crow’s Shadow have been featured in prominent national exhibitions, including the recent Whitney Biennial, and have been collected by the Whitney, Smithsonian, MoMA, Library of Congress, Boston MFA, and more. A 2019 feature in the New York Times hailed Crow’s Shadow as a “hub for contemporary Native American artists nationwide...[attracting] some of the biggest Indigenous names in contemporary art.”

About the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center is a teaching and learning museum, free and open to all, supporting the College’s educational mission and communities. Formerly the Vassar College Art Gallery, the Loeb is the first art museum at a college or university that was part of the institution’s original plan. Today, the permanent collection includes over 22,000 works, comprised of paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, textiles, and glass and ceramic wares. The Loeb strives to be a catalyst for scholarly, creative, and social justice work by Vassar students and others. It aims to reflect a commitment to broaden, and amplify, the voices represented in the museum setting, and to ensure that the Loeb’s programs and practices have a positive impact on campus and beyond.

Commitment to DEAI

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College commits to Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion (DEAI) as core values across its culture, systems, and practices. We pledge to allocate resources (human and financial) to create and sustain a museum culture in which difference is celebrated. The Loeb staff is dedicated to integrating DEAI priorities into gallery installations, programming, interpretation, collections management, acquisitions, and internal processes. Our ongoing work is guided by an intention to care for all people engaged with the Loeb while welcoming the exchange of ideas, enriching experiences, and diverse perspectives through art.

Admission to the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center is free and all galleries are wheelchair accessible. The Loeb is now open to the public every day (except Monday) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Loeb is located at 124 Raymond Avenue near the entrance to the Vassar College campus. parking is available on Raymond Avenue. Get directions to the Vassar campus in Poughkeepsie, NY.

The Art Center is also accessible via the Dutchess County Public Transit, Bus Route L. For additional information, the public may call (845) 437-5632 or visit the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center’s website. 

Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that Vassar stands upon the homelands of the Munsee Lenape, Indigenous peoples who have an enduring connection to this place despite being forcibly displaced by European colonization. Munsee Lenape peoples continue today as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Wisconsin, the Delaware Tribe and the Delaware Nation in Oklahoma, and the Munsee-Delaware Nation in Ontario. This acknowledgment, however, is insufficient without our reckoning with the reality that every member of the Vassar community since 1861 has benefited from these Native peoples’ displacement, and it is hollow without our efforts to counter the effects of structures that have long enabled—and that still perpetuate—injustice against Indigenous Americans. To that end, we commit to build and sustain relationships with Native communities; to expand opportunities at Vassar for Native students, as well as Native faculty and other employees; and to collaborate with Native nations to know better the Indigenous peoples, past and present, who care for this land.

Contact: Alison Hendrie / (914) 450-3340

Photo: Download high-resolution images from the Vassar College Media Relations’ Flickr

Vassar College is a coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.