Rachel TwoTeeth-Pichardo and Joe Pichardo: Old Traditions - New Ways

Old Traditions - New Ways: Exploring the Application of Ledger Art and Indigenous Games to Identity, Understanding, and Cultural Preservations

Topic Description:
Rachel's presentation will focus on her ledger art as a medium of self-expression, self-discovery, and a way to tell new stories using traditional methods.
Joe's presentation will center on Native American Traditional Games and Sports and the experiences of using them to foster cultural identity and exchange.

About the Artists:
Rachel Twoteeth-Pichardo is a multimedia artist with ledger art and native american flute as her primary passions. She is an enrolled member of the Little Shell Chippewa nation and developed her passion for art and beadwork at a young age, with her grandma at her elbow mentoring her creative endeavors. Currently, creating ledger art is her main focus, which she uses to navigate her own indigenous identity and her struggles in the present day. Rachel has exhibited her ledger art at the Holter Museum of Art, Helena College, and was featured in the Life Magazine and the In Dreams exhibition at the Myrna Loy Jailhouse Gallery. In addition to showcasing, she has also commissioned designs for WIC Montana, the Helena Indian Alliance, and the Montana Community Foundation. This last year she was a featured artisan at the Tribal Heritage Center in Yellowstone National Park. In her free time, she eagerly begins a new project before finishing the current one.

Joe Pichardo is an educator and traditional games instructor. He has over ten years of experience playing and teaching Native American traditional games and sports. As a Title VI Academic Coach and IEFA outreach coordinator, he visits classrooms year-round and introduces the cultural significance of play for Indigenous people of North America in Helena. As a descendant of the Blackfeet, Ojibwe, and Cree nations, he relishes the opportunity to learn and teach his culture and hopes to inspire his students to do the same.


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About Open AIR:
Open AIR is a place-based Artist-in-Residence program that connects artists from all disciplines and origins, with culturally, historically, and ecologically significant locations through collaborative partnerships in Montana.
With innovative opportunities available in places such as remote wilderness areas to historically significant sites closer to town, artists have the opportunity to draw inspiration from a regional community dedicated to preserving place, environment, and the arts.
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