PENDLETON — Blue Mountain Community College is making an artful investment to raise cultural awareness of the American Indian community on campus.

The college in a press release Wednesday, June 9, announced it purchased a number of artworks that Indigenous artists created at Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts.

The Native American Club selected 14 works Nixyaawii Community School student printmakers made at Crow’s Shadow that will hang in Blue Mountain’s new Native American Club room.

BMCC grants manager Bonnie Day obtained several grants to fund projects raising cultural awareness of the Native American community on campus to “foster a more welcoming college environment,” according to Day, especially for students with diverse backgrounds.

Annie Smith, Native American Student Club advisor and Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation liaison, and Megan Van Pelt, BMCC Associated Student Body president, led the club’s selection committee, visiting and revisiting Crow’s Shadow to make the selection.

The club focused on student artworks for several reasons, the press release explained, including that some of the institute’s former printmaking students now attend Blue Mountain. That includes student Dancingstar Leighton, whose silkscreen “Dancer” was purchased by the club. Her print features an image of her mother, renowned jingle dress dancer Acosia Red Elk, a figure that will be familiar to many in the community.

The Nixyaawii student printmakers receive 100% of the proceeds from the prints they made.

Funders for this project include the Oregon Arts Commission’s Arts Builds Communities grant and the Ford Family Foundation. In addition to the artwork and framing, the college will use the grants to add supporting materials to the campus’s library and media collections, bring presenters and programs to BMCC for Native American Heritage Month and Indigenous People’s Day 2021, and develop the BMCC Native American Club.

A second, larger grant from the Oregon Department of Education’s American Indian/Alaska Native Student Success Plan helped to purchase a selection of works from professional artists who made art with Crow’s Shadow Press. BMCC will display these pieces across its main campus and its centers in Hermiston, Milton Freewater, Boardman and Baker City.

The committee selected 16 professional prints, including works by James Lavadour (Walla Walla) and Lillian Pitt (Warm Springs).

“I looked for pieces that had a connection with that place,” Smith said in the press release. “For example, in the Veteran’s Resource Center we selected art by George Flett, a Spokane tribal member who was a veteran. His artwork ‘Prairie Chicken Dancer Flashing His Power Through His Mirror’ depicts a traditional dancer which is symbolic of our warriors.”

Lori Sams, Feves Art Gallery director at BMCC, worked extensively on the placement of the art. She considered thematic locations and gathered input from the campus centers.

Two images by Shirod Younker depicting salmon and huckleberries, important First Foods, are for display at the Boardman center, which focuses on agriculture. And library staff selected Marwin Begaye’s “Evening Song,” a print depicting a colorful Western meadowlark — Oregon’s state bird — that Marwin saw during his artist residency in 2016 at Crow’s Shadow.

This project developed in part from This Good Land: Contemporary Native Artists from Oregon, a 2019 Crow’s Shadow exhibition at the Feves Art Gallery. Nika Blasser, Crow’s Shadow marketing director, curated the show that highlighted works from the institutes’ permanent collection with strong local connections.

Several groups of students from Pendleton High School visited that show, participating in an activity that asked them to describe what they saw.

“My culture in art frames,” was the response from one student, the press release stated. “I see baskets I use to gather roots and berries. I see salmon in a jar that reminds me of my mom. I see a coyote that reminds me of the stories I was told when I was little.”

Sams reiterated this exemplified the overarching goal of the project.

“Making connections between people and art, making it accessible, relatable,” she said. “This is such an important part of what we all do.”

The artworks are being framed and will be permanently installed on the campus with placards over the summer.