Native Arts Over The Years

In 1950, pioneer educators originated the Native American Arts Program at Idyllwild Arts (formerly known as ISOMATA). These Native American artists – Ataloa, Te-Ata, Ambrose & Garnet Roanhorse, Martin Tsiosdia and his wife, Ira Jean Snow and Ann Bolin – were brought together, possibly for the first time in American education, where they discussed the history, social organization, religion, philosophy and arts of Native American cultures. Unknown to them at the time, Idyllwild Arts would become a primary venue for Native American artists, historians and ethnologists to gather that summer and every summer since.

Bob Krone, son of founders Max & Bee Krone recalls, “it was the summer of 1949. Dad (Max Krone) and Bee had met Ataloa, a member of the Chickasaw Nation of American Indians. Ataloa was nationally known as an educator in Indian arts.” The three of them set off on a trip to the Navajo & Hopi Reservations, and to Gallup, New Mexico for a pow-wow. It was there they met the artists who would become the first Native American Arts faculty. Ataloa invited them to Idyllwild for the following summer. With Max and Bee, she started to work out the details for events and classes. It culminated, in the summer of 1950, as a four-week workshop focusing on American Folk culture; a large part of that being Native American. Other courses taught that summer included painting and drawing, photography, sculpture, stagecraft, ceramics, music and square dancing.

In the early days, when there were no funds to pay the faculty and only the cost of their expenses with room and board could be covered, the program continued. Ataloa remained on the faculty until 1963, bringing her love of music and song to the program. When she passed in 1967, a carved wooden bench in a grove of sequoias near Birchard Classroom was marked with a bronze plaque in her honor. Recently, the area was re-conceived in 2011 by longtime artists and faculty members Steve Hudson and David Reid-Marr with the installation of stone Cairns and a meandering path that leads to a view of Tahquitz Peak. The bronze plaque, to this day, remains in honor of Ataloa who created and stewarded the Native American Arts program for fourteen summers.

In 1974, another major step was made in the Native American Arts program. Dr. Herbert Zipper applied and received a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts and Humanities to bring the world famous San Ildefonso potter Maria Martinez to Idyllwild Arts. For these special month-long ceramics workshops Maria conducted them with son, Adam, and daughter-in-law, Santana. They were the first structured classes that Maria and her family had ever taught. In a 1974 interview with The Press-Enterprise, Susan Peterson, then head of the ISOMATA ceramics program, remarked that it was “more of a communal community thing with the shy Tewa Indians giving well-rehearsed demonstrations. They were reluctant to teach classes because of their shyness…but they couldn’t have been nicer.”

With this rejuvenation, the program continued over the next 15-20 years under the leadership of ceramist Susan Peterson and Tom Fresh. In 1976, the program attracted Fred Kabotie; his son Michael later became an integral part of the program until his passing in 2010. In the 1980s, potters Lucy Lewis, Blue Corn and Juan Quezada joined the faculty among others. 

Heather Companiott, Director of Adult Programs, currently directs the program. She oversaw the next major step in the program when, in 2001, a donor chose to fund the Native American Arts Festival. This gift made it possible to expand lectures and performances into a weeklong series. The Native American Arts Festival has evolved into a broader vision of Native American creativity, which, as Heather describes, “ranges from traditional to contemporary forms of expression and some non-traditional expression”.

The program, says Companiott, “has had an impact on Native American Arts beyond what happens here. It gathers together scholars, students and artists from different regions who are able to build relationships and exchange ideas.” Heather demonstrated how this has occurred through conversations the late Michael Kabotie had with archeologist Steve Lekson. At Idyllwild Arts they were able to compare Hopi migration stories and ethnographic documentation and see their interconnectedness; a richer story was told, when combined. This sort of conversation can only be fostered when the traditional and academic worlds are allowed to collaborate as they do during the Native American Arts Festival.

The Native American Arts program at Idyllwild Arts has also been instrumental in helping revive traditional art forms. The resurrection of Cahuilla basketry by Rosalie Valencia and Donna Largo is one example of how two artists have taught many other Cahuillas the tradition of Cahuilla basket weaving. The current teacher of the workshop, Rose Ann Hamilton, learned the technique of basket weaving as a student in the Cahuilla Basket Weaving Workshop here.

It is such an important program that the Southern California Basket Weavers Association has provided scholarships to Native American students to attend. This year’s Native American Arts Festival will focus on collaboration. It will include an invitational exhibit where Native American artists were asked to collaborate with someone inside or outside of their own community. This program will help illustrate how new relationships are created here at Idyllwild Arts. Also, the three Michael Kabotie Series Lectures will focus on a wide range of “collaborations” in Native America, including one lecture by a medical doctor who works with traditional practitioners on the reservation to make her practice more successful with Native patients.

Showcased at the Festival will be the choreography of former New York City Ballet principal, Jock Soto (Navajo/Puerto Rican). Through a grant by the Arts Enterprise Laboratory, Mr. Soto visited the Idyllwild Arts campus during the Academic year where he spent a week in master classes with Academy Dance students. At the same time, he choreographed a piece for faculty members Ellen Rosa Taylor and Jonathan Sharp to perform at the Native American Arts Festival.

Idyllwild Arts is dedicated to staying on the cutting edge of the discussion for Native American artists and to providing a venue that facilitates that discussion. It’s a rare opportunity for students to be immersed and have access to Native American faculty of this caliber and talent.