2023 Curatorial Research Fellow: Margaret Jacobs

Margaret Jacobs (Akwesasne Mohawk) will develop new research into the various manifestations of kinship in contemporary Indigenous art, including familial connection, mentorship, and collaborative art practice. Aiming to challenge dominant discourses around Indigenous art and creative practices in New England, the project will encompass work by arts families in which traditional practice is taught through generations, as well as new ways of art-making taking place in urban or off-reservation spaces and in the resulting inter-tribal communities. The project will inform and build toward a 2024 exhibition at the Kimball Jenkins School of Art in Concord, New Hampshire, featuring works in a variety of media with an emphasis on rising artists.

Margaret Jacobs (Akwesasne Mohawk) is an artist, independent curator, and educator currently based in Salem, New York. She studied fine arts at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where she was awarded High Honors and the Perspectives on Design Award for her thesis work. She has participated in numerous artist residencies, including the Artist-in-Residence (A-i-R) Program at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Sante Fe, New Mexico; OÁYE Virtual Artist Rezidency Program at the Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota, and Visiting Artist Program at Franconia Sculpture Park in Shafer, Minnesota. Her curatorial work began in 2010 with the nonprofit arts organization AVA Gallery and Art Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and she has continued independently curating exhibitions since 2017, working with different organizations including the Iroquois Museum in Howes Cave, NY and UB Art Galleries at the University at Buffalo. Jacobs is a recipient of the 2018 Rebecca Blunk Fund Award through New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), a 2019 Artist in Business Leadership Award through the First Peoples Fund, a 2021 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, and a 2022 Canada Council Small Projects Grant.

This Curatorial Research Fellowship is made possible in part by a generous grant from the Leon Polk Smith Foundation, as well as support from ICI's Board of Trustees and Leadership Council.