2024 Indigenous Peoples' Day Celebration of Art and Science
Monday, October 14
10 am - 3 pm
Join the Wyoming State Museum for an Indigenous Peoples' Day Celebration of Art and Science on Oct 14, from 10 am - 3 pm. Honoring the rich cultures and contributions of Indigenous peoples, this event blends art and science to highlight the complex ecological knowledge held by Rocky Mountain and Great Plains’ Native communities.
Meet Colleen Friday, a Northern Arapaho artist and ecosystem scientist, as she demonstrates her nature-inspired artwork. Engage in hands-on learning about ethnobotany—the study of how people use plants—with Angelina Stancampiano from Wyoming State Parks, and create your own seed bombs to take home. You’ll also get to join a coloring workshop with artist Lauren Amanda Garrett, who focuses on increasing Native representation in fantasy art.
This event features live performances by world champion hoop dancer, Jasmine Pickner-Bell, and her family. Their performances will occur at 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, and 1:30, showcasing the history and traditions of Native American dance.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day Celebration of Art and Science is generously funded by the Wyoming Community Foundation.
Community Member Bio's
Angelina Stancampiano is the Shoshone District Interpretive Ranger for Wyoming State Parks and member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Angelina has been in the field of interpretation professionally for five years. With a degree in biology and work with protected species, she found her way into a more public-facing role as an interpretive ranger and then senior naturalist for the state of Oklahoma. She has been in Wyoming since 2021 and is a Certified Interpretive Guide, Leave No Trace Master educator, and involved with Project Learning Tree. Angelina's passions include connecting underrepresented groups with public lands, as well as providing adult programming.
Colleen Friday is a Northern Arapaho artist and ecosystem scientist from Arapahoe, Wyoming. Friday traces her first artistic influences to her mom and older sisters’ beadwork, and the intense discipline of sorting and stitching tiny beads during evening hours grouped around a table and the laughter of Native women. Friday works in many mediums, from beads to stencils, to aerosol mural painting mixing elements of contemporary art and street art with geometric Arapaho symbols and portraits of historical figures. Her studies in rangeland ecology, environment and natural resources have become interwoven in her creative work. Her most recent project focuses on beadwork as data visualization representing geography, water, and the biodiversity of plants harbored in tribal lands.
Jasmine Pickner Bell is a world champion hoop dancer and member of the Crow Creek Dakota Sioux Tribe. As a pioneer in the formerly male dominate tradition of Hoop Dancing, Jasmine conveys a message of unity and healing in her performances. She has danced in prestigious venues Austria, Switzerland, and Germany, and the US, including the Kennedy Center. Jasmine has charmed celebrities and danced with First Ladies. One of her favorite memories was meeting Muhammed Ali, who accepted her traditional gift of healing sweet grass and sage with a kiss on the cheek! He later led the audience in a standing ovation at the end of her performance.
Lauren Amanda Garrett (Eastern Shoshone) is a multidisciplinary artist. Her ongoing art project, "Native American Flower Fairies," seeks to increase Native American and Indigenous representation in fairy media and fantasy art. In addition to acrylic paintings, Lauren is developing coloring pages based on her paintings to foster the imagination of youth and the young at heart. Lauren aims to create more fairy art and eventually a coloring book. The first four of Lauren's Native American Flower Fairies paintings are currently on display at the Fort Bridger State Historic Site Museum through June 2025. You can find Lauren on Instagram @confesstress and @nativeamericanflowerfairies as well as on RedBubble at https://www.redbubble.com/people/lauren-amanda/shop.