Notice Board

Oglala-Sicangu Lakota artist, Colleen Cutschall, is Professor Emerita from Brandon University, Brandon, Manitoba. She initially began teaching there in Native Studies in 1985 and in 1989 took on the Visual and Aboriginal Art program. By 2003 she was awarded the BFA from the province making it a full department with five majors, including Aboriginal Art.  She retired from the university in 2012 and is snow-birding in Spearfish, SD and returns to Manitoba after the snow melts. She is a dual US/Canadian citizen.

Cutschall was awarded the commission for the Spirit Warriors bronze sculpture at the Little Bighorn Battlefield in southeastern Montana, 2002, as part of the memorial recognizing the victory and participation of the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho in that battle. For the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Cutschall along with eight other Manitoba First Nations artists, produced a large scale, group , public sculpture of uniquely biographical ravens entitled Grand Entry. In addition to being an artist, Cutschall has served on the board as president of the Native American Art Studies Association and on the boards of the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba and the Winnipeg Art Gallery. She has co-curated an exhibition on the dresses of Plains, Plateau and Basin artists for the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC.

Painter, draughtsperson, installation artist, and sculptor, Colleen Cutschall challenges her modes of expression in a variety of media. Her early work in painting and installations focused on Lakota creation mythology and themes of sacred time and space. Her recent work is a series of drawings on tar paper that focus on the skies and the chemtrail patterns left daily by aerosol spraying. Her work has been exhibited extensively in both the US and Canada. She has traveled internationally for research and art practice in Guatemala, Mexico, Australia, Italy and the UK.