Native-led organizations and Native American artists are receiving a well-deserved increase in public attention, recognition, and support. Mainstream arts organizations and funders are at long last offering significantly more opportunities for Native arts to be seen and heard, and I’m encouraged to see some of the major foundations and the federal cultural agencies demonstrate their leadership in support of Native arts and cultures. As 2022 draws to a close, it’s the perfect moment to reflect on the state of Indigenous arts and culture and to celebrate numerous successes for Native American artists and cultural organizations.

Native theater artists are in the spotlight with the positive news that Larissa FastHorse’s satirical comedy The Thanksgiving Play, which premiered off-Broadway in 2018 and is one of the top ten produced plays around the country, will debut on Broadway in 2023 produced by the prestigious Second Stage. The production marks FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota)—who also was a MacArthur Fellow in 2020—as the first female Native American playwright on Broadway. Mohegan theater maker Madeline Sayet’s Where We Belong, produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in association with Folger Shakespeare Library and the Public Theater, toured nationally in 2022 with additional dates planned in 2023 and beyond.

All the issues referenced above are cultural and demonstrate how cultural policy work goes far beyond appropriation levels for the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities, important as those are. We are at a crossroads in America, with fierce divides in our politics and a heated national discourse. May both the accomplishments and the struggles of Native American creative workers and leaders remind us of the values of resiliency, wisdom, tenacity, stamina, patience—and how important the arts and culture are to our collective future. What an inspiration the Native American cultural community is for all of us.

Read the full article about KEYWORD by Mr. John W. Haworth at Americans for the Arts.