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Center for Art Education

Connecting to Lumbee Heritage Through Art

MFACA alumna Ashley Minner uses art as a tool to engage Native American youth in a structured, out-of-school, community-based arts program.

The Open Society Institute (OSI) "Impact Series" is a series of photo essays that explore the impact of the work OSI is doing in Baltimore, particularly through grantees and fellows. Ashley Minner (GFA '05, MACA '07 and MFACA '11) is a 2008 OSI Fellow. Her project, the Native American After School Art Program (NAASAP), actually began through her work in the Master of Arts in Community Arts Program at MICA. She proposed to "use art as a tool to engage Native American youth in a structured, out-of-school, community-based arts program. The program [was to] be used to connect youth to their culture as well as educate the broader community about the Native American community." Ashley's work over the six years since her fellowship is the subject of the most recent photo essay in the OSI Impact Series, "Connecting to Lumbee Heritage Through Art."

Additionally, congratulations to Ashley who is now pursuing her PhD in American Studies, University of Maryland, College Park.