imagineNATIVE SCREENS LEONARDS' FILM IN TORONTO
Art Without Reservations,Oct 15 2009, 1:00PM, Al Green Theatre - “Everything happens for a reason.” An artist explores meaning in the death of a finback whale, the repercussions it has on her Reservation, and how this experience manifests itself in her artwork. Q & A with Directors to Follow.
COURTNEY LEONARD AND SHINNECOCK FEDERAL RECOGNITION
News Day - Article by Mark Harrington, Dec. 9, 2009--When rain falls as heavily as it did last Wednesday night, the rising waters of Shinnecock Bay creep toward Courtney Leonard's modest cabin on the south edge of the Shinnecock Indian Reservation.
But if the Shinnecocks win federal recognition -- a decision that could come any day now-- the 29-year-old artist and filmmaker says she isn't sure she'd apply for housing aid that would become available with the tribe's improved status.
Instead, she dreams of improving the collective quality of life on the reservation: She wants to open an art center where she can work and teach a next generation of artists like herself. click to read more
But if the Shinnecocks win federal recognition -- a decision that could come any day now-- the 29-year-old artist and filmmaker says she isn't sure she'd apply for housing aid that would become available with the tribe's improved status.
Instead, she dreams of improving the collective quality of life on the reservation: She wants to open an art center where she can work and teach a next generation of artists like herself. click to read more
TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE SCREENS LEONARDS' FILM - Q & A TO FOLLOW
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009, 7-9pm, TRIBECA CINEMAS - Courtney Leonard's Untitled and Sally Kewayosh's Smoke Break
Each film shares a different approach to stories told by or about Native culture. Filmmakers Courtney Leonard and Suzi Yoonessi will be in attendance to discuss their perspectives, following the screening.
Each film shares a different approach to stories told by or about Native culture. Filmmakers Courtney Leonard and Suzi Yoonessi will be in attendance to discuss their perspectives, following the screening.
COURTNEY LEONARD'S FILM DEBUTS IN NEW YORK CITY
Smithsonian's NMAI, New York City, March 2009
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian announces today that the opening night film for the 14th Native American Film and Video Festival (NAFVF) in its 30th running year, will be the world premiere of “We Shall Remain: Trail of Tears” directed by Chris Eyre (Cheyenne/Arapaho), on Thursday, Mar. 26, 2009 at 7 p.m. The screening will be introduced by Chris Eyre, executive producer Sharon Grimberg, and lead actor Wes Studi (Cherokee).
This evening’s screening will be preceded by the New York Premiere of Courtney M. Leonard’s “Untitled.” Produced as part of ReelNative, a nation-wide community outreach video training project of the We Shall Remain series, this film presents how the death of a 60-foot finback whale on the shores of the Shinnecock Reservation in Long Island inspires a young artist to preserve the memory for future generations.The festival will run from Thursday, Mar. 26 through Sunday, Mar. 29 at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, the George Gustav Heye Center.
The screening is free and open to the public, but reservations are strongly suggested. For reservations, email fvc@si.edu or call (212) 514-3737.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian announces today that the opening night film for the 14th Native American Film and Video Festival (NAFVF) in its 30th running year, will be the world premiere of “We Shall Remain: Trail of Tears” directed by Chris Eyre (Cheyenne/Arapaho), on Thursday, Mar. 26, 2009 at 7 p.m. The screening will be introduced by Chris Eyre, executive producer Sharon Grimberg, and lead actor Wes Studi (Cherokee).
This evening’s screening will be preceded by the New York Premiere of Courtney M. Leonard’s “Untitled.” Produced as part of ReelNative, a nation-wide community outreach video training project of the We Shall Remain series, this film presents how the death of a 60-foot finback whale on the shores of the Shinnecock Reservation in Long Island inspires a young artist to preserve the memory for future generations.The festival will run from Thursday, Mar. 26 through Sunday, Mar. 29 at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, the George Gustav Heye Center.
The screening is free and open to the public, but reservations are strongly suggested. For reservations, email fvc@si.edu or call (212) 514-3737.
COURTNEY LEONARD AND DUTCH CONTACT 1609
Rogers Memorial Library
Connecting Shards: Courtney Leonard
Wednesday, April 29, 7:00 p.m.
Shinnecock artist Courtney M. Leonard, working in clay, explores memory and language through the lens of her own
personal narrative as a woman from the Shinnecock Indian Nation of Long Island. Her work, which underscores the history and influence between Dutch delftware and Algonquin pottery, mixes the “old” and "new" and affirms that tradition is not stagnant and that the past
strengthens the present. Please join us for a visual presentation of her work.
Contact 1609 Coming Soon!
Staten Island Museum
June 18, 2009 - January 10, 2010
Timed to complement the international celebrations of the quadricentennial of Henry Hudson's year of entry to New York Harbor (September 11, 1609.) Courtney Leonard is one of seven contemporary artists chosen to interpret the early encounter between the Indigenous People of the Hudson River area and the Europeans.
Connecting Shards: Courtney Leonard
Wednesday, April 29, 7:00 p.m.
Shinnecock artist Courtney M. Leonard, working in clay, explores memory and language through the lens of her own
personal narrative as a woman from the Shinnecock Indian Nation of Long Island. Her work, which underscores the history and influence between Dutch delftware and Algonquin pottery, mixes the “old” and "new" and affirms that tradition is not stagnant and that the past
strengthens the present. Please join us for a visual presentation of her work.
Contact 1609 Coming Soon!
Staten Island Museum
June 18, 2009 - January 10, 2010
Timed to complement the international celebrations of the quadricentennial of Henry Hudson's year of entry to New York Harbor (September 11, 1609.) Courtney Leonard is one of seven contemporary artists chosen to interpret the early encounter between the Indigenous People of the Hudson River area and the Europeans.
COURTNEY M. LEONARD TO PRESENT AT EAST END ARTS COUNCIL
The Essence of Three East End Arts Council Presents Courtney M. Leonard August 30 at 1pm
COURTNEY LEONARD TO EXHIBIT IN EASTHAMPTON
Untold Stories & Native Voices April 1-30,2008
COURTNEY LEONARD INSTALLATION ON VIEW AT PEABODY MUSEUM
COURTNEY LEONARD RECIEVES FELLOWSHIP FROM COLLEGE ART ASSOCIATION
CAA NAMES 2007 FELLOWS
HONARABLE MENTION: COURTNEY M. LEONARD
Leonard’s current work explores memory and language through her personal narrative as a woman from the Shinnecock Indian Nation of Long Island, New York. Believing that tradition is not stagnant and that the past strengthens the present, she embodies a mixture of the “old” and “new” in her work. Scheduled for May 2008, her MFA thesis exhibition, Connecting Shards, explores the unspoken history and
influence between Dutch delftware and the Algonquin pottery of the Shinnecock. The artist fuses coats of monochromatic shades of blue, going beyond traditional delftware techniques in order to create her own visual language. If both the English and Dutch have delft, then this work opens the door to a new visual category: Shinnecock delftware.
Leonard received her teaching certificate from Brown University’s Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning. For the past two years, she has taught courses such as “Hand Building” and “Wheel Throwing” at RISD. The founder of the ceramics program at the Art Farm, a summer camp in the Hamptons on Long Island, she teaches ceramics to children during the summer months, with an emphasis on expressing a
broader care and concern for nature and animals through art.
In fall 2007, Leonard presented a lecture “Connecting Shards: A Retrospective on Eastern Algonquin Pottery” to the International Ceramics Symposium at the University College for the Creative Arts in Farnham, England. Also that fall, she presented her work on the “The Colonial Dutch Impact on Native American Art in New York” at the University of Rostock in Germany. She is the recipient of a 2007 Cultural Fellowship from the Netherland-America Foundation and hopes
to facilitate a great conversation of the cross-cultural exchange still ongoing among European and indigenous American art via her work.
HONARABLE MENTION: COURTNEY M. LEONARD
Leonard’s current work explores memory and language through her personal narrative as a woman from the Shinnecock Indian Nation of Long Island, New York. Believing that tradition is not stagnant and that the past strengthens the present, she embodies a mixture of the “old” and “new” in her work. Scheduled for May 2008, her MFA thesis exhibition, Connecting Shards, explores the unspoken history and
influence between Dutch delftware and the Algonquin pottery of the Shinnecock. The artist fuses coats of monochromatic shades of blue, going beyond traditional delftware techniques in order to create her own visual language. If both the English and Dutch have delft, then this work opens the door to a new visual category: Shinnecock delftware.
Leonard received her teaching certificate from Brown University’s Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning. For the past two years, she has taught courses such as “Hand Building” and “Wheel Throwing” at RISD. The founder of the ceramics program at the Art Farm, a summer camp in the Hamptons on Long Island, she teaches ceramics to children during the summer months, with an emphasis on expressing a
broader care and concern for nature and animals through art.
In fall 2007, Leonard presented a lecture “Connecting Shards: A Retrospective on Eastern Algonquin Pottery” to the International Ceramics Symposium at the University College for the Creative Arts in Farnham, England. Also that fall, she presented her work on the “The Colonial Dutch Impact on Native American Art in New York” at the University of Rostock in Germany. She is the recipient of a 2007 Cultural Fellowship from the Netherland-America Foundation and hopes
to facilitate a great conversation of the cross-cultural exchange still ongoing among European and indigenous American art via her work.
COURTNEY LEONARD TO BE A PART OF PBS's
We Shall Remain Project
As a part of PBS's "WE SHALL REMAIN: The Citizen Storytellers Project" I am Developing a Short Video To Be Viewed on PBS Online in the Spring of 2009.
As a part of PBS's "WE SHALL REMAIN: The Citizen Storytellers Project" I am Developing a Short Video To Be Viewed on PBS Online in the Spring of 2009.
COURTNEY LEONARD TO PRESENT AT PEQUOT MUSEUM
Gifts of The Land And Sea
Friday, April 25, 11:30 am-3 pm
Gifts of the Land & Waters Celebration
Shinnecock potter Courtney Leonard, who shares the story of her culture through her art at 1 pm.
Friday, April 25, 11:30 am-3 pm
Gifts of the Land & Waters Celebration
Shinnecock potter Courtney Leonard, who shares the story of her culture through her art at 1 pm.
COURTNEY LEONARD TO SPEAK IN GERMANY
CLASH OF CULTURES ON SOUTHAMPTON BEACH
NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE
By JULIA C. MEAD
Published: April 10, 2005
The owners of some multimillion-dollar ocean-front mansions here were not amused when a 60-foot, 50-ton finback whale carcass washed up in their backyards in the April 3 storm. They demanded that it be moved -- and quickly, before any smell could waft over the dunes.
The marine biologist responsible for determining how the whale died viewed the prospect of performing the necropsy by hand as an unpleasant but necessary obligation.
For a few days, families streamed down the beach, many with a dog in tow. They encircled the whale, hamming for photos and leaning over the yellow police tape to poke at it. Someone came in the middle of the night and hacked off part of the whale's tail, a streak of blood-soaked sand marking the escape route.
But members of the Shinnecock Nation came to pay their respects.
The Shinnecocks, whose reservation abuts the Village of Southampton, held ceremonies on Monday and Tuesday to thank the whale for visiting them, and individual tribal members stopped by over the course of several days to pray. On Wednesday, the tribe asked the National Marine Fisheries Service for permission to use some of the whale's baleen -- the strainerlike plates in its upper jaw -- its fins and what was left of its tail in a ceremony. They said they would burn some of the parts and scatter the ashes in the water as a way to commend the whale's spirit back to the ocean.
''Certain things are messages,'' said Courtney Leonard, a tribal member and an artist. ''These people taking photos? They will have a memory of this. But for the Shinnecocks, this whale is much more important spiritually.'' She said that a whale's tail had become a leitmotif in her clay sculptures.
Before and after the arrival of European settlers, the Shinnecocks were whalers. Though whales are now federally protected and hunting them is outlawed, they remain a symbol of life, sustenance and the tribe's historic connection to the ocean, Ms. Leonard said.
Though she is recovering from a dislocated hip after an automobile accident, she sat in the sand for several hours, sculpturing the finback's tail in clay. ''I lived through an accident that I shouldn't have survived,'' she said. ''So for me the message is that life is a gift.''
Ms. Leonard also said that the Shinnecocks were continually challenged to keep their history alive. Her way is to work with clay, a traditional medium. Her brother's was to become a marine biologist.
''Traditionally, this is something that we would take care of,'' she said, waving a hand toward the enormous carcass. ''This was our hunting grounds. We see this as having a purpose for coming here.''
In their two ceremonies, on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, the Shinnecocks prayed for the whale's spirit. ''That's how we have done it for centuries,'' said Charles Smith, a tribal trustee. Though hunting has been outlawed, he said tribal members still believe ''that life is being given up for us to sustain our lives and we have to pay homage to the whale's spirit for that.''
Mr. Smith said that the tribe was laying claim to the baleen, fins and tail under a 1640 treaty granting the Shinnecocks the right to any whale beached on Long Island. He said some of the parts would be used in a display in the tribal museum. Mr. Smith could not recall any other whale's washing up near the reservation in his lifetime and said many other Shinnecocks had never seen one up close. For that reason, he said, tribal leaders wanted the parts as educational tools.
''This is a unique event because this whale came so near to the reservation,'' he said, noting that it washed up about a mile west of Halsey Neck Road on the barrier beach directly across Shinnecock Bay from the tribe's 800-acre reservation.
Despite the tribe's position that it had an automatic claim, Mr. Smith said tribal leaders filed an application with the fisheries service for the permit that would allow them to take the parts of the whale they wanted.
Chuck Bowman, the marine biologist in charge of the necropsy, said he could not save the whale's tail or the fins for the Shinnecocks, even if their permit is granted. ''That's soft tissue, and it would rot,'' he said. ''Can't keep it in a museum.'' He said he was putting aside only some baleen.
After the necropsy, Mr. Bowman planned to send samples and other data he collected to the fisheries service's regional office. Mr. Bowman is the president of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, based at the Atlantis Aquarium in Riverhead. The foundation is the only organization assigned to respond to marine-mammal and turtle strandings from Montauk Point to New York Harbor.
Mr. Bowman said that strandings -- mostly seals and turtles -- occurred three or four times a year in his jurisdiction but that finding a finback was rare.
The finback whale (Balaenoptera physalus), also known as a finner, migrates as far south as Florida but is most common in the northwest Atlantic and is spotted most often off the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. Though it feeds off Long Island, it generally stays in deep water, Mr. Bowman said.
''We don't see them very often, but they're always out there,'' he said. ''It'll be interesting to find out why this one died.''
Before the necropsy, all he knew was that the whale was a mature female that died at least a week before washing up. Rough winds and 15-foot waves pushed the body high up on the beach, where it was found late on April 3 by a beach-cleaning crew, Mr. Bowman said.
What appeared to be long gouges and wide swaths of abraded skin may have been just the outer layer sloughing off, a natural result of decomposition, he said. Or they may have been signs that the whale was caught in fishing nets, that it was hit by a ship or that its body was slammed around in the rough surf.
In any case, Mr. Bowman said, the cold water had preserved the body somewhat, but warmer air temperatures and worried homeowners were forcing a swift disposal.
Downwind of the whale, the occasional breeze raised the stinging odor of rotting flesh. The town trustees, who manage the beaches, granted permission to bury the whale in the dunes just east of where it washed up, and the village hired heavy equipment, including a hydraulic excavator and a bulldozer, to move the body.
''The people here think there's some whale disposal fund to pay for this,'' Mr. Bowman said. ''I told them my job is only to find out how it died.'' Laughing, he said it didn't take long for the homeowners to persuade village officials to find somewhere else to bury the carcass.
Harald G. Steudte, a Southampton Village trustee, said he hoped that the cost of disposal, which the village is splitting with the town trustees, would not exceed $10,000. ''I don't know what whales are going for these days,'' he said. ''I'm not sure if we'll be charged by the ton or the foot.''
He said the costs would include rental of a portable toilet for the workers who helped with the necropsy and for those who controlled the crowd.
''We've had all sorts of strange things going on,'' he said. ''Low-flying planes, school buses dropping off kids, people streaming over the dunes as if it was a Fourth of July fireworks celebration.''
By JULIA C. MEAD
Published: April 10, 2005
The owners of some multimillion-dollar ocean-front mansions here were not amused when a 60-foot, 50-ton finback whale carcass washed up in their backyards in the April 3 storm. They demanded that it be moved -- and quickly, before any smell could waft over the dunes.
The marine biologist responsible for determining how the whale died viewed the prospect of performing the necropsy by hand as an unpleasant but necessary obligation.
For a few days, families streamed down the beach, many with a dog in tow. They encircled the whale, hamming for photos and leaning over the yellow police tape to poke at it. Someone came in the middle of the night and hacked off part of the whale's tail, a streak of blood-soaked sand marking the escape route.
But members of the Shinnecock Nation came to pay their respects.
The Shinnecocks, whose reservation abuts the Village of Southampton, held ceremonies on Monday and Tuesday to thank the whale for visiting them, and individual tribal members stopped by over the course of several days to pray. On Wednesday, the tribe asked the National Marine Fisheries Service for permission to use some of the whale's baleen -- the strainerlike plates in its upper jaw -- its fins and what was left of its tail in a ceremony. They said they would burn some of the parts and scatter the ashes in the water as a way to commend the whale's spirit back to the ocean.
''Certain things are messages,'' said Courtney Leonard, a tribal member and an artist. ''These people taking photos? They will have a memory of this. But for the Shinnecocks, this whale is much more important spiritually.'' She said that a whale's tail had become a leitmotif in her clay sculptures.
Before and after the arrival of European settlers, the Shinnecocks were whalers. Though whales are now federally protected and hunting them is outlawed, they remain a symbol of life, sustenance and the tribe's historic connection to the ocean, Ms. Leonard said.
Though she is recovering from a dislocated hip after an automobile accident, she sat in the sand for several hours, sculpturing the finback's tail in clay. ''I lived through an accident that I shouldn't have survived,'' she said. ''So for me the message is that life is a gift.''
Ms. Leonard also said that the Shinnecocks were continually challenged to keep their history alive. Her way is to work with clay, a traditional medium. Her brother's was to become a marine biologist.
''Traditionally, this is something that we would take care of,'' she said, waving a hand toward the enormous carcass. ''This was our hunting grounds. We see this as having a purpose for coming here.''
In their two ceremonies, on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, the Shinnecocks prayed for the whale's spirit. ''That's how we have done it for centuries,'' said Charles Smith, a tribal trustee. Though hunting has been outlawed, he said tribal members still believe ''that life is being given up for us to sustain our lives and we have to pay homage to the whale's spirit for that.''
Mr. Smith said that the tribe was laying claim to the baleen, fins and tail under a 1640 treaty granting the Shinnecocks the right to any whale beached on Long Island. He said some of the parts would be used in a display in the tribal museum. Mr. Smith could not recall any other whale's washing up near the reservation in his lifetime and said many other Shinnecocks had never seen one up close. For that reason, he said, tribal leaders wanted the parts as educational tools.
''This is a unique event because this whale came so near to the reservation,'' he said, noting that it washed up about a mile west of Halsey Neck Road on the barrier beach directly across Shinnecock Bay from the tribe's 800-acre reservation.
Despite the tribe's position that it had an automatic claim, Mr. Smith said tribal leaders filed an application with the fisheries service for the permit that would allow them to take the parts of the whale they wanted.
Chuck Bowman, the marine biologist in charge of the necropsy, said he could not save the whale's tail or the fins for the Shinnecocks, even if their permit is granted. ''That's soft tissue, and it would rot,'' he said. ''Can't keep it in a museum.'' He said he was putting aside only some baleen.
After the necropsy, Mr. Bowman planned to send samples and other data he collected to the fisheries service's regional office. Mr. Bowman is the president of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, based at the Atlantis Aquarium in Riverhead. The foundation is the only organization assigned to respond to marine-mammal and turtle strandings from Montauk Point to New York Harbor.
Mr. Bowman said that strandings -- mostly seals and turtles -- occurred three or four times a year in his jurisdiction but that finding a finback was rare.
The finback whale (Balaenoptera physalus), also known as a finner, migrates as far south as Florida but is most common in the northwest Atlantic and is spotted most often off the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. Though it feeds off Long Island, it generally stays in deep water, Mr. Bowman said.
''We don't see them very often, but they're always out there,'' he said. ''It'll be interesting to find out why this one died.''
Before the necropsy, all he knew was that the whale was a mature female that died at least a week before washing up. Rough winds and 15-foot waves pushed the body high up on the beach, where it was found late on April 3 by a beach-cleaning crew, Mr. Bowman said.
What appeared to be long gouges and wide swaths of abraded skin may have been just the outer layer sloughing off, a natural result of decomposition, he said. Or they may have been signs that the whale was caught in fishing nets, that it was hit by a ship or that its body was slammed around in the rough surf.
In any case, Mr. Bowman said, the cold water had preserved the body somewhat, but warmer air temperatures and worried homeowners were forcing a swift disposal.
Downwind of the whale, the occasional breeze raised the stinging odor of rotting flesh. The town trustees, who manage the beaches, granted permission to bury the whale in the dunes just east of where it washed up, and the village hired heavy equipment, including a hydraulic excavator and a bulldozer, to move the body.
''The people here think there's some whale disposal fund to pay for this,'' Mr. Bowman said. ''I told them my job is only to find out how it died.'' Laughing, he said it didn't take long for the homeowners to persuade village officials to find somewhere else to bury the carcass.
Harald G. Steudte, a Southampton Village trustee, said he hoped that the cost of disposal, which the village is splitting with the town trustees, would not exceed $10,000. ''I don't know what whales are going for these days,'' he said. ''I'm not sure if we'll be charged by the ton or the foot.''
He said the costs would include rental of a portable toilet for the workers who helped with the necropsy and for those who controlled the crowd.
''We've had all sorts of strange things going on,'' he said. ''Low-flying planes, school buses dropping off kids, people streaming over the dunes as if it was a Fourth of July fireworks celebration.''
CONNECTING SHARDS: A RETROSPECTIVE OF EASTERN ALGONQUIN POTTERY
2007 International Society for Ceramics
Art Education Exchange Symposium
hosted by
University College for the Creative Arts at Farnham, United Kingdom
October 19 - Lecture Announcement
Connecting Shards: A Retrospective Of Eastern Algonquin Pottery
Clay communication spans through centuries, continents, and cultures. At times the message can be lost, overlooked, or misinterpreted. Regardless of these mishaps, clay remains a constant. So who then are the Algonquin Native Americans? What aspect of their cultural landscape does clay embody? How does the medium of clay serve as a means of communication in their society? This lecture mines and examines the history of what has been defined as "Eastern Algonquin Ceramics" by archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists. The significant difference is that this current research is being carried out and given voice by an "Eastern Algonquin ceramicist". Courtney Leonard will explore how technological advancements redefine the term "tradition" as it is commonly applied to the indigenous potter. If clay comes from the earth and the earth is constantly shifting, then why not anticipate that the medium of clay - and the practice of ceramics - will continue to reinvent itself and transform?
Art Education Exchange Symposium
hosted by
University College for the Creative Arts at Farnham, United Kingdom
October 19 - Lecture Announcement
Connecting Shards: A Retrospective Of Eastern Algonquin Pottery
Clay communication spans through centuries, continents, and cultures. At times the message can be lost, overlooked, or misinterpreted. Regardless of these mishaps, clay remains a constant. So who then are the Algonquin Native Americans? What aspect of their cultural landscape does clay embody? How does the medium of clay serve as a means of communication in their society? This lecture mines and examines the history of what has been defined as "Eastern Algonquin Ceramics" by archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists. The significant difference is that this current research is being carried out and given voice by an "Eastern Algonquin ceramicist". Courtney Leonard will explore how technological advancements redefine the term "tradition" as it is commonly applied to the indigenous potter. If clay comes from the earth and the earth is constantly shifting, then why not anticipate that the medium of clay - and the practice of ceramics - will continue to reinvent itself and transform?
