Summer art camp nurtures Native student creativity in South Dakota

Twenty high school students attended the Oscar Howe Summer Art Institute at the University of South Dakota this June, according to Arts Midwest. The program, now in its 35th year, gave 10th, 11th and 12th graders the chance to live on campus while learning from professional Native artists through classes, open studio time and late-night sessions.

Bdewakantunwan Dakota artist Tylar Larsen of Cansa’yapi, who joined first as a student and later as a counselor, said the experience shaped his path through undergraduate and master’s studies. “I had never stepped foot on a college campus before this,” he was quoted as saying. Visiting instructor Keith BraveHeart, a citizen of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, said the institute builds on Howe’s legacy of challenging stereotypes in Native art. “It becomes contagious. You all fall into this creative bliss,” BraveHeart said.