On April 19, I traveled to East Glacier Park school. A gorgeous school on the east side of Glacier National Park, it has an enrollment of kindergarten through 8th grade. John Pepion, whose piece "Native Superman" is a part of our 2016-17 exhibit, came from Browning to present to the students and help with the art lesson. We learned about his notion of Native Graphic Art, a modern take on the traditional ledger drawings. He insisted that ledger art can be "whatever you want it to be, you can draw whatever you want to draw." Ledger drawings can be a hope for the future or a drawing of your past. This, he said, is part of the modern period of ledger art.
For the last few months I have been using John's work as the inspiration for a ledger art project. One early group at this school had the opportunity to be taught by John himself. He encouraged the kids to draw "anything you want," when they did their own versions of ledger art.
All in all, it was a successful day at East Glacier Park School. Thanks to John Pepion for the support!