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In 1968, Wapp and a colleague at IAIA, ceramicist [[Otellie Loloma]] coordinated a dance exhibition for their IAIA students, which they performed at the [[White House]] and then at the [[1968 Summer Olympics]] in [[Mexico City]].{{sfn|''Native American Times''|2009}}{{sfn|Montiel|2015}} Two years later, the school organized a Fashion Club, which began participating in fashion shows throughout the United States. Students quickly realized that by participating in Wapp's classes, they would be able to create their own designs and travel.{{sfn|Metcalfe|2010|pp=142-143, 147}} In 1972 alone, she took students to shows in [[Houston, Texas]], the Indian Fashion Show at the [[Denver Art Museum]], to [[New York City]],{{sfn|Metcalfe|2010|pp=147-148}} and exhibited original clothing designs at the historic [[La Fonda on the Plaza]]. The following year, she retired from teaching to focus on her own artwork.{{sfn|''Native American Times''|2009}}
In 1968, Wapp and a colleague at IAIA, ceramicist [[Otellie Loloma]] coordinated a dance exhibition for their IAIA students, which they performed at the [[White House]] and then at the [[1968 Summer Olympics]] in [[Mexico City]].{{sfn|''Native American Times''|2009}}{{sfn|Montiel|2015}} Two years later, the school organized a Fashion Club, which began participating in fashion shows throughout the United States. Students quickly realized that by participating in Wapp's classes, they would be able to create their own designs and travel.{{sfn|Metcalfe|2010|pp=142-143, 147}} In 1972 alone, she took students to shows in [[Houston, Texas]], the Indian Fashion Show at the [[Denver Art Museum]], to [[New York City]],{{sfn|Metcalfe|2010|pp=147-148}} and exhibited original clothing designs at the historic [[La Fonda on the Plaza]]. The following year, she retired from teaching to focus on her own artwork.{{sfn|''Native American Times''|2009}}


After retirement, Wapp participated in demonstrations of hand weaving techniques and widely spoke on traditional arts.{{sfn|''The Lawton Constitution''|1977|p=35}} She served on the committee which worked to found the [[Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center]] in Lawton and her works were among those displayed at the inaugural opening in 2007. She served on the Museum board for several years{{sfn|''The Lawton Constitution''|2014}} and in 2009 was the featured artist at an event which showcased her works for her 97th birthday.{{sfn|KSWO-TV|2009}} Wapp's works were among those featured at the inaugural opening of [[National Museum of the American Indian|The National Museum of the American Indian]]'s Manhattan Branch in 1994, to help raise funds for the 2001 projected opening of the Museum of the American Indian at the [[National Mall]] in Washington, D. C.{{sfn|''Art in America''|1994|p=35}} In 2009, her works were exhibited at the [[Oklahoma State Capitol]] in 2009 in a solo exhibition titled ''The Artistic Legacy of Josephine Myers-Wapp: The Weaving of Stories and Tradition''.{{sfn|''The Oklahoman''|2009}} In 2013, she was the recipient of the Povi’ka Award of the [[Santa Fe Indian Market]] in recognition of her leadership and support to Native American artists and communities.{{sfn|Lockridge|2013}}
After retirement, Wapp participated in demonstrations of hand weaving techniques and widely spoke on traditional arts.{{sfn|''The Lawton Constitution''|1977|p=35}} She served on the committee which worked to found the [[Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center]] in Lawton and her works were among those displayed at the inaugural opening in 2007. She served on the Museum board for several years{{sfn|''The Lawton Constitution''|2014}} and in 2009 was the featured artist at an event which showcased her works for her 97th birthday.{{sfn|KSWO-TV|2009}} Wapp's works were among those featured at the inaugural opening of [[National Museum of the American Indian|The National Museum of the American Indian]]'s Manhattan Branch in 1994, to help raise funds for the 2001 projected opening of the Museum of the American Indian at the [[National Mall]] in Washington, D. C.{{sfn|''Art in America''|1994|p=35}} In 2009, her works were exhibited at the [[Oklahoma State Capitol]] in a solo exhibition titled ''The Artistic Legacy of Josephine Myers-Wapp: The Weaving of Stories and Tradition''.{{sfn|''The Oklahoman''|2009}} In 2013, she was the recipient of the Povi’ka Award of the [[Santa Fe Indian Market]] in recognition of her leadership and support to Native American artists and communities.{{sfn|Lockridge|2013}}


==Death and legacy==
==Death and legacy==

Revision as of 00:27, 15 August 2017

Josephine Myers-Wapp
circa 1930, probably made while a student as Haskell Institute, photo by Moore Studio, Lawrence, Kansas
Born(1912-02-10)February 10, 1912
near Apache, Oklahoma
DiedOctober 24, 2014(2014-10-24) (aged 102)
Lawton, Oklahoma
NationalityAmerican
Other namesJosephine Myers, Josephine Wapp
Occupation(s)educator, weaver
Years active1934-2013
Known forfinger weaving and inaugurating Native American traditional arts at both Chilocco School and the Institute of American Indian Arts

Josephine Myers-Wapp (February 10, 1912-October 26, 2014) was a Comanche weaver and educator. After completing her education at the Haskell Institute, she attended Santa Fe Indian School, studying weaving, dancing and cultural arts. After her training, she taught arts and crafts at Chilocco Indian School before joining the faculty of the newly opened Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe. She taught weaving, design, and dance at the Institute and in 1968 was one of the coordinators for a dance exhibit at the Mexican Summer Olympic Games. In 1973, she retired from teaching to focus on her own artwork, exhibiting throughout the Americas, in Europe and in the Middle East. She has works in the permanent collections of the IAIA and has been a featured exhibitor at the Smithsonian Institution. Between 2014 and 2016, she was one of the showcased artists in a collection of Native American women artists, exhibited at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe.

Early life

Josephine Myers[Notes 1] was born on February 10, 1912 on her grandmother's allotment, near Apache, Oklahoma to Hevah (née Lena Fischer) and James H. Myers.[6] She was one of nine siblings: Mima, Randlett Cragg, Rudolph Fisher, Catherine, Josephine, Melvin, Walker, Vincent, and Alvin.[4][7][8] Myers attended St. Patrick's Indian Mission School in Anadarko and completed her high school studies at the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas[6], studying to become a secretaary. In 1933, she changed direction, going to study at Santa Fe Indian School,[9] under a program designed to train Native American instructors to teach art at the Indian Boarding Schools.[6][10] For two years, she studied both fingerweaving and loom-woven textile creation, as well as pottery making under Maria Martinez.[10]

Career

In November 1934, Myers returned to Oklahoma and founded the first arts and crafts classes at Chilocco Indian School.[10][11][12] When she began her work, only one loom had been purchased, but with help from other departments at the school, looms and spinning wheels were crafted. She taught basket weaving, beading, and simple pottery to beginners and more advanced students studied creation of rag dolls, cross-stitch, dyeing, fingerweaving, rag weaving and spinning.[11] She continued teaching art and married around 1940 with Edward Wapp,[13] giving birth to their first child, Barbara in August of that year.[14] The couple's son Ed Jr., who would become a noted Native American flautist, was born in 1943.[15] Through the years at Chilocco, she expanded the arts department and by the 1950s was heading the school's drama department,[16] which performed ceremonial dances for the White House Conference on Children and Youth in 1960.[17] Returning to school in the summers, Wapp earned her bachelor's degree in education in 1959 from Oklahoma State University.[10][18] She taught at Chilocco until 1961[19] and then moved to the Santa Fe Indian School before being selected as one of the first teachers for the newly established Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA).[9][10]

Wapp was one of the main teachers of traditional arts[20] at IAIA and her classes included beadwork, costume and fashion design, traditional art techniques, textiles, and weaving.[10] Focused on utilizing primarily natural materials, she taught not only aesthetic appreciation of Native-inspired garments and accessories, but tried to impart the tribal traditions from which the techniques had arisen.[21] Wapp also taught a course in traditional Indian dance.[18] While at IAIA, she learned the Eastern Woodlands tribal tradition of finger weaving, which was not a part of Comanche heritage.[22] Of the three basic patterns woven without a loom, Wapp became most known for the arrow point pattern, which is the most difficult.[23] She also continued her own studies earning a masters degree from the University of New Mexico.[24] She encouraged her students to take the skills they had learned in their home economics courses and utilize them in her "Traditional Techniques" course, as an expression of their tribal pride.[22]

In 1968, Wapp and a colleague at IAIA, ceramicist Otellie Loloma coordinated a dance exhibition for their IAIA students, which they performed at the White House and then at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.[10][25] Two years later, the school organized a Fashion Club, which began participating in fashion shows throughout the United States. Students quickly realized that by participating in Wapp's classes, they would be able to create their own designs and travel.[26] In 1972 alone, she took students to shows in Houston, Texas, the Indian Fashion Show at the Denver Art Museum, to New York City,[27] and exhibited original clothing designs at the historic La Fonda on the Plaza. The following year, she retired from teaching to focus on her own artwork.[10]

After retirement, Wapp participated in demonstrations of hand weaving techniques and widely spoke on traditional arts.[24] She served on the committee which worked to found the Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center in Lawton and her works were among those displayed at the inaugural opening in 2007. She served on the Museum board for several years[6] and in 2009 was the featured artist at an event which showcased her works for her 97th birthday.[28] Wapp's works were among those featured at the inaugural opening of The National Museum of the American Indian's Manhattan Branch in 1994, to help raise funds for the 2001 projected opening of the Museum of the American Indian at the National Mall in Washington, D. C.[29] In 2009, her works were exhibited at the Oklahoma State Capitol in a solo exhibition titled The Artistic Legacy of Josephine Myers-Wapp: The Weaving of Stories and Tradition.[30] In 2013, she was the recipient of the Povi’ka Award of the Santa Fe Indian Market in recognition of her leadership and support to Native American artists and communities.[23]

Death and legacy

Wapp died on October 26, 2014 in Lawton, Oklahoma and was buried at the Fairview Cemetery in Apache.[6] Between 2014 and 2016, an exhibit held honoring Native American women artists, featured works by Jeri Ah-be-hill, Margarete Bagshaw, and Wapp and were displayed at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe.[31] The IAIA Museum has pieces of her work in its permanent collection.[32] Her teaching career was widely influential.[6] Wendy Ponca, who followed Sandy Wilson in leading the Traditional Techniques courses in 1982, drew on Wapp and Wilson's legacy in her teaching designers of Native fashion into the 1990s.[33] She also won numerous awards for her contemporary clothing designs, taking the first prize from the Santa Fe Indian Market each year from 1982 to 1987.[34] Phyllis Wahahrocktah-Tasi, director of the Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center was also one of Wapp's students.[28]

Notes

  1. ^ On the Comanche census records for family #599, the daughter born in 1912 consistently is named May G. Myers, the sister immediately born before her is noted as Mollie born in 1908.[1][2][3] Federal and Oklahoma school censuses show these two daughters to be named Josephine born 1912 and Catherine born 1908 or 1910.[4][5] All other siblings' names match in both records.

References

Citations

  1. ^ U.S. Indian Census 1912, p. 586.
  2. ^ U.S. Indian Census 1914, p. 66.
  3. ^ U.S. Indian Census 1916, p. 360.
  4. ^ a b U.S. Census 1920, p. 4B.
  5. ^ Oklahoma School Census 1929, p. 407.
  6. ^ a b c d e f The Lawton Constitution 2014.
  7. ^ U.S. Indian Census 1921, p. 442.
  8. ^ U.S. Census 1930, p. 3A.
  9. ^ a b Meyn 2001, p. 66.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Native American Times 2009.
  11. ^ a b Myers 1936, pp. 23–24.
  12. ^ Meyn 2001, p. 206.
  13. ^ U.S. Census 1940, p. 1A.
  14. ^ Tributes 2012.
  15. ^ The Lawton Constitution 2016.
  16. ^ The Arkansas City Traveler 1958, p. 6.
  17. ^ The Miami Daily News-Record 1960, p. 13.
  18. ^ a b New 2016, p. 211.
  19. ^ The Arkansas City Traveler 1961, p. 12.
  20. ^ New 2016, p. 189.
  21. ^ Metcalfe 2010, p. 136.
  22. ^ a b Metcalfe 2010, p. 137.
  23. ^ a b Lockridge 2013.
  24. ^ a b The Lawton Constitution 1977, p. 35.
  25. ^ Montiel 2015.
  26. ^ Metcalfe 2010, pp. 142–143, 147.
  27. ^ Metcalfe 2010, pp. 147–148.
  28. ^ a b KSWO-TV 2009.
  29. ^ Art in America 1994, p. 35.
  30. ^ The Oklahoman 2009.
  31. ^ Jacobs 2016.
  32. ^ Lovett 1993, p. 72.
  33. ^ Metcalfe 2010, pp. 159–165.
  34. ^ Metcalfe 2010, p. 165.

Bibliography

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