In preparation for its Winter 2025 exhibition Woven Being: Art for Zhegagoynak/Chicagoland, The Block recently welcomed two new Terra Foundation Fellows: Marisa Cruz Branco (Isleta Pueblo) and Teagan Harris (Cherokee Nation), who will support the preparation and presentation of the exhibition. Teagan brings a background in decolonial scholarship and public programming to her role as Terra Foundation Engagement Fellow. We sat down with Teagan to learn about how she’ll apply those passions to her role at The Block.

1. What does your fellowship with The Block entail?

I’m the Engagement Fellow for the upcoming Woven Being exhibition; I’ll help ideate and support events that interact with the show. My main contribution is creating the Community Room, a dedicated Native community space within the museum!

2. Can you tell us a bit about your background and your field of study?

I’m from Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, I have a background in ecology, art history, and decolonial curatorial work as well as public programming. I’ve had the chance to work at museums across Chicago and beyond! My specialization is in indigenous decolonial scholarship and museum practice, and I’m excited to be able to bring that to the engagement events here. Besides that, I’m someone who believes we have a vibrant, amazing, creative community of Native artists in Chicagoland, and I’m glad to be able to help get people in the exhibit to see a piece of it for themselves.

3. What themes have emerged through your career in the arts?  

A major realization I had while working within museums and the arts is that the most important thing to have in mind when you visit an art space is the frame. Seeing the frame is a skill anyone can develop, and it’ll change the way you approach art and art spaces. Every space you enter, someone thought about you, the audience, and the message produced changes depending on who the people making the frame are, where it is located, and who they expect to see it. I believe diversity in the frame-making process and allowing people to perceive and conversate about the interpretation of what is being displayed and how it was produced goes a long way towards democratizing art access and keeping art relevant and exciting for more people.

4. What drew you to the Woven Being exhibition and what interests you about working within the context of a campus art museum?

I’m excited to contribute to the next step that Northwestern is taking in reconciling and collaborating with its Native community. I’m even more excited to be working with the artists on creating events and seeing the community space come alive. To be honest, the academic art museum arena is daunting for me, but I’m hopeful that being a part of the process of shaping this exhibition’s engagement work can make it less daunting for all the people who may have never attended a Block exhibition before.

5. What museum exhibitions or programs (outside The Block) have inspired you lately?

The Gagizhhibaajiwan exhibition at Center for Native Futures is an amazing exhibit. It’s curated by Lois Taylor Biggs and features the work of Marcella Ernest, Michael Belmore, Renee Wasson Dillard, and Zoey Wood-Saloman. I appreciated how the voices of the artists seeped into the exhibition. The integration of sound and voices rather than wall text made the collaboration between curator and the artists to produce meaning in the gallery crystal clear. I felt like it encouraged me to see the installations as a representation of the artists thoughts, rather than solely as an aesthetic exploration. There’s just some cool stuff going on with Native art spaces right now and I highly recommend checking them out.

6. Is there a piece in The Block’s collection that’s stuck with you or resonated in some way?

Shan Goshorn’s Cherokee Burden Basket: A Song for Balance is a piece in the collection that I would love to see in person. I love Shan’s work and she was one of the first artists that inspired me to join the art world. Seeing a representation of Cherokee women here at the Block, how her work plays with tradition and modern troubles, and, of course, the amazing skill her work always displays are what makes the basket a standout. A Song for Balance is not only a beautiful basket, but it’s a little piece of home here at the Block.

7. What are you most excited to contribute to Woven Being?

I’m really excited to be able to bring the community space into existence! I think that if it’s done right, it’ll maintain the informal fun of a community space while also bringing in very real opportunities to build lasting connections here at the museum. My position here at the museum is temporary, and many museums make a 180-degree turn after exhibitions like these, dropping the community they relied on to build the project. In order to enact lasting change to the colonial practices of museums, we need to get Indigenous people involved in a permanent capacity. I’m hopeful that a successful community room can be a space to start the conversations that lead to genuine relationship. Relationships like that are what allow for growth and accountability!