Submitted Photo Kaycee Colburn at Welcome Picnic: Kaycee Colburn shares the history behind her art at the Welcome Back Picnic held recently on the SUNY JCC Jamestown campus.

Creatives Rebuild New York recently placed two Native American artists in residence for two years on the Jamestown Community College campus.

The Jamestown project is funded by the Tides Center, and aims to highlight indigenous culture and social issues. The more than $400,000 award funds salaries and benefits for JCC artists Charity Jones and Kaycee Colburn, and general support for the college. Colburn and Jones earned placements through a two-stage, peer-reviewed process of more than 2,700 applicants that was ultimately whittled to 300 participants and 98 collaborations.

“I’m very excited to be part of this grant,” Jones said. “I moved home in January, after being gone 10 to 12 years. I came home to our own personal resistance and I’d like to use this platform to bring light to these types of issues. “

The program is designed to support employment opportunities for artists, and funds collaborations between community-based organizations, municipalities, and tribal governments across New York state. CRNY has awarded a total of $49.9 million in funding to support artists’ salaries and benefits, with an additional $11.7 million provided to the organizations holding employment.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this,” Colburn mused. “They’ve been a fantastic group of people to work with – both JCC and CRNY.”

Jones spoke of the diversity of talent and experiences within Native American culture. The life stories of the two JCC artists are representative of her point. Both are Haudenosaunee artists. Colburn is Onondowa’ga:’ (Seneca), and Jones is Gayogoho:no (Cayuga). Jones was born in Gowanda, and earned undergraduate degrees in Piano Pedagogy and Voice from the State University at Fredonia. She continued and earned a master’s degree in Opera from the University of Utah. She has studied and worked as a collaborative pianist and vocal coach at the University of Utah, and has experience in social work and racial justice. Jones specifically credited her work as part of a racial justice task force while working at the YWCA with helping her understand her experiences with racism as a Native American woman.

“Until you’re given the language and support to untangle what is going on, you don’t fully understand your experience,” Jones said.

Colburn was born and raised in Jamestown. In addition to her art, she is a published author, with interests ranging from animal welfare to the paranormal. A contemporary piece of Colburn’s creation, a Ghostbusters-themed beadwork set, is on display at ART247 in Lockport. She enjoys creating, and uses a variety of media including digital art, beadwork, and traditional Native American arts. Her painting, “The Crying Woman” is created entirely from lipstick, and is on display at the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum in Salamanca. The piece was created to honor Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

“One of the drives for me to embrace my culture and really get into everything is because we have a constant battle of people not even knowing our true history,” Colburn shared. “My last straw was when my sister, who was in 10th grade, came to me and asked ‘what do I tell them when they say I don’t exist?’ She was referring to a boy who, in front of teachers who did not correct him, told her that she couldn’t be Native American because we do not exist.”

The invisibility of a culture struggling to survive in the midst of a modern American society also fuels Jones. She returned home after more than a decade to what she described as a war zone.

“Our Gayogoho:no people are being oppressed right now in Seneca Falls, north of Ithaca,” Jones explained. “There are people camped out in front of their homes that don’t feel safe on territory. We’re still fighting for our homes. We’re still fighting for safety and things like electricity and running water.”

According to Jones, a way to help bridge the gap between societies is to acknowledge the plight of indigenous people, and the wisdom available within diverse cultures of First Nations Peoples.

“I’m hoping we can raise awareness about those aspects as well as share how beautiful our culture is, and that there’s so much healing in it,” Jones said. “Community and culture, they are all interwoven, and there’s so much healing in what we do. We’re alive, we made it – we’re survivors of genocide. What I loved about this grant is that it didn’t just highlight someone’s credentials. They value culture, they value that you know your songs, can say a prayer, or give a ceremony. I’ve never seen people from the white world value us this way.”

Madison Lavallee, instructor, art and gallery outreach coordinator for JCC, learned of the opportunity and is the coordinator of the grant for the college.

“I am so proud to be a small part of this important project,” Lavallee shared. “We are incredibly lucky to have Charity and Kaycee on campus, and in our western New York creative community. My students, and our communities-at-large, will greatly benefit from their residency.”

CRNY views artists as storytellers who inspire others by illuminating shared human experiences. According to their website, arts and culture contribute $120 billion to New York state’s economy, and are a main drive of the state’s $177 billion tourism industry. Over the course of 2020, New York lost 50 percent of its performing arts jobs.

“If we are to truly rebuild our amazing state, we must celebrate artists’ contributions not only to the economy but to what makes us human,” says Sarah Calderon, Creatives Rebuild New York’s Executive Director. “The incredible work being funded through CRNY’s Artist Employment Program underscores the importance of direct support for both individual artists and the organizations that hold their employment.”

The group’s intention to move beyond solely valuing art, and instead bring attention to the humanity of each artist has not been lost on its benefactors.

“I feel like people want to hear what we have to say now and I can’t believe it!” Jones continued, “The way Creatives Rebuild New York has done it is incredibly empowering and very sensitive, and I have nothing but gratitude.”

For more information about Creatives Rebuild New York’s Artist Employment Program, visit creativesrebuildny.org.