Forge Project convenes Indigenous leaders for wealth redistribution panel

Forge Project will host a public panel discussion on sustainable wealth redistribution as part of its year-long installation and residency at Performance Space New York’s OPEN ROOM on Feb. 26.

The conversation will be moderated by J. Kae Good Bear (Diné / Mandan / Hidatsa), Program Associate for Arts & Culture at the Mellon Foundation. Good Bear will guide a dialogue among prominent Indigenous leaders in arts, philanthropy, and museum practice: Betsy Richards (Cherokee Nation), Danyelle Means (Oglala Lakota), and Dr. Jessa Rae Growing Thunder (Fort Peck Assiniboine/Sioux).

The panel will explore tangible strategies for redistributing wealth in ways that build sustainable Native futures in art and culture. Organizers say the discussion reflects Forge Project’s broader commitment to reshaping philanthropic systems that have historically operated through extractive models and performance-driven expectations.

The panel is part of Forge Project’s broader effort to model new systems of support for Indigenous artists and cultural practitioners. By centering Indigenous leadership and redefining wealth beyond monetary terms, organizers aim to foster structural change in arts funding and philanthropic practice.

The event is open to the public as part of the OPEN ROOM residency at Performance Space New York. For more information, click here. To RSVP, click here.

Speaker rundown

Good Bear, a multidisciplinary artist and cultural worker raised on the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona, previously served as Conservation Cultural Liaison at the Field Museum in Chicago. There, she developed partnerships with more than 40 organizations and co-created a fellowship program for emerging museum professionals centered on Indigenous collections care and collaborative stewardship. She earned her degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Panelist Betsy Richards (Cherokee Nation) is Executive Director of the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine, an institution dedicated to advancing understanding and support for Wabanaki Nations’ heritage, living cultures, and homelands. Richards previously served as a Program Officer at the Ford Foundation, where she led a $30 million grantmaking initiative for Native American and place-based cultural communities and helped initiate the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. She also chairs the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation and serves as a commissioner for the Indian Arts and Crafts Board and the Maine Arts Commission.

Danyelle Means (Oglala Lakota) currently serves as Executive Director of the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture in Santa Fe. Her previous leadership roles include serving as the first Indigenous Executive Director of the Center for Contemporary Arts, where she co-curated “Self-Determined: A Contemporary Survey of Native and Indigenous Artists.” Means also held advancement leadership positions at the Institute of American Indian Arts and worked as a Project Manager at the National Museum of the American Indian.

Dr. Jessa Rae Growing Thunder, a member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine (Nakoda)/Sioux (Dakota) tribes, serves as Director of Tribal Nations Initiatives at Natives in Philanthropy. A third-generation beadwork and quillwork artist, educator, and historian, she previously worked as Indigenous Exchange Advisor at the Inter-American Foundation, where she led the development of a congressionally mandated initiative supporting sustainable relationships between Native American communities and Indigenous communities in Latin America and the Caribbean. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Native American Studies from the University of California, Davis.