about the project
This project, The Democracy of Earrings, began as a Thesis Project and Collaborative Internship. It is my hope that it continues and grows beyond the tenure of my Master’s program. To learn more about me, see below.
My project aspires to draw focus to Native American earrings through the creation of an ongoing online exhibit. Through the exhibit I hope to democratize curation and available information on the topic, by exhibiting public submissions of images and stories. In other words, I’d like the site to be representative of many voices, opinions, and experiences.
Earrings are a ubiquitous and highly personal art form. Earrings also provide economic opportunity to a vast number of people and communities, and represent wealth and meaning passed down through generations. In spite of this, they have been the subject of very few publications, exhibits, and academic studies.
This absence is meaningful because it points to a lack of discussion, and to an opportunity. Art is a useful tool for educating broader populations on Native American history and culture as well as for combatting ignorance and invisibility. I hope that the stories and earrings collected and shown here can stand for themselves, for the people who have contributed them, and can inspire discussion and education.
Practically speaking, the project will consist of several parts. First earrings will be made and exhibited at the annual Association of Tribal Museums Archives and Libraries (ATALM) conference in October, 2023. Those earrings will be lent to my school, the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) along with submitted stories about earrings. From those stories and earrings I, in collaboration and partnership with the Undergraduate Museum Studies Department–it’s faculty and students, will design and install an exhibition in Spring 2024.
Updates and photographs will be provided on this site.
Thank you so much to everyone who has or will contribute to the project. Every generous contribution of words, images, thoughts, feelings, or stories is accepted with gratitude and most appreciated.
about us
tillie spencer
I am a settler of Irish, English, Scottish, German, and Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. I am a full-time student in my second year at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). My Master’s in Fine Art in Cultural Administration has two focus tracks: Arts Administration/Tribal Museum & Cultural Center Administration and I am studying both.
I am originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, but now live in Los Angeles, California, with my cat Sammy. He likes earrings too, mostly because he believes they make excellent cat toys.
I have a B.A. in Art and love creating many things. My current favorite pastime is ink and wash drawings and beading.
I love music and animals and have my fingers crossed that my cat (and neighbors) won’t be too annoyed when I take up the ukulele and start singing again soon.
A little more about the creation of the project
My thesis topic of Native American earrings is very broad. Native American is not a culture, it is the pan-Indian term for a great many cultures, and I did not want to inappropriately flatten or conglomerate many cultures and people.
I would have loved to partner with one tribal community to gain and share a deeper understanding of one culture’s past and present interactions with earrings. Not having a personal relationship with any of the communities in my vicinity (the Tataviam, the Tongva, the Khiz, and the Chumash) I started to research the topic to see whether any culturally specific earring practices stood out.
What my research showed me was that there was so little written work on earrings in general, and Native American earrings in specific, that I could hardly discern what community to reach out to. So, because I already had friends at my school (IAIA) and at the Association of Tribal Museums Archives and Libraries (ATALM), these two communities became the basis for my research and my internship and this led to my current pan-Indian scope.
Jessie Ryker-Crawford
Dr. Jessie Ryker-Crawford (White Earth Anishinaabe) is a professor of Museum Studies and director of the MFA Cultural Administration program at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). She received her PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology through the University of Washington, exploring the crucial changes in the museum field through the activism of U.S. Native American and Canadian First Nation tribal leaders, artists, and museum professionals. She has presented material on her studies at various conferences including the National Congress of the American Indian, the International World Archaeological Congress, and the Association for Tribal Archives, Libraries & Museums.
She currently sits on the board of the Journal for Museums and Social Issues and continues to act as a consultant for tribal museums and cultural centers across the United States.
The institute of american indian arts (IAIA)
IAIA is a member of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, which includes tribally and federally chartered institutions working to strengthen tribal nations and make a difference in the lives of American Indians and Alaska Natives.
IAIA’s goal is empowerment through education, economic self-sufficiency, and expression and enhancement of artistic and cultural traditions.
Named one of the top art institutions by UNESCO and the International Association of Art, IAIA has taken its rightful place among the leading art institutions of the nation.
the association of tribal museums archives and libraries
ATALM is an international non-profit organization that maintains a network of support for indigenous programs, provides culturally relevant programming and services, encourages collaboration among tribal and non-tribal cultural institutions, and articulates contemporary issues related to developing and sustaining the cultural sovereignty of Native Nations.
the IAIA staff and faculty
A number of staff and faculty have contributed to the project and supported me throughout this project. Thank you to heather ahtone, Amber-Dawn Bear Robe, Mary Bordeaux, Ryan Flahive, Brian Fleetwood, Angelica Gallegos, Russel Stolins, and Dina Velarde.
my M.F.A. cohort
I couldn’t have done this without the constant support, commiseration, and help of my friends and fellow guinea pigs – the first (and second!) cohort(s) of the brand new Cultural Administration Program.
Thank you for being there, being my friends, for your feedback and love, and for our trial run!
my parents and family
I most certainly wouldn’t be here in any way without you. Thank you and I love you.