OKMULGEE – The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Native Youth Community Project (NYCP) Art Immersion Fellowship trip hopes to open doors of opportunity for 10 high school students. The fellowship consists of a two-day trip at the end of July, where students will be able to engage with artists, have a college experience, and visit exhibits and museums in Okmulgee, Stillwater, and Oklahoma City.
“As long as our people are getting involved this will be a good opportunity for them to fully immerse themselves into all the art things that are happening throughout Oklahoma and how they can use their imagination or their creativity to be a part of it,” MCN NYCP Curriculum Specialist CassandraThompson (Mvskoke) said.
The idea for the fellowship came about through the collaboration between the College of the Muscogee Nation Extension Program and NYCP for the Mvskoke Foodways contest occurring at the Muscogee Nation Festival this year.
To be eligible for the fellowship, which is already at full capacity, students must be Native American, currently enrolled in high school at Okmulgee, Graham-Dustin, or Eufaula, and have participated and placed in the Mvskoke Foodways contest this year.
The first day of the fellowship, students will meet at CMN for a college tour, have art activities with CMN instructor Danielle Fixico Mvskoke artist Joe Hopkins, speak with Program Manager at MCN Cultural Center and Archives ShaVon Agee, and meet with curator and Mvskoke artist Carly Treece. Their time at CMN will show students the variety of artistic activities the college offers. “It’s showing that aspect too that there’s other activities besides just getting your degree, there’s other things that you can participate in,” Thompson said.
Thompson wants to expose students and their parents to the cultural and career support offered at the college and in the arts.
After the CMN tour, the group will travel to Stillwater and visit Oklahoma State University’s Native American art exhibit. They will then travel to OKC and check into OKANA, where they students can swim and have dinner afterwards.
On day two, the group will go to the Oklahoma State Capitol Native Art Exhibit and have a scavenger hunt. Afterwards, they will meet with Cherokee artist Roy Boney, Jr to hear his experience with working with Marvel Comics and his storytelling art.
The group also will meet muralist and graphic designer Maddie Sanders (Mvskoke/Mojave), who is one of 10 artists chosen to work with the 2025 NBA Champions OKC Thunder basketball team. On their visit, students will be able to paint a basketball of their own.
“We are just wanting them to engage with artists and then also get some college experience. It’s exposing them to all of this and it immerses them in the full art and everything that’s around them,” Thompson said.
Students will also get a tour of the First Americans Museum while in Oklahoma City.
MCN NYCP is providing journals for the students for documentation about their experience. After the trip, Thompson will offer a workshop for the students in writing an artist biography, how to take photographs of their artwork, and how to present their work.
In December, MCN NYCP will host an art exhibit at Treece’s Four Mother’s Collective in Tulsa. This is an opportunity for students to show and market artwork.
“We want all of them to participate to lead up to this and show what it’s like to put on something like this. The art world isn’t just one kind of a job, it ain’t just drawing, it’s not just painting, there’s so many ways that you can look at it as,” Thompson said.
Throughout Thompson’s career she has had many experiences with students and citizens about art, but with this fellowship Thompson wants to show students in rural areas the many opportunities are out there.
Growing up in a small town, art wasn’t a course for Thompson herself, but she grew up loving art. “I know these people, but when I was young I didn’t get to meet people that were: one Native American, and two they were artists,” Thompson said.
The fellowship is all about exposure to opportunity and showing how art can be a career option.
“Keep the arts alive, keep the culture alive and show we’re still here. I think that the most important part is sustainability. That’s probably another part of it is continuing to educate each other in the next generation and the next generation,” Thompson said.
“I’m blessed to even have that opportunity to even get to do something like this for the people in our tribe, within our Nation.”
As of press time, the fellowship is full but for more information contact Cassandra Thompson by her phone number at 539-286-4599 or her email at cthompson@muscogeenation.com
