BROKEN ARROW, Oklv. – Museum Broken Arrow is hosting a pop-up shop this summer. Opening in May and running through July, INDIGICHIC opened in the Barbara Brown Kimbrough Gallery at the museum. The pop-up shop is the business arm of the Native Fashion Arts Collective, a group of more than 30 Indigenous designers and artists specializing in wearable art.
Items in the shop blend traditional Indigenous designs and motifs with modern re-workings and have been described as “post-traditional indigenous style”. Items at the shop range from high-end clothing pieces, to jewelry, and t-shirts. There is something for every budget at INDIGICHIC. Native Fashion Arts Collective co-founder Veronica Pipestem (Otoe-Missouria/Osage) related that there are pieces from five to $15, with a lot of the items between the $40 to $80 price range and a few more expensive.
Each month the shop has a featured artist. Randi Narcomy-Watson (Seminole/Mvskoke) is the featured artist for June. Watson specializes in textile art and uses patchwork and quiltwork within her designs. Watson incorporates traditional designs and re-thinks size and scale. Explaining her work, she stated, “I went to school and I have a master’s in fine arts, and so I try to blend a little bit of the fine art and cultural arts together, like a smash up. I always feel like I kind of modernize it a little bit. I like to blow things up and make them bigger.” Watson’s jackets on sale at the pop-up are an example of this aesthetic with their large strips of interlocking patchwork.
Wendy Ponca (Osage) was featured in May. Skilled at beadwork and ribbon work, Ponca creates silk-screened lengths of cloth, painted canvas, and embellished leather for her designs.
The pop-up at Museum Broken Arrow is the second time INDIGICHIC has had a retail space. This past holiday season the collective was hosted at Southwest Trading Company on 11th and Peoria in Tulsa. Betty Gerber (Mvskoke), current Director of the Museum Broken Arrow, knew right away she wanted to host INDIGICHIC. Gerber shared, “I was just thrilled to have this pop-up shop. When I visited their pop-up shop in Tulsa over the holidays, I thought, ‘this is phenomenal.’ The quality of the design and the merchandise blew me away.”
According to Pipestem, the holiday shop gave the collective a chance to see how much space they can utilize and an idea for what a retail space might look like for them. Thinking they would only take up a third of the gallery space, the shop has actually filled the over 900 square foot space as well as a portion of the museum’s gift shop.
Other artists featured in the INDIGICHIC pop-up include Hillary Ashmore (Navajo), Jaylee Lowe (Seminole/Mvskoke), Hud Oberly, (Osage/Caddo/Comanche), Mary Hammer (Cheyenne & Arapaho/Latina/Osage), Kenneth Johnson (Mvskoke/Seminole), Kristin Gentry (Choctaw) and Leslie Deer (Mvskoke). INDIGICHIC special edition coffee by Osage-owned Ekowah Coffee is also available.
Museum Broken Arrow is located at 400 S Main Street in Broken Arrow and is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Thursday from 4 p.m. – 8 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
For more information and to view a list of artists and designers, visit INDIGICHIC.
Meredith and Jerrad , thank you for the beautiful story and video. What you do helps our people and our image, and it matters. Plus, you do it so well!
Mvto!