Open Studio: Explore Memory Map with Rachel Martin

Floor 3, Theater

For families with kids of all ages

Join artist Rachel Martin to make art inspired by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. Born in 1940 and a citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, Smith knew she wanted to be an artist since she was a kid. The title of her exhibition at the Whitney, Memory Map, takes inspiration from Smith’s deep connection to the land and the importance of storytelling to her art and communities. 

When Smith was a child, her grandmothers and aunts told her stories of the Salish people. The Coyote is an important figure in these stories, who helped prepare the Earth for humans to live here. Coyote also taught the Salish about the vital relationship between the land and all living creatures.

Coyote stories remind people to be responsible and respectful, but Coyote is also a trickster whose teachings reflect the chaos of life. Coyote is good and bad, kind and mean, clever and foolish, just like humans. 

Join artist Rachel Martin to make works of art exploring the opposing traits and emotions we all have within us, just like Coyote. Taking inspiration from the natural world, we will create double-sided artworks that examine and celebrate how we can be both happy and sad, shy and friendly, curious and bored.

Rachel Martin, enrolled Tlingít, is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in Queens, New York. Her work explores tribal identity, intersectional feminism, and Indigenous sovereignty. Martin tells her ancestors’ stories from a multidimensional perspective. She is inspired by the overlay of English and Tlingíit concepts of family, home, and humor, often merging traditional Northwest Coast iconography with fish, animals, and modern matriarchal figures. Her playful works reflect on the present while honoring the oral history of her people passed down from generation to generation.