Indigenous Perspectives: The Gardner Museum

Elizabeth Solomon, Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag (she/her) Elizabeth is a Massachusett Tribal Council member and has over 30 years of experience consulting on community-led initiatives including service on advisory and management boards affiliated with the Boston Harbor Islands National Park and the Digital Archive of Native American Petitions in Massachusetts.  Elizabeth is currently the Assistant Director of Academic Affairs and Fellowship Programs at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.

Erin Genia, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate/Odawa, (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist, educator and community organizer specializing in Native American and Indigenous arts and culture. Genia’s work in these areas is focused on amplifying the powerful presence of Indigenous peoples in the arts, sciences and public realm to invoke an evolution of thought and practice that is aligned with the cycles of the natural world and the potential of humanity.

Genia’s artistic practice merges Dakota cultural imperatives, pure expression, and exploration of materiality with the conceptual. Erin is fluent in multiple modes of expression: sculpture, fibers, sound, performance, digital media, writing, painting, printmaking, jewelry and ceramics.

Her work has received attention from diverse audiences, and been exhibited nationally and internationally, at the Urbano Project in Boston, the Venice Biennale, Ars Electronica, the Museum of Northwest Art and the International Space Station.

Erin has an M.S. in Art, Culture and Technology from MIT, an M.P.A. in Tribal Governance from the Evergreen State College and studied at Institute of American Indian Arts. She was awarded the 2021 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Grant from Mass Cultural Council, the 2019 MIT Solve Indigenous Communities Fellowship and the AAF Seebacher Prize for Fine Arts in 2018.

Erin's public arts commissions include the Minnesota Historical Society, the City of Saint Paul, and the City of Seattle. Genia lives and works in the greater Boston region, is an artist-in-residence with the City of Boston, and works with the New England Foundation for the Arts Public Art Team on the project, "Centering Justice: Indigenous Artists' Perspectives on Public Art."

Mar Parrilla, Afrotaíno borikua (she/her/ella) is an award-winning choreographer and founding artistic director of Danza Orgánica. She is a proud mother, community organizer, and aspiring herbalist. After attaining a BA in Languages (Italian, French) from the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Mar crossed the ocean to Nueva York, where she completed a Master's degree in Dance Education at New York University. Now a Boston resident, Parrilla is a recipient of several awards from the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Boston Foundation, among others. She is the recipient of the Brother Thomas Fellowship Award from the Boston Foundation, and the Outstanding Community Arts Collaboration Award in Dance from the Arts/Learning Organization.

Mar is also the founder of the acclaimed program Dance for Social Justice™, as well as the founding producer of the Boston-based annual festival: We create! Parrilla is a luminary artist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where she has been commissioned to create artistic work- and has continued to partner with in several productions.

Mar Parrilla/ Danza Orgánica received a Creative Development Residency at Jacob's Pillow, where they also performed at the Inside/Out Festival. Currently they are still in collaboration through D.O. 's Dance for Social Justice™ program. In 2018, Mar was selected for the city of Boston Artist in Residence program, with a focus on environmental justice. Currently, she is collaborating with Puerto Rico-based artists on a residency-based cultural exchange towards the development of Melaza: a project that explores the colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States of North America. She is also working in close collaboration with members of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe, through a partnership between Danza Orgánica, the Aquinnah Cultural Center, and The Yard.

Mar has been a dance educator in Boston and NYC public schools, Boston University, New York State University at Stony Brook, Wesleyan University, and Roxbury Community College, to name a few. Currently, she is faculty at Emerson College.

Mar's production history includes annual company concerts since 2007, as well as the annual festival: We Create! She is also the founder and curator of the Dance Research Online Forum- a site dedicated to free and progressive dance education.