Indigenous Art Intensive UBC Okanagan

Congratulations to the 2025 Recipients of the Indigenous Art Intensive Residency!

Amber Sandy

Amber Sandy, a proud member of Neyaashiinigmiing, the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation, is an artist and passionate advocate of land-based education. Her artistry, which focuses on leather, beadwork, tufting, and fur, is deeply rooted in her culture. As a hide tanner, she meticulously transforms moose, deer, and fish skins into handcrafted leather. Her work is a harmonious blend of Indigenous and Western science, reflecting her unique approach to conservation, environmental science, and education. Amber’s fervor lies in increasing access to traditional land-based knowledge, practices, and art for Indigenous people.

Marcy Friesen

Marcy Friesen is of Swampy Cree and Welsh ancestry and currently resides on a mixed farm with her family near Carrot River, SK. She comes from a long line of traditional master beaders and talented creative family members. Friesen has always felt the need to create and started her career with a small business making utilitarian objects such as mitts, hats and mukluks. After visiting an art gallery and working with her mentor, she changed her practice to experimenting with an artisanal craftsmanship that exists outside the traditional spectrum of beauty and utility. Threading through beads, leather, and furs, Friesen draws the viewer into an intimate experience using her honed skills and intuitive sensibilities toward material, colour, and presentation. In Friesen’s practice, the natural and synthetic come together in ways that are inclusive of the contemporary condition, transforming ways of understanding and expectations of cultural production. 

Vance Wright

Vance Wright (they/them) is a reconnecting two-spirit member of the Tl’azt’en Nation, and was raised on the unceded territories of the Sinixt Nation in what is colonially known as Nelson, BC. Currently residing in the occupied and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations in Vancouver, they are an emerging artist, curator and writer. They hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University, with a major in Critical and Cultural Practices and a minor in Curatorial Studies.

A big THANK YOU to everyone, from our donors to the artists who shared our cause, who supported the Indigenous Art Intensive during UBC Giving Day! With your contributions, we raised a whopping $15,565! Your generous support ensures that our program will thrive this summer, bringing amazing Indigenous artists to Kelowna and offering students and the public unique and transformative learning experiences surrounding Indigenous art. We also want to shout out the support of the Giving Day team, the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, Adrienne Skinner, Sarah Campbell, and the Colin & Lois Pritchard Foundation.

This month-long residency gathers artists, curators, writers and scholars to engage in contemporary ideas and discourse—a place for new ideas rooted in Indigenous art-making.

On this blog site we will share the information about upcoming public events including artist talks, panel discussions, keynote presentations and exhibitions.

Find out more about the Indigenous Art Intensive HERE.

Stay up to date and register for our public events HERE.