My name is Lara Evans. I have a Ph.D. in art history (specializing in contemporary Native American art), and I am an enrolled member of Cherokee Nation. I was tenured faculty in art history and studio art at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, when I began this blog site. Note: TESC calls it “conversion,” not tenure. I became Visiting Faculty at The Institute for American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM in 2012 and then later resigned from TESC to stay at IAIA. Both are fabulous institutions, by the way. In my time at IAIA so far, I’ve taken a nice turn as department chair, published a few things, curated a couple exhibitions at IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Art, helped secure some miraculous funding for an Artist-in-Residence program on the campus, and have been doing the paperwork it takes to make such complicated things keep running, plus took on the role of Associate Dean of Academics in August of 2017.
I write about contemporary Native American and First Nations art. I started this blog because not everything I think about/write about finds a publisher right away, and because contemporary artists need critical attention NOW, and the timeline for academic publishing takes years. Writing on the blog always has to be prioritized at a lower priority than my actual day job, and I often have to pause on blog writing for that reason. So there is a big gap in time between some of the posts. And since I head up an artist-in-residence program, I don’t want any of the artists to think they aren’t my absolutely favorite artist – I feel like I shouldn’t write about any of them unless I can write about all of them! There’s got to be a better solution than that, right? But some of the IAIA Art History students have written about artists at the IAIA A-i-R Journal !
I came to art history and art criticism by being an artist, first. I continue my own artistic practice because making “things” helps me think through my ideas. I don’t exhibit very often because writing is my first priority.
Ethical Considerations: I don’t make any money from the blog. Unless I am writing about a specific exhibition, I prefer to link directly to artists’ websites instead of gallery websites.
Lara Evans, recording ambient sounds for a project by artist Basia Irland
Not Artomatic 
I’m enjoying your blog, and thought you might be interested in the current show at the UBC Museum of Anthropology that I curated, “Border Zones: New Art across Cultures.” It closes September 12th, but the website continues to be built and its exploration of ideas about contemporary art and cultural as well as institutional boundaries will remain accessible: http://www.borderzones.ca.
Hi Karen, I wanted to see Border Zones, but ran out of time on my last visit. I hope I get to come up to Vancouver again this summer. I’ll try to contact you before my next trip up there. Thanks for commenting on the blog!
Hi Lara. I just came across your blog. Looking forward to browsing your site. I have a Master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma In Native American Art/Southwest Art. I now live in the Osoyoos area of the south Okanagan, BC. I’ve been an artist for 40 years and an art educator for 18.
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Hi Lara, I found your blog after I searched for Schechner’s model on Performance Theory. I enjoyed reading your critique and modification of his model, as well as some of your other blogs. I am also from Bakersfield, and a musician/digital media artist in the Phoenix area, where I have done some performance work and art-making with friends who are Choctaw-Yuchi and Cherokee. I know Kade Twist, and he is also from Bakersfield! I will be following your blog. 🙂 Thank you.