Presented by The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust in collaboration with the Carnegie Mellon School of Art MFA Program

Renowned contemporary artist Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne and Arapaho b. 1954 Wichita, Kansas) recently contributed to The National Museum, an evolving large-scale public art project by Professor Jon Rubin commissioned and presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust at 604 Wood Street in downtown Pittsburgh’s Cultural District. The National Museum transforms an empty storefront into a dynamic space for artists to reimagine which national stories, histories and futures are deemed worth saving and which are ignored or forgotten? The project is curated by Jon Rubin with an advisory board including Anastasia James, Director of Galleries & Public Art at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust; Joseph del Pesco, International Director of KADIST; and Sean Beauford, a Pittsburgh-based curator, educator, and writer. Additionally, each new iteration features a written response by a prominent national writer, published in a broadside edited by Professor Sharmistha Ray.

In response to Heap of Birds’ work on view March – June 2024, Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne & Hodulgee Muscogee b. 1945 Oklahoma) wrote a response in the form of poem titled “Broken Treaties.” During the Three Rivers Arts Festival, and over the course of the four months, students from City Charter High School performed Harjo’s poem while standing outside The National Museum.

About Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds  

Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds is a multidisciplinary artist whose work includes public art, large-scale drawings, acrylic paintings, prints, glasswork, and monumental outdoor sculptures. He was named a USA Ford Fellow in 2012 and recognized as a Distinguished Alumni by the University of Kansas in 2014. Heap of Birds studied at the University of Kansas (BFA, 1976), the Royal College of Art in London, and earned an MFA from Tyler School of Art in 1979. He holds honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and the California Institute of the Arts.

His work has been exhibited internationally at prestigious venues such as The Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, the Venice Biennale, and The National Gallery of Canada, among others. His art is included in collections at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center, the Denver Art Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution, among others. Heap of Birds has served as a visiting lecturer around the world and has taught at Yale University and the University of Oklahoma, where he is now Professor Emeritus in Native American Studies. His teaching and art practice focus on contemporary Native American art and issues of social justice.

Notable awards for his work include grants from The National Endowment for the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. In 2005, he completed Wheel, a fifty-foot outdoor sculpture commissioned by The Denver Art Museum, inspired by the traditional Medicine Wheel of the Big Horn Mountains. Heap of Birds represented the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007 with his project Most Serene Republics, a memorial to Sioux warriors and children. His work continues to advocate for indigenous communities worldwide, and he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020.