"Storytelling Time," a book published in 2010 about UND's collection of American Indian art, has been named among 13 outstanding books of the year by Independent Publisher Book Awards.
The Independent Publisher Book Awards, often referred to as the IPPY awards, selected "Storytelling Time: Native North American Art from the Collections at the University of North Dakota" to receive a gold medal at a gala May 23 in New York City.
The book was authored by UND faculty members Arthur Jones, professor and chair of the UND department of art and design, and Lucy Ganje, professor in the UND department of art and design, along with Native American artist and UND alum Nelda Schrupp.
The IPPY award competition is open to books in English for the North American market. About 2,000 university presses, museums, and other smaller publishers from the U.S., Canada and other English-speaking countries participate.
In announcing the awards, Independent Publishers said its judges found the gold medal books "the most heartfelt, unique, outspoken and experimental among 4,000 entries."
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"Storytelling Time" was published in May 2011 by Hudson Hills Press of Manchester, Vt. Leigh Jeanotte, director of the UND American Indian Student Services and the American Indian Center, wrote the book's introduction. The book features poetry by American Indian poet Denise Lajimodiere. Several UND students, faculty, and staff helped with research for the book and with its production.
Storytelling Times examines how the University's collection of Native American art is understood and appreciated within its campus setting.
"As art collections are best understood within the context of historical trends of collecting," Jones said, "the book's authors consider significant changes that have affected the philosophy behind how and why collections of American Indian art should be cared for, researched, and displayed."
The book explores the development of the UND collections and current attempts to reconsider such works in relation to contemporary American Indian interests and concerns.
Objects made by native artists are examined in ways that allow concepts embodied within them to reinforce a sense of greater cultural understanding, according to Jones and Ganje. Special efforts were taken to respectfully document ceremonial objects in an attempt to be responsive to their content, form, and function, a news release said.
The book is lavishly illustrated with historical and contemporary American Indian artwork and the publication's design and layout are culturally driven, using a numerical scheme based on sacred geometry that has special significance within many Native cultures.
The book Includes 175 color plates illustrating clothing, headdresses, ceremonial objects, and other artifacts -- many never before published -- of the tribes that live in North Dakota and South Dakota and from other regions of the U.S.
A highlight of the publication is the original manuscript recounting of the Battle of the Little Bighorn written by a warrior who fought there, Joseph White Bull, nephew of Chief Sitting Bull.
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Many objects presented in the book were things their owners did not consider objects of art, but instead viewed as symbols of status, identity, or ceremony, a news release said. The essays that accompany this collection examine the history of each piece and engage in the discussion of the traditions and the future of Native American art.
