CHEROKEE, NC – ᏗᏓᏂᏏᏍᎩ ᎦᏓᏆᏟ Didanisisgi Gadagwatli: A Showcase of Pottery from the Mud Dauber Community Workshop opens at the Museum of the Cherokee People on Thursday, May 29. On view through May 2026, the exhibition features works by students of Tara McCoy (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) handcrafted during an intensive three-month workshop.
Renowned for her pottery, McCoy began making crafts at 12 years old. She honed her skills while taking arts and crafts classes with Alyne Stamper (EBCI) and has won numerous awards at the Cherokee Fall Festival and at Southwestern Association of Indian Arts (SWAIA) Santa Fe Indian Market. Today, she shares her knowledge with others. Designed to increase and uplift pottery making among members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, McCoy’s Didanisisgi Gadagwatli Mud Dauber Community Workshop uses a hands-on approach, empowering first-time potters to bring their own personal style to ancestral techniques and methods.
“The Didanisisgi Gadagwatli pottery workshop is an example of how museums can support and uplift great work already happening in the community,” says MotCP Director of Education Dakota Brown (EBCI). “Tara’s dedication to gadugi (community working together for the common good) and intensive approach to teaching has been hugely successful and is a powerful example of reconnections and resurgence. Connection and practice to our material culture is a continuation of our shared Cherokee identity and perpetuates Cherokee pride.”
The artists exhibited include Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle (EBCI), Barbara Jones (EBCI), Paula Wojtkowski (EBCI), Marisa “Sis” Cabe (EBCI), Lisa Howell (EBCI, Pawnee Nation) Malia Crowe Skulski (EBCI), Samantha Cole-Daniels (EBCI), Elvia Walkingstick (EBCI), Maggie Jackson (EBCI), Michelle Lynn Long (EBCI, Mvskoke Creek Nation), and Tara McCoy (EBCI).
MotCP will host an opening reception for ᏗᏓᏂᏏᏍᎩ ᎦᏓᏆᏟ Didanisisgi Gadagwatli: A Showcase of Pottery from the Mud Dauber Community Workshop on May 29 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. An art market, held on the Museum lawn from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., welcomes community members and visitors to shop for ceramic art from current and former Didanisisgi Gadagwatli students and other participating vendors. Both events are free with Museum admission. Admission is always free for enrolled members of federally-recognized Tribes and Museum members.
- Museum of the Cherokee People release
