CULLOWHEE, N.C. – Western Carolina University’s Bardo Arts Center (BAC) will host a public reception on Tuesday, Oct. 21, from 4 to 6 p.m. in its Star Atrium, recognizing the collaborators and contributors of the Cherokee Language and Culture Exhibition, a project supported in part by the Cherokee Preservation Foundation. This new permanent interpretive exhibition to be installed throughout the lobby and Star Atrium of Bardo Arts Center prompts visitors to learn more about the Cherokee-inspired design elements throughout the building, recognize this campus as a Cherokee place, and leave with a fuller understanding of the vibrant, living culture of Cherokee people. A collaboration between Western Carolina University and the citizens of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), this bilingual exhibition featuring text in the Cherokee syllabary and English highlights the vitality of the Cherokee language and the creativity of artists and knowledge keepers shaping its future.
The Bardo Arts Center opened in 2005 with bilingual signage in Cherokee syllabary and English throughout the building. The building’s original Cherokee syllabary, translated by Myrtle Driver Johnson, Beloved Woman of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, was the seed that inspired this project. Recognizing the deep cultural significance of this syllabary and the other Cherokee-inspired design elements in the building, Denise Drury Homewood, Executive Director of the Bardo Arts Center, invited a group of individuals to consider the creation of an exhibition to more visibly explain these concepts to the public. Members included citizens of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, faculty and staff from Western Carolina University, and other community leaders.
The team reached out to the Cherokee Preservation Foundation, which provided an initial planning grant to support to begin shaping the project. During the planning process, the team contracted with HW Exhibits, a firm experienced in permanent exhibitions with Tribal Nations, to facilitate a concept plan for the exhibition. Through these conversations, EBCI citizens emphasized that the project should expand beyond the original translations to include additional information sharing, cultural practices, and traditions related to the arts. In response to this feedback, the project broadened in scope, and the final exhibition includes content from EBCI authors, highlights the work of EBCI artists, and is translated into Cherokee syllabary. The design, fabrication, and installation of the exhibition project is supported in part through a large grant from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation. The exhibition will be permanently installed throughout the lobby and Star Atrium of Bardo Arts Center in October 2025 and the Bardo Arts Center invites everyone to stop by and learn about Cherokee culture and language.
- Western Carolina University release
