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Linda Eben Jones
contemporary beadwork artist
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Beads: Indigenous Beadwork of the Great Basin
on display from April 23, 2021 through October 22, 2021
at the Great Basin Native Artists Gallery in the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center and Museum, Carson City, NV
I am a jeweler, beadwork artist, dance regalia maker, and Paiute and Yavapai doll maker. I am an enrolled member of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony in Reno, NV, a part of the Great Basin Paiute, Shoshone and Washoe tribes. My family also has ties to the Ft. Bidwell Paiute Tribe and Modoc Tribes in Northern California.
I attended the Stewart Indian Boarding School in Carson City, Nevada from 1963-1966. I am also an Institute of American Indian Arts Alumna from year 2002 – 2005. I was a docent at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona 2011 to 2014. I also served as a co-chair of the Heard Museum Guild Student Art Show and Scholarship Committee in 2013.
My interest in art stems from my mother, who was a sketch artist. She did portraits of all kinds and landscapes of the Great Basin Area. My brothers were painters, illustrators, leather workers, and regalia makers for our family of dancers. My many nieces and nephews are all quite accomplished beadwork artists and regalia makers as well. My sister Janice, an IAIA alumna, taught me how to bead, and my daughter taught me that I could sew, bead, and write about my boarding school days. I realized that I have the talent to coordinate and share cultural knowledge with my family and the public. Being a docent at the Heard Museum showed me that I have the indigenous knowledge to share our cultural ways with tribes, educators and the public.