Karen Ann Hoffman on Raised Beadwork • February 19, 2026, 6PM • Bentson Mediatheque, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Join artist Karen Ann Hoffman for a discussion about Haudenosaunee raised beadwork, presented alongside the exhibition Rosy Simas: A:gajë:gwah dësa’nigöëwë:nye:’ (i hope it will stir your mind). This style of beadwork is characterized by raised lines of beads that create a three-dimensional texture on the fabric’s surface. Infusing contemporary design into her artistic practice, Hoffman views her beadwork as a written language that holds the traditions, stories, and worldview of her ancestors.

This presentation is free; seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Karen Ann Hoffman is a Haudenosaunee raised beadwork artist. An enrolled citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, Hoffman lives near Stevens Point on a 40-acre homestead, where she hunts, forages, and beads. In her beadwork, Hoffman believes strongly in the power and importance of Native art and the necessity to have authentic, in-community voices at the forefront of the conversations, installations, and curation of Native art. Through her devotion to safekeeping Oneida culture, Hoffman has received recognition as an Oneida National Treasure by her tribe and was named a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as a TapRoot Fellow, a United States Artist Fellow, and a Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters Fellow. Hoffman’s work is held in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC; Field Museum, Chicago; Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York; and Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas; among others.