Thompson to receive Jim Denomie Memorial Scholarship

Multimedia artist Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe) has been named the recipient of the second Jim Denomie Memorial Scholarship. The $10,000 honor recognizes Native artists who best exemplify the values the late Ojibwe artist Jim Denomie (1955–2022) demonstrated in his own career: commitment to excellence, generosity of spirit, and engagement with community.

“As a talented artist, Maggie shows a deep commitment to her artistic practice and a generous heart that is equally committed to supporting her community,” says Diane Wilson, Denomie’s wife.

Thompson’s textile-based work is on view through March 2024 in the Smithsonian exhibition Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023 and was recently recognized by the Jerome Foundation, which recently awarded Thompson a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship.

Describing her art in an interview conducted in conjunction with the 2022 Bockley Gallery solo show, Just Friends, Thompson stated:

My work has been quietly giving voice to what is hard to talk about. Everyone experiences loss and grief. Normalizing emotions feels like a form of resistance that can address the distance we tend to put between ourselves and our emotions. For me, making is a means of processing. My work definitely gives me the opportunity to acknowledge, move through, and transform emotions—consciously or not.

Created in partnership with the Denomie/Wilson family, All My Relations Arts Gallery, and Bockley Gallery, the Denomie scholarship was launched in 2022, when Jonathan Thunder (Red Lake Ojibwe) was named its inaugural recipient.