Marie Watt's Big Week

How’s this for a good week?

On September 9, a press release went out announcing Marie Watt (b.1967; Seattle) as one of two winners for this year’s Heinz Awards for the Arts. The Heinz Awards recognizes six individuals annually, two each working across the arts, the economy, and the environment.

Artists are selected after having produced a body of work displaying excellence enhancing the human experience.

Established in 1993 to honor the memory of U.S. Senator John Heinz, the selection includes a $250,000 unrestricted cash prize from the Heinz Family Foundation.

Being so honored would serve as the achievement of a lifetime for any artist.

“We honor Marie for her thought-provoking work that graciously allows us entry to Indigenous traditions, culture, and histories, and to the application of that collective wisdom to contemporary life,” Teresa Heinz, Chairman of the Heinz Family Foundation, said. “Marie’s art brings us joy, and her welcoming practice of engaging the community is a model and inspiration for creating lasting intergenerational connections.”

On September 10, another press release announced that Watt, a member of the Seneca Nation of Indians (Turtle Clan) who also has German-Scot ancestry, has been commissioned to create an artwork for The Obama Presidential Center’s historic campus-wide art program opening in spring 2026 on the South Side of Chicago. She is teaming with fellow contemporary art luminary Nick Cave on a monumental textile-and-sound installation merging Indigenous and Black traditions.

A public monument at a presidential library in one of America’s biggest cities that will be seen by hundreds of thousands of people annually for as long as anyone lives. Another signature career achievement.

The next day, September 11, a press release listed Watt among this year’s class of National Academicians as chosen by the National Academy of Design. Play it back: another signature career achievement.

Three of them, three days in a row.

Have a week Marie Watt.

Marie Watt. Photo by Sam Gehrke.

The National Academy is the leading honorary society for visual artists and architects in the United States and the nation’s oldest artist and architect-led organization. It’s celebrating 200 years in 2025. The Academy has 500 living academicians, the best of the best from art and architecture.

Watt’s Obama Presidential Center collaborator Nick Cave is one. Joining Watt in this year’s class are fellow Native American artists Rose B. Simpson (b. 1983; Santa Clara Pueblo), Jeffrey Gibson (b. 1972; Mississippi Choctaw/Cherokee), and Sara Siestreem (b. 1976; Hanis Coos). Like Watt, Siestreem lives and works in Portland.

National Academicians are selected by their peers in recognition of extraordinary contributions to art and architecture in America. They embody the Academy’s shared belief in the power of art and architecture to change society and enrich lives.

It seems funny now, but when I interviewed Watt in 2024 at the opening of an exhibition of her work at the prestigious Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, she had this to say about her career: “It took turning 50 where I told myself that it looks like this is what I'm going to do when I grow up. I don't know why I felt like this career of being an artist was something that somebody could suddenly pull the rug out from under me and then I would have to go back to another type of day job.”

No one’s taking this success away from Watt. She has earned her spot at contemporary art’s mountaintop.

Marie Watt exhibition installation at Print Center New York 2024. Photo by Chadd Scott.

Marie Watt Artwork

Marie Watt’s interdisciplinary artwork draws from history, biography, Haudenosaunee protofeminism, and Indigenous teachings. She explores the intersection of history, community, and storytelling. Through collaborative actions, Watt instigates multigenerational and cross-disciplinary conversations creating a lens and conversation for understanding connectedness to place, one another, and the universe.

Anyone who has spent time visiting art museums around America has likely seen her work whether they know it or not. Exhibitions and acquisitions from Miami to Seattle place her art on public view at the county’s most prestigious institutions.

Watt’s “Blanket Story” sculptures – stacks of neatly folded blankets, each with a unique story to tell, sometimes rising 20 feet – represent her artistic signature.

“I don't know if they choose me or if I choose (them), and I guess that speaks to the way that I like to work with materials,” Watt told me back in 2024 about her interest in working with blankets. “My initial interest in working with blankets came from how I see them functioning in my family and community. We give away blankets to honor people for being witness to important life events, but I quickly realized as I started working with salvage blankets from thrift stores and tag sales and things that people would give me knowing that was a base material for me, that we're received in these objects, we depart the world in these objects, and we're constantly imprinting on them.”

Watt’s “Blanket Stories” transform humble objects into monolithic monuments of care, each accompanied by stories marking the importance of these simple items to the individual or family.

“I think (blankets) have a life and energy of their own and I want to be a good listener,” Watt said. “Blankets were the beginning of this deep interest I have in listening to materials and working with materials that are often organic in nature, and that connect to our stories.”

Listening.

Hearing.

Listening to materials.

Materials connected to Indigenous stories.

Jingle cones.

Watt’s other most recognizable artistic signature.

Marie Watt Jingle Cloud close up. Courtesy of the Marie Watt Studio.

Her interest in jingles began as the Native Arts Artist-in-Residence at the Denver Art Museum in 2013. There, she engaged with a Native sewing circle; a pair of Native dancers, including a jingle dancer, were also participating.

“We were sewing this piece while this pow wow was happening (outside) and there's those sounds and smells and your senses are completely activated by the music and the drum beat and the food and the company,” Watt recalled to me in 2023.

Seeking to bring that energy and sensation to her artwork, she began affixing jingles onto fabric – wall-hung pieces.

Though their invention and use as fashion adornments dates at least to the late 1800s, jingle cones became an iconic element of Indigenous dance traditions during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918.

“There was this very sick child, and the (Ojibwe) father had this dream,” Watt explained to me. “In the dream, he was instructed to put jingles – tin lids to tobacco cans or food cans – take the lid, curl it into this bell-like shape, and then attach that bell to a dress. The instruction in the dream was to attach the cones to the dresses and have the dresses danced and it would be this healing sound that would help the child get well.”

It is believed the medicine worked because the dance was shared with other communities.

“It's really important to recognize the relationship between sound and healing, dancing and healing, community and healing,” Watt added.

Congratulations Marie Watt.