RISE Series E8: Marty Strenczewilk (Creative Nations Indigenous Artists Collective)
The Women & Theatre RISE Series presents mini-interviews conducted at the Inaugural RISE Summit with network partners of RISE Theatre, all of which are organizations working to increase equity in the theatre industry. In this episode, Hayley and Amy talk with Marty Strenczewilk from Creative Nations Indigenous Artists Collective. Scroll down for episode notes and transcript!
Episode Notes
Hosts: Hayley Goldenberg and Amy Andrews
Guest: Marty Strenczewilk, Creative Nations Indigenous Artists Collective
Music: Chloe Geller
Listen to all published episodes of the Women & Theatre RISE Series here.
Many thanks to RISE Theatre, Maestra Music, Playbill, and all the amazing organizations working to increase equity in theatre!
Episode Resources:
Creative Nations Indigenous Artists Collective website
Follow Creative Nations on Instagram
About Creative Nations Indigenous Artists Collective:
Creative Nations Indigenous Artists Collective is an all Indigenous-led artists collective, founded in 2020 at The Dairy Arts Center in Boulder, CO. They operate the Sacred Space, a permanent establishment for Indigenous Artists to create and share their work. Creative Nations’ goals are to create a space for creation and collaboration, as well as foster opportunities for all Indigenous artists to thrive.
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Episode Transcript
(Music)
Hayley: Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to the Women & Theatre RISE Series! We’re your hosts, Hayley Goldenberg…
Amy: …and Amy Andrews! On this series, we share mini-interviews conducted at the Inaugural RISE Summit with network partner organizations of RISE Theatre.
Hayley: We’re thrilled to uplift these amazing organizations that are working to make the theatre industry a more equitable space.
Amy: Today, we’re excited to share our interview with Marty Strenczewilk of Creative Nations Indigenous Artists Collective.
(Music)
Hayley: Hello, beautiful people! We are here at the Women & Theatre Podcast booth at the RISE Summit with Marty Strenczewilk from Creative Nations Indigenous Artists Collective. Marty, thank you so much for being here. How are you?
Marty: Great, thanks! I’m glad to be here.
Hayley: Great! Marty, could you share your pronouns please and tell us a little bit about your organization?
Marty: Sure. I go by he/him pronouns. And Creative Nations is a true land back effort of a PWI [predominantly white institution] out in Boulder, Colorado. It was founded about 3.5 years ago when Melissa Fathman, who’s the executive director at the Dairy Arts Center, said, “Hey, we’re artists. We can do better than a curtain speech.” And so then, she just started talking to Native people and said, “What could we do?” rather than assuming she knew.
And then, after talking to a bunch of different artists - and I mean very wide, like a painter, a sculptor, a fashion designer - you know, like, people across lots of different genres… Came up with some simple things, right? Like, make spaces for the art, fund the art, supply resources for the art… And then went out and made it happen. She raised some serious funds from some major private donors, took a section of the building that had renters and said, “You’ve gotta go, we’re giving this land back to the Native people,” and then turned that into a multi-arts space that they gave us back sovereignly, so we operate that space.
It’s been two years now, and so at the beginning, we were like, “Really? Is that gonna be real?” And it’s been real! We decide what’s in there, no one else tells us what to do. They don’t just assume, like, “We’ll borrow that space today.” They’ll actually even say, “Can we use your space?” ‘Cause it’s really our space.
And that last piece, the resources, is kind of a hidden piece that’s really important, is their box office is our box office, finance, grant writing, you name it. So I’m a team of one, and I’ve only gone full-time as of a few months ago, ‘cause we slowly built up over time - first just artists, then having a single part-time person, now I went full-time. I was originally on the board, and I moved down to take this role. But we service artists of all genres, all career stages - and I mean that, even kids. We run, right now, classes for kids on traditional Native arts. We are doing, actually, a gallery show for them in the spring, which - we’re really excited to let the kids have their chance in a professional gallery to show their art…
Hayley/Amy: That’s amazing/That’s fantastic!
Marty: Yeah, so it’s really cool. And we’ve also been figuring it out, ‘cause we’re only 3.5 years old, and one of the cool things is like, not going in with a “This is what we are. We have a mission statement. Blah, blah, blah.” We’ve kind of figured out as we go, and the two things that have stood out to us is: 1) We’re really focused on healing, because - there’s a lot of different directions you can go, you can go with anger or the “push people away,” and we decided that inviting people in was really valuable for us. We live in a predominantly white city, and they’re a really engaged city, so it’s really amazing to have a conversation and say, “Yeah, come in. We want to talk, we want to change things.” Especially the people who want to try.
And the second thing is that we’re really most effective when we engage with the community at their level. So a lot of what I say I do is like, I’m not a boss who decides programs. I go out and listen and I go, “What do you guys need?” And I make it happen. And sometimes people come to me and say, “Hey, do you think you could show my art? Or do you think I could do it?” I’m like, “I don’t have to give you permission. If you’re Native, that’s it. It’s so simple, this is your space too, this is your land too.” So we really operate in a very decolonized, kind of non-Western way, as an arts organization.
Hayley: Yeah. Thank you for sharing that, that’s amazing.
Amy: That’s fantastic, yeah! Thanks for telling us about it. Marty, could you tell us something about a project you’re working on right now that’s lighting you up?
Marty: Yes, so I’m a theatre artist, so that’s my passion. And about a year and a half ago, I went to a residency, I won a national competition, I was really excited…
Hayley: That’s fabulous!
Amy: Congratulations!
Marty: Thank you! But it was in the middle of Illinois, and the director - though he was native as well, and we had a great connection - he goes, “We have two choices. You can have Native people or actors but not both.” Because we’re in the middle of Illinois. And we both agreed that Native people was the answer. So we brought in all these Native - like, one was a family, the mom and her two kids joined, then there were two guys in their 20s from the community, and so on and so forth. And I did more developing my play with that group in a week than I did with actors basically ever.
Amy: Wow…
Hayley: I just got goosebumps, that’s awesome.
Amy: That’s amazing!
Marty: Yeah, like, the conversations we had about what these things mean, like how the story really resonated to their own personal experience, and… So the play’s subtitle is actually “The only Indian in the room,” because often I’m the only Indian in the room. And so, to be in a room where it was a whole bunch of Indians, it was like, “Wow, we speak the same language, we have a lot of the same experiences.”
And so we had always wanted to have a theatre festival where we could develop work, and it didn’t have to be so difficult to get so many other people like you in the room. And so we started to make that happen, and so I was the driving force for it originally, but then I brought on a couple of amazing people - Dr. Shannon Epplett, who was that director I mentioned, he’s out of Illinois State - and then Dr. Ashlyn Baruti, she teaches out in Pennsylvania. And so the three of us have been working on this now since last November. It’s called the First Storytellers Festival, and it’ll be this first week of October. And it’s gonna be amazing.
We’re developing five plays, including one of mine. And the writers aren’t people you’ve heard of, which is - again, where are our resources useful? As opposed to like, “Does Larissa FastHorse or Dallas Goldtooth or…?” Like, they don’t need us, they’re doing great. Instead, can we find those people who need us? We’ve got so many Native actors and directors from the community, that people would say, “There are no Native theatre artists.” And it took a while to find them, but once we found them, we’re starting to build our community, right? And find those people that want opportunities, ‘cause Denver has an incredibly vibrant Native community.
I went to powwow last year, which we have every year, and I’d never been to Denver’s powwow - 20,000 people go.
Amy/Hayley: Wow!
Marty: It fills a basketball stadium.
Amy: Oh my gosh, that’s incredible.
Marty: Yeah, Grand Entry’s like 1,000 people. I remember being like, “Uhhhh, when I go to my reservation, there’s like 400 people,” you know what I mean? And so like, it tells you we’ve got a bit of scale, so clearly these people exist. You’ve gotta go provide the opportunity, get access to them. So I’m really excited about that, not even because it’s my personal play, but because the way the writers have gotten excited about this opportunity… They’re all so giddy to get to Boulder, to work on their play, to be in community with other Native theatre artists in a way they’ve never been able to before.
Hayley: Yeah, that sounds so rewarding and fulfilling. Could you tell us a little bit about a challenge that you see in the theatre industry?
Marty: I’ll go for one that I guess is a more… more of an optimistic end state for me. So what’s been really interesting in the development of my role is that in the beginning, it was very easy to see that I was going to service my community, I was gonna make programs in the arts - for example, we now have these arts programs for kids, right? And that happened because the community asked. That’s pretty straightforward, right? Servicing your community - that’s what nonprofits are supposed to do.
What I didn’t expect is that by having this model be successful - where the Dairy Arts Center, which is the biggest art institute in Boulder, so it’s like a major deal - do this thing where they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, they gave up real revenue by losing these renters, and using their staff hours - like, they’re putting their money where their mouth is, right? Like, instead of saying, “I’m an ally,” they’re actually sacrificing, which is the difference between a real ally, right? More and more opportunities keep coming to have this conversation, and so…
Last week, I was in Colorado Springs with the Fine Arts Center, which is a major art institution. I was on the phone three weeks ago with the Old Globe. I was on the phone two weeks ago with Center Theatre in LA, you know? Like, these conversations are happening where people are going, “Wait, there’s something we can do here too.”
And so I’m going to change it from a challenge to an opportunity, I guess. Because I’m actually really excited. Because though the conversations are challenging, and there are times when I go, “I wish they didn’t phrase it that way, or…” I have to help them through this stuff that sucks to go through sometimes, you know? People are just - they’ve lived so many ways for a long time that trying to think about a different way is hard. But having a successful implementation of what land back can look like makes people really go, “Oh, that is a practical thing.”
People hear the words “land back” and they go, “Well, I’m not gonna give you my house,” right? Like, it’s just such a visceral - like, there’s no tangible way forward. But there are tangible ways to do this. And so I’m really excited because in the next year, we’re gonna do something in Colorado Springs. Like, that’s already for sure. I went down there, we’ve been talking at the very top - executive director, head of their programs. We don’t know what it looks like yet, but we’re gonna engage their Native community, and we’re gonna get them out and we’re gonna try and do some stuff and see what works and what doesn’t work. Because it’s different for every community, you can’t just, you know, carbon copy what we did in Boulder. It won’t work.
So I guess I challenge all these theatremakers of any level, of any stage, of any location, that these are conversations you can have. And I heard someone once say: It doesn’t matter if you work at McDonald’s. It doesn’t matter if you’re a retired person who just attends the theatre. Whatever your position, there are ways that you can find to engage, to start stewarding these conversations. You have power, whether it’s because you’re an audience member, so you pay money, right? Whether it’s because you sit in middle management and you actually have some resources, you’re an actor…like, simple things that you can do…
I mean, the Dramatists Guild inclusion rider is such a good example, where people can demand that in their contracts. That’s actually a very simple thing because a theatre you want to work with would want to have that in the contract anyway, right? So I think that there’s a really interesting conversation opportunity where - it doesn’t have to be the executive director, like it happens to be at the Dairy or Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. I really am excited, because there are places I’m talking to someone who maybe might think they don’t have “power,” but I think there’s lots of ways these things can happen.
Amy: That’s fantastic, thank you! And so on that topic - you already gave a couple of examples, but could you give our listeners some small steps that they can take to make the theatre industry more equitable?
Marty: Yeah, I mean… So I grew up, I never knew another Native person that wasn’t related to me or lived in the reservation. Period. Right? Never met one, which I always find, as an adult, fascinating. Because I can’t imagine being Latin or Black or Asian and just never ever meeting someone that’s the same ethnicity as you. And so often, you’re asked to speak for the entirety of the continent, which - we’re so diverse in tribal identity and customs and culture that… It’s like, you both want to, because you don’t want them to NOT engage, but also there’s an expectation. And that expectation, I think, is put upon people because they say, “Well, where can I possibly start?” And I think there’s a lot out there that you can make an effort to go learn, right?
So I live in Boulder. It’s very easy to find out that we live on Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho land, okay? I had never heard of the Ute, the Cheyenne, or the Arapaho before I moved to Colorado. And I’m a Native! Had no idea. But I went out there, and it wasn’t hard to learn, like, “Whose land do I live on?” There are tools out there. What resources are nearby that I can engage with to be a little bit knowledgeable? And that’s like, a simple starting place, I think.
And the other thing, I would say, is to come with a curiosity. I had a really, really amazing rehearsal process about two years ago in Boulder, where - it’s a two-woman play, a white woman and a Native woman. So this is a room where there was a Mexican director, a Native woman, a Native playwright, and a white woman. So she was the minority, actually, in the room, right? But what was really amazing is - she said it kind of early on, she said, “I’m really curious, but I don’t know how to ask the right questions,” and we kinda said, “That’s great. That’s the place to start, is curiosity.”
And so that’s where she started exploring as we started to learn about this play. And the reason we were able to have great conversations is she didn’t come from an expected, “You’re here to teach me,” she didn’t come from a place of like, putting her ignorance on other people. It really was a curiosity. And I think curiosity goes a long way without expectations that it’s anyone else’s job to teach you anything.
Hayley/Amy: Yeah, for sure. That’s important.
Hayley: Well, Marty, could you please share with the listeners where they can find more info about you and about Creative Nations and the wonderful work that you’re doing?
Marty: Yeah, so Creative Nations is creative-nations.org. We got a brand new website, it went up like, two months ago, so it is up-to-date.
Amy: Hey, congratulations!
Hayley: Yeah, awesome.
Marty: Thank you. It was one of those big steps that a young arts organization does…
Hayley: Oh, we know all about it, yeah.
Marty: Going from that little tiny, you know, whatever to like, “Wow! It’s a professional, full-on website, fully up-to-date.” One of the things I encourage people is we have lots of forms on the site for all ways to engage with us. So it’s like: Hey, you’re a non-Native organization and you’d like to engage. There’s a form for that. You’re a Native artist and you want to get resources. There’s a form for that. We have lots of those because it’s our responsibility, if we have access to these resources, to make them available. So there’s lots of ways to get in touch with us for all the various things we do, because my goal is to put money in artists’ pockets, right? So I can’t do that if I don’t meet the artists.
Hayley: Yeah, totally. Well, go do that, listeners. Go engage.
Amy: Yeah, go check out Creative Nations and their fabulous website! Thank you so much for being here with us, Marty, it was a pleasure to talk with you. And thank you all for listening to our conversation with Marty Strenczewilk from Creation Nations Indigenous Artists Collective.
(Music)
Amy: Women & Theatre is a proud network partner of RISE Theatre.
Hayley: Thank you so much to RISE, Maestra, Playbill, and RISE Program Manager Victoria Detres for collaborating with us on this series. Thank you for listening to the Women & Theatre Podcast. We’re your hosts, Hayley Goldenberg…
Amy: …and Amy Andrews! If you like what you heard, subscribe and give us a 5-star review wherever you listen.
Hayley: You can also follow us on social @womenandtheatreproject to make sure you never miss an episode.
Amy: The music for this show was written by talented Women & Theatre community member Chloe Geller.
Hayley: Thanks again for listening, everyone. See you next time!
Amy: Bye!
