
This hands-on workshop explores the artistry and cultural significance of Lakota-style hand drums and moccasins. Participants will craft a hand drum from elk hide and rawhide lacing while learning about its role in ceremonies and social songs, as well as create custom-fit moccasins using traditional materials like elk buckskin and latigo hide.
June 9 – 13, 2025
One week session
Friday, June 13, 2025
Parks Exhibition
@ 4:00PM
$1,820
$980
$120
$50
All levels
Enrollment is limited to 12 students
Hand drums have long been an integral part of Indigenous communities, used in both ceremonies and social songs. This workshop will guide participants through the process of crafting a traditional Lakota-style drum, exploring its cultural significance while allowing for personal artistic expression. Similarly, moccasins, once a part of daily dress and now worn for ceremonies and powwows, hold deep cultural meaning and will be hand-stitched using traditional materials like elk buckskin and latigo hide.
Lovingly titled Surviving with Grandma’s Prayer, this hands-on experience will teach the skills needed to create a custom-fit pair of moccasins, fostering a connection to ancestral knowledge and craftsmanship. Participants will also construct a hand drum from elk hide and rawhide lacing, embracing the heartbeat-like rhythm that symbolizes survival and spiritual awakening. More than just a creative endeavor, this workshop empowers individuals with cultural knowledge, honoring tradition while ensuring its legacy continues for future generations.
Kelly Looking Horse is an award-winning artist and culture bearer (Oglala Lakota). He shares Lakota stories and makes and performs art through traditional dancing, drumming, singing, leather and wood work, beading, quilling, and painting — to enhance, reinforce, and illustrate the stories.
Optional:
•Reading glasses for detailed work if needed
•Clip on lamp
The program will begin Sunday morning, with a brief orientation at 8:30 am. Workshops will start at 9 am.
Sunday night will feature a program mixer, where you will have an opportunity to meet with your classmates outside of the studio, as well as meet other students in our adult programs for the week.
Monday nights feature an opening reception at the Parks Exhibition Gallery, featuring work from our very own summer faculty!
Daily instruction occurs from 9am-12 pm, with a break for lunch in the campus dining hall (included in tuition), and followed with more instruction from 1pm- 4 pm.
Artist Talks will be held in the evenings on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. This is a wonderful opportunity to listen to our Metals Week and HOT Clay instructors speak on their art.
On Friday afternoon you will be able to display your own work from the week at our Culmination event outside Parks Exhibition Center!
Generous donors have made scholarships and fellowships for adult workshops available on a limited basis for these specific groups:
1) Native American Community Leaders, Artists, Members, and Teachers.
2) Inland Empire Teachers, Professors, and Graduate Students
Scholarships include tuition, dorm housing, and all meals provided by the campus dining service. Transportation to and from campus is not provided, and the $50 registration fee is not included.
Scholarship Details:
1) Native American Community Members, Leaders, Artists, and Teachers
For adults 18 and older with current tribal affiliation, the scholarship brings community leaders, artists, members, and teachers to workshops at Idyllwild Arts to benefit both the scholarship recipients and those in their schools or tribal communities. Applicants with financial needs may receive priority. We also offer scholarships for Native American Teens for both the Summer Program and the Academy.
2) Inland Empire Teachers, Professors, and Graduate Students
For adults 18 and older who are current teachers in lower and higher education who will benefit from learning about Native American Arts and Culture to take back into the classroom as well as currently enrolled Graduate students. The scholarship is designed to provide professional development for those in education to share with their learning communities.
Click here for more information about adult scholarships.
Learn the art of weaving from master Navajo weavers Barbara Teller Ornelas and Lynda Teller Pete, originally from Two Grey Hills and Newcomb, NM. While instructing and demonstrating, sisters Barbara and Lynda will share their family’s personal weaving stories and experiences, giving you a view into the world of Navajo weaving.
Explore the fundamentals of working with hot glass, guided by an award-winning glass artist, Ramson Lomatewama. Ramson's glass art is viewed as a "contemporary expression of an ancient and artistically rich people…evoking a beautiful yet humbling mindscape which we all long to find."