Courtesy of the artist
Opens October 17, 2024
Experience B.A. Van Sise’s poetic, visual, and linguistic invitation to reflect on the complex cultural heritage and diversity of the country. These portraits and languages are presented together to reveal the rich diversity of the United States and our complex history with indigenous peoples, European migration, and cultural displacement, preservation, and remixing.
General Admission tickets on sale Thu, Sep 5, 2024.
$18 General
$13 Seniors, Full-Time Students with ID, and Children 2–17
FREE to Members and Children under 2
FREE to all on Thursdays
General Admission tickets provide visitors access to all exhibitions on view at the Skirball, including On the National Language: The Poetry of America’s Endangered Tongues. Visitors who would like to board Noah’s Ark, which requires timed entry, should purchase a separate Noah's Ark ticket (which also includes general admission access).
On the National Language is B.A. Van Sise’s poetic, visual, and linguistic invitation to reflect on the complex cultural heritage and diversity of the country. From a Yiddish speaker in Montana, to a Tongva speaker in Los Angeles, a Creole speaker from Louisiana, and more: the portraits and languages presented together reveal the rich diversity of the United States and our complex history with indigenous peoples, European migration, and cultural displacement, preservation, and remixing.
This exhibition features a selection of forty-seven portraits of speakers and students of endangered languages who are living in the United States today. Working in collaboration with dozens of indigenous and diasporic cultural organizations as well as Native Tribes and Nations, Van Sise aims to bring awareness to these languages and the efforts of their speakers to revitalize them today.
Curatorial Acknowledgment
On the National Language: The Poetry of America’s Endangered Tongues is co-curated by Associate Curator Vicki Phung Smith and Exhibition Coordinator Sarah Daymude.
On the National Language was produced with the assistance of the Tribal Trust Foundation, a 501(c)3 dedicated to the preservation of indigenous cultures and wisdom through philanthropy and education. The project was awarded the 2024 Anthem Award for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences, and was made possible by the generous support of the New York State Council on the Arts and the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation.
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