SHSMO Center for Missouri Studies
605 Elm St.
Columbia, Mo.
Norman Akers, Osage artist and educator from Oklahoma will speak on Osage artists and the art that moves our culture forward. Osage Artists Today will examine a selection of contemporary Osage artists and how their work serves as a bridge between our history and cultural practices and the present. The Osage people experienced forced removal from Missouri and Arkansas in the early 1820s and subsequently settled on the Osage Reservation in Oklahoma in 1872. This displacement has led some to assert that there was a loss of culture and traditional practices. However, for many artists, our art engages with a sense of place that continues to include the ancestral lands of the Ozark region.
This presentation will explore how contemporary Osage artists express, celebrate, and critically engage with our history through their artistic practices. Selected artworks of Norman Akers will be on display in the William Guitar Little Missouri Gallery of Art inside SHSMO’s Center for Missouri Studies building during the fall 2026.