Museum of Contemporary Native Art Features Bins

Coleen Bins, owner of Chief Oshkosh Native American Arts in Egg Harbor, has her artwork titled “Commuter, Communication, Connect, Creation” included in the Museum of Contemporary Native Art located in Santa Fe, N.M.

The piece consists of a traditional man and woman’s Iroquois outfit with a contemporary twist. It is a mix of the past and the present, featuring beadwork, reflectors, sterling silver brooches, and deer toes mixed with micro machines Bins collected in the ’90s. The beadwork is mixed with traditional sky domes, which represent our mother the earth, telephone pole and high power tower images.

Bins journey began at the Institute of American Indian Arts where she met other Native Americans from her own reservation, Oneida Nation Of Wisconsin, and other nations. Bins continued her education at the Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York – the original homeland of the Iroquois Nations.

In 1997 Bins purchased Chief Oshkosh Native American Arts, and plans to expand the business are becoming a reality this summer season as Bins hopes to restore the outdoor amphitheater in the back of her property. The theatre, Chief Oshkosh Evening Star Theatre, will feature native performers.