Upcoming
Generational Wealth (Abundance) | Open Room x Forge Project
Performance Space New York
Feb 26, 2026
- 7PM ET
Thursday, February 26, 7–9pm, join us for a panel discussion on wealth redistribution hosted at Performance Space New York as part of Forge Project’s year-long installation and residency in PSNY’s OPEN ROOM.
J. Kae Good Bear (Diné / Mandan / Hidatsa) will moderate a conversation between Betsy Richards (Cherokee), Danyelle Means (Oglala Lakota), and Dr. Jessa Rae Growing Thunder (Fort Peck Assiniboine/Sioux) about sustainable and tangible wealth redistribution in practice and response strategies that build Native futures in art and culture.
In the first two years as a nonprofit, Forge Project has worked hard to craft and embody fundraising values that disrupt extractive philanthropic norms and expectations of performance. This panel will operate within that framework, in which resources and responsibilities are intertwined, and wealth is defined expansively.
J. Kae Good Bear (Diné [Navajo], Mandan, and Hidatsa) is a Program Associate for Arts &Culture at the Mellon Foundation.
J. Kae is a multidisciplinary artist and cultural worker operating at the intersection of arts, culture and Indigenous knowledge across western and Indigenous traditional art forms. Formerly she served as Conservation Cultural Liaison at the Field Museum in Chicago where she built partnerships with over 40 organizations and co-developed a fellowship program for emerging museum professionals focusing on the care of Indigenous collections, collaborative care and knowledge exchange between museums and Indigenous diplomats. She was raised on the Navajo Reservation in Northern Arizona. J. Kae earned her degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Betsy Richards (Cherokee Nation) is the Executive Director of the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine, dedicated to illuminating and advancing greater understanding and support for Wabanaki Nations’ heritage, living cultures, and homelands.
She brings to her role over 25 years of experience in arts, philanthropy, and social impact. She spent seven years as a Program Officer at the Ford Foundation leading a $30 million grantmaking effort for Native American and place-based cultural communities. There, she initiated the creation of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation and served as the global chair of its Committee on Indigenous Peoples. Prior, she served as the inaugural Director of Public Programs at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum. In the last decade, she led The Opportunity Agenda’s national cultural strategy and narrative change initiatives with artists, entertainers, influencers, activists, and funders.
She is currently the Board Chair of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation and serves as a Commissioner for the U.S. Interior Department’s Indian Arts & Crafts Board and the Maine Arts Commission.
Danyelle Means (Oglala Lakota) is the Executive Director of the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (MIAC) in Santa Fe, NM. Previously, she served as a Development Consultant to the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, Inc. (SWAIA). Means was the first Indigenous Executive Director of the Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA), where she co-curated the exhibition “Self-Determined: A Contemporary Survey of Native and Indigenous Artists.” She also led the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) as Director of Advancement and was Executive Director of the IAIA Foundation. Her national impact includes a role as a Project Manager at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI).
Dr. Jessa Rae Growing Thunder is the Director of Tribal Nations Initiatives at Natives in Philanthropy. She comes from the Fort Peck Assiniboine (Nakoda)/Sioux (Dakota) tribes. She is a third-generation beadwork and quillwork artist, educator, and historian. Jessa Rae has a background in community-based methodologies, networking, facilitation, advocacy, and project development and management.
Prior to joining NAP, she was the Indigenous Exchange Advisor at the Inter-American Foundation, where she led the development of a congressionally mandated initiative that fosters sustainable relationships for Native American communities and Indigenous communities in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Jessa Rae holds a M.A. and Ph.D. in Native American Studies from the University of California, Davis.