Shan Goshorn

Fellowship Artist

1957—2018

Fellowship: Red (2013)

Cultural Affiliation: Eastern Band of Cherokee

Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Goshorn has made Tulsa, Oklahoma her home since 1981. She graduated from the Atlanta College of Art with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Photography in 1980. The U.S. Department of Interior’s Indian Arts and Crafts Board then commissioned Goshorn to do an illustration of twenty traditional Cherokee basket patterns, an opportunity that was a direct result of her high school summer breaks spent working at Qualla Arts and Crafts Cooperative in Cherokee, North Carolina. In 2013, Goshorn was a Smithsonian Institution Artist Fellow and SWAIA Discovery Fellow; in 2014, a Native Arts and Culture Artist Fellow; and in 2015, a United States Artists Fellow. The purpose in her multimedia work is for viewers to perceive Native Americans as the contemporary and diverse peoples they are now. Recognized for her innovative and visionary baskets woven from copies of treaties, maps, and photographs that she has thoughtfully researched, Goshorn has taken a traditional craft and transformed it into a contemporary art of its own.