Please join Lestina Saul-Merdassi and Vida Stabler in Faces from the Interior, where each will offer their personal response to one work in the exhibition, shedding light on how art inspires, engages, and affects another’s work.

Lestina Saul-Merdassi (left) is a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota Oyate tribe of North and South Dakota. She is also a lineal descendent of the Isanti and Yankton Sioux Tribes. Lestina earned her degree in professional psychology from Bellevue University. She is a traditional Old Style Jingle dress dancer in the pow wows and wears a red jingle dress to bring awareness to the missing and murdered Indigenous women, men, boys, girls, and Two-Spirit people.

Vida Stabler, 'Hinxpéwin' (right), is the Umónhon Language & Cultural Center Director, Umónhon Nation Public School. She received her Associate of Arts, Nebraska Indian Community College; Bachelor of Arts in Education, Wayne State College; and Masters of Education, Oklahoma City University. As an Umónhon tribal member, Stabler brings her expertise to Umónhon education and revitalization of the Umónhon language.