NORMAN – Hachivi Edgar Heap of Birds, artist and professor of Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma, was honored by the Massachusetts College of Art and Design with an honorary doctorate of fine arts at their commencement ceremony held in May.

Heap of Birds’ art includes multi-disciplinary forms of public art messages, large scale drawings, Neuf Series acrylic paintings, prints and monumental porcelain enamel on steel outdoor sculpture.

He received his bachelor of fine arts from the University of Kansas, has undertaken graduate studies at the Royal College of Art in London and has received his master of fine arts from Tyler School of Art, Temple University.  Heap of Birds has taught as visiting professor at Yale University; Rhode Island School of Design; and Michaelis School of Art, University of Cape Town, South Africa.  At OU, Heap of Birds teaches in the College of Art and Sciences Native American Studies program.

He has received grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, Lila Wallace Foundation, Bonfil Stanton Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trust.

In June 2005, Heap of Birds completed the fifty-foot outdoor sculpture titled Wheel.  The circular porcelain enamel on steel work was commissioned by the Denver Art Museum and is inspired by the traditional medicine wheel of the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming.

In 2007, Heap of Birds’ work “Most Serene Republics” was chosen by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian as their entry in the United States Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale, held in Venice.  His metal signs honoring the American Indians who died in Europe while on tour with the Wild West shows in the 1800s were on display along the Viale Garibaldi.

The Massachusetts College of Art and Design was founded in 1873.  A public, independent college, it is known for providing broad access to a high quality professional arts education with a strong general education in the liberal arts.  Heap of Birds spoke at the college’s commencement ceremony, at which graduated approximately 360 undergraduate and graduate students were awarded degrees.