Ongoing Initiatives and Upcoming Events
2026-2027 Events:
Artist Talk with Andrea Carlson
Wednesday, Oct. 14, 6-7 p.m.
Join us for a lecture with Andrea Carlson (Ojibwe). Carlson’s exhibition reception follows the talk.
Location: Semans Lecture Hall, Room 117, Belk Visual Arts Center
Gallery Reception with Andrea Carlson
Wednesday, Oct. 14, 7-8:30 p.m.
Join us for a reception for Andrea Carlson: Absent Host. The exhibition remains on view through February 7, 2027.
Location: Van Every/Smith Galleries, Belk Visual Arts Center
Lunch-and-Learn with Aaron Baumgardner
Tuesday, Oct. 27, 11:05-12:05 p.m.
Join us for a Lunch-and-Learn with Catawba artist Aaron Baumgardner as he shares his ongoing research into one of the most pressing challenges facing the Catawba pottery tradition. For more than 4,000 years, Catawba pottery has endured through adaptation, but now, the Nation faces a crisis. The primary historical source for pan clay is no longer accessible to Tribal citizens due to urban development. Additionally, the stockpiles stored by individual potters and held for the broader community are nearly depleted. Drawing on archeological evidence and ancestral practices, Baumgardner worked with nine Catawba potters to test new temper materials including shell, soapstone, bone, sand, and grog, to determine the best temper to sustain the Catawba pottery tradition.
Location: Wall Academic Center, Room 320
Reimagining Catawba Pottery for the Future
Tuesday, Oct. 27, 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Join us for a talk with several Catawba potters to discuss their work and how they are pushing forward the Catawba nation’s more than 4000 year old clay tradition. The potters are also part of an exhibition on view in the McKay Atrium, Wall Academic Center.
Ongoing and Future Initiatives
Growing corn at the farms: Under the leadership of farm manager Halle Murphy, Davidson students work together with Catawba natural resources staff to plant, tend, and harvest Catawba flour corn at the college farm each year. Ongoing work involves selecting for different color varieties and assessing the efficacy of traditional planting methods.
Research involving corn: Dr. Susana Wadgymar leads the project’s research portion, specifically addressing our Catawba partners’ biological inquiries. Experiments have been conducted at Black Snake Farm/Yawakče Yabsigre, at the Davidson College Farm, and in the Pat Peroni Greenhouse on the top of the Wall Academic Building. Centered around the rematriation of the Catawba Nation’s recently rematriated variety of flour corn, previous projects have assessed the impacts of drought, traditional growing methods, and companion planting on the yield and growth of corn. For one particular project at Black Snake Farm, Wadgymar worked with Davidson students, staff, faculty, and Catawba citizens to conduct an experiment examining the costs and benefits of growing corn, beans, and squash in polyculture (together, an Indigenous planting practice called “The Three Sisters”) versus in monoculture (separately, as is typically done in Western agriculture). This experiment included 2,820 plants and involved collaborative work by 8 Davidson students, 5 Davidson faculty and staff members, and 8 Catawba Nation citizens, one of whom was a high school student. The results of this experiment informed future planting efforts at Black Snake Farm, first presented by Environmental Studies student Ty Cryan ‘24 as his senior capstone project and has been published in the scientific journal Plants, People, Planet.
Wildlife management: In summer 2023 a group of Davidson College researchers led by Dr. Kevin Smith began collaborating with the Catawba Nation Department of Natural Resources to survey and assess biodiversity at the Catawba Wildlife Preserve (CWP). The goal of the surveys was to provide information to be considered as part of habitat management decision making, with an emphasis on use of the CWP for hunting (for example, of deer and turkey) and gathering/foraging by citizens of the Nation. The Davidson College team focused on several planted stands of Loblolly Pine and associated edge habitats scattered throughout the property, which were the areas deemed most in need of assessment and potential management. They focused on documenting tree, shrub, and forest floor plant biodiversity to assess the potential of CWP to support populations of and become core habitat for these and other wildlife species and provide foraging and gathering opportunities for citizens of the Catawba Nation. The Smith’s team’s assessment of forest management activities such as stand thinning, prescribed fire, and/or forest stand improvement is ongoing.
Meals with Indigenous Chefs: Chef Craig Mombert at Davidson College remains a key collaborator by welcoming an Indigenous chefs to campus each fall. This chef prepares a meal featuring kus and other indigenous foods for service at the college dining hall and Catawba Cultural Center.