Kathleen Ash-Milby

Kathleen Ash-Milby is a Navajo art historian and curator. She is currently the Curator of Native American Art at the Portland Art Museum. She previously worked at the National Museum of the American Indian's George Gustav Heye Center for two decades.

In 2024, Ash-Milby was a commissioner and curator of the exhibition for the American pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale featuring artist Jeffrey Gibson.

Early life and education Kathleen Ash-Milby was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation.

Ash-Milby attended Pacific Lutheran University and studied studio art before transferring to the University of Washington to study art history. She graduated in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in art history.

American Indian Community House In 2000 Ash-Milby began working at the American Indian Community House (AICH) Gallery, a New York nonprofit that provides services for Native people living in the city. Ash-Milby served as curator and co-director of the AICH Gallery with AICH executive director Rosemary Richmond. In 2005, Ash-Milby curated a solo show for the gallery by artist Jeffrey Gibson. She also produced several thematic exhibitions for the museum, including Off the Map: Landscape in the Native Imagination (2007); HIDE: Skin as Material and Metaphor (2010); and Transformer: Native Art in Light and Sound (2017). which she said was a priority in her time at the museum. The exhibition, commissioned by the PAM and SITE Santa Fe, was the first solo exhibition by an Indigenous artist to represent the United States at the Biennale,

Publications Books The American West: People, Places, and Ideas (2001). By Kathleen Ash-Milby and Suzan Campbell. Corning, New York: Rockwell Museum. First American Art: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection of American Indian Art (2004). By Kathleen Ash-Milby, Bruce Bernstein, and Gerald McMaster (eds.). Washington, D.C. / Seattle: National Museum of the American Indian / University of Washington Press. Off the Map: Landscape in the Native Imagination (2007). By Kathleen Ash-Milby, Kate Morris, and Paul Chaat Smith (eds.). Washington, D.C.: National Museum of the American Indian. Most Serene Republics: Edgar Heap of Birds (2009). By Kathleen Ash-Milby and Truman Lowe (eds.). Washington, D.C.: National Museum of the American Indian. Hide: Skin as Material and Metaphor (2010). By Kathleen Ash-Milby (ed.). Washington, D.C.: National Museum of the American Indian. Kay WalkingStick: An American Artist (2015). By Kathleen Ash-Milby and David W. Penney (eds.). Washington, D.C.: National Museum of the American Indian. Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe (2022). By Kathleen Ash-Milby and Bill Anthes (eds.). Washington, D.C.: National Museum of the American Indian.

Chapters "Indian Identity and Evaluating the Past: Bonita Wa Wa Calachaw Nuñez, an Indian Princess Painter". By Kathleen Ash-Milby. In Joyce M. Szabo (ed.): Painters, Patrons, and Identity: Essays in Native American Art to Honor J.J. Brody (2001). Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press. "Finding Our Way: Negotiating Community at the American Indian Community House". By Kathleen Ash-Milby. In Lee-Ann Martin (ed.): Making a Noise!: Aboriginal Perspectives on Art, Art History, Critical Writing and Community (2004). Banff, Alberta: Banff International Curatorial Institute. "Landscape: Through an Interior View". By Kathleen Ash-Milby. In Duane Blue Spruce and Tanya Thrasher (eds.): The Land Has Memory: Indigenous Knowledge, Native Landscapes, and the National Museum of the American Indian (2008). Chapel Hill, North Carolina / Washington, D.C.: University of North Carolina Press / National Museum of the American Indian. "Alan Michelson: Landscapes of Loss and Presence". By Kathleen Ash-Milby. In Jennifer Complo McNutt and Ashley Holland (eds.): We Are Here!: The Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship 2011 (2011). Indianapolis / Seattle: Eiteljorg Museum / University of Washington Press. "Native Makers/New Media". By Kathleen Ash-Milby. In Erika Suderburg and Ming-Yuen S. Ma (eds.): Resolutions 3: Global Networks of Video (2012). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. "'Back Where I Were Born': Joseph E. Yoakum and the Imaginary Indian". By Kathleen Ash-Milby. In Mark Pascale, Esther Adler, and Édouard Kopp (eds.): Joseph E. Yoakum: What I Saw (2021). Houston / New York / Chicago / New Haven, Connecticut: Menil Collection / Museum of Modern Art / Art Institute of Chicago / Yale University Press.

Articles "Woven by the Grandmothers: Twenty-Four Blankets Travel to the Navajo Nation". By Kathleen Ash-Milby and Susan Heald (1998). Journal of the American Institute for Conservation. 38 (3): 334–345. Washington, D.C.: American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works / Routledge. . "Gerald McMaster, ed. 'Reservation X: The Power of Place in Aboriginal Contemporary Art (book review). By Kathleen Ash-Milby (Summer 2000). Great Plains Quarterly. Vol. 20, no. 3. pp. 244–245. . "Inclusivity or Sovereignty? Native American Arts in the Gallery and the Museum since 1992". By Kathleen Ash-Milby and Ruth B. Phillips (Summer 2017). Art Journal. 76 (2): 10–38. New York: College Art Association. . "Art That Moves". By Kathleen Ash-Milby (Fall 2017). American Indian. Vol. 18, no. 3. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of the American Indian. . "Art Warriors and Wooden Indians". By Kathleen Ash-Milby (October 2017). Art in America. Vol. 105, no. 9. . "Knowledge positions in Aotearoa and Turtle Island art museums". By Kathleen Ash-Milby, Maia Nuku, and Nigel Borell (June 2020). Artlink. 40 (2): 12–22. .