This week, Nicki Cumpston, director of the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, sits down with Robert Fielding to talk about his recent exhibition Tjukurpa | Handle It, and his time as the 2025 artist-in-residence at Kluge-Ruhe. Learn more about the exhibition at: https://kluge-ruhe.org/all-exhibitions/tjukurpa-handle-it-robert-fielding/

In 1997, artists from Tjuntjuntjara in the desert of Western Australia, formed the Spinifex Arts Project. Their goal was to create art that would serve as evidence in their legal battle to reclaim their land. Thanks to a generous gift, you can now view many of these pieces in a new exhibition titled "In the Beginning: Paintings by Senior Artists of the Spinifex Arts Project" on display at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia. In this episode, we learn about the Spinifex Arts Project and the pieces in the exhibition from its curator, Katina Davidson.

Simon Hogan painting. Photo by Amanda Dent courtesy of Spinifex Arts Project

More information about the exhibition and Kluge Ruhe: https://kluge-ruhe.org/exhibition/in-the-beginning-paintings-by-senior-artists-of-the-spinifex-arts-project/#exhibition

Art and storytelling allow sisters Dora and Jan Griffiths— Aboriginal artists from Western Australia—to maintain an unbroken line of culture from the past and carry it into the future.

Learn more: https://kluge-ruhe.org/