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Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art acknowledges it resides on the ancestral territory of the Osage, Kaw, and Otoe-Missouria, among other tribal nations forcibly moved to the region such as the Shawnee, Wyandot, Delaware, Potawatomi, Sac and Fox and Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo) nations. We recognize and support the continued vibrancy of Native communities and cultures today who continue to thrive, as well as the inherent sovereignty of tribal nations. We are compelled to serve and advocate for these communities in accordance with our public mission.

Kemper Museum acknowledges and respects the diversity of Native people connected to this land today. Many recognize the land and all beings who live within it as relatives. We acknowledge the earth we inhabit, the waters of the Blue River, the Kansas River, the Missouri River, and the plants, animals, and people supported by them. 

We acknowledge our responsibility to be good caretakers of the land we occupy. 

Click here to learn more about our land acknowledgment process.

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Mona Cliff’s commission is inspired by the practice of controlled prairie burns. Through beadwork, sculpture, textiles, and painted elements, Cliff will explore fire as both a destructive and regenerative entity; one that has been practiced for generations especially by Indigenous caretakers.

Mona Cliff: Burn Cycle, Fire Makes Way

Mona Cliff (A'aninin/Nakota Nations, b. 19977, Prescott, AZ, A'aninin/Nakota Nations) will launch the new chapter of the Atrium Project, which for the next several years will focus on our relationship with the natural world. Cliff’s commission is inspired by the practice of controlled prairie burns. Prairies, including the Flint Hills in Kansas, are vital and complex ecosystems supporting numerous plants and animals, contributing to the broader health of our ecological world. Through beadwork, sculpture, textiles, and painted elements, Cliff will explore fire as both a destructive and regenerative entity; one that has been practiced for generations especially by Indigenous caretakers. Drawing on fire as a generative and cleansing force, the work stages a visual and material tension between charred surfaces and emergent forms, marking the threshold where destruction and revitalizing become the conditions for new life.

As Cliff states, “At its core, the installation asks how we might reconnect with the land and re-synchronize with the elemental rhythms that sustain renewal. It considers what it means to tend to the earth while also tending to one another, particularly in a time shaped by ecological instability and social change. Ultimately, the project offers a meditation on elegy and repair: that loss and growth are intertwined, and that renewal requires both necessary clearing and attentive care.” 

Organized by Jessica S. Hong, Chief Curator, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art 

Raven Halfmoon, Tushka Manahatta (2025). Stoneware glaze. 36 ½ x 26 x 17 ½ inches. Images courtesy of the artist and Salon 94. © Raven Halfmoon. Photography by Kes Efstathiou.

Raven Halfmoon, Scouting the Horizon (2025). Stoneware glaze. 41 x 23 x 20 inches.

Featured Artworks

Mona Cliff (b. 1977, Prescott, AZ) is an enrolled member of the Gros Ventre tribe (A'aninin/Nakota Nations) of Ft. Belknap, MT. Cliff is a multidisciplinary visual artist who explores contemporary Indigenous identity and culture through her use of traditional Native crafting methods such as seed bead embroidery and fabric applique. Beadwork and sewing applique have been a primary foundation of her artistic practice. She acquired a BFA in Printmaking from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA. Cliff lives with her husband, three teenagers, and two dogs in Lawrence, Kansas. 

Cliff is also a muralist and completed multiple mural projects since 2023, five in Lawrence, KS including two at Haskell Indian Nations University and two in Topeka, KS. She is in the permanent collection of the Kansas City Museum (Kansas City, MO), Autry Museum of the American West (Los Angeles, CA), and Mulvane Art Museum (Topeka, KS), and has completed commissions for the Kansas City Airport and the Spencer Museum of Art (Lawrence, KS). She has shown at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington D.C.), Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (Kansas City, MO), Hall Spassov Gallery (Seattle,WA), Swan Coach House gallery (Atlanta, GA), Salina Art Center (Salina, KS), Form&Concept (Santa Fe, NM), Charlotte Street (Kansas City, MO), Leedy Voulkos Art Center (Kansas City, MO), Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art (Manhattan, KS), and Wikimania (Cape Town, South Africa). 

She has taught beading and fabric applique workshops at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center (Snowmass Village, CO) and Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park, KS). Currently, she has solo exhibits at the University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK), the University of Central Missouri (Warrensburg, MO), and Crossroads Hotel, (Kansas City, MO). 

Barbara Takenaga: Parallax at DC Moore Gallery

"Barbara Takenaga: Awestruck" Member Preview

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Mona Cliff (b. 1977, Prescott, AZ), Stratified (detail), 2024, seed beads, beeswax, maple wood, plywood, pine resin, rhinestones, bugle beads, facet beads, thread, 100 x 45 x 2 inches. Courtesy of the artist ©Aaron Paden.