Native women of the Great Plains are proud practitioners of beadworking–an over century-old art form founded with the introduction of glass beads by Spanish traders in the eighteenth century.  Kiowa women of the Southern Plains are especially noted for their delicate, geometric and floral designs created for the dresses, moccasins, shirts, and bags worn by men and women at powwows. Joy Tonepahhote is a Kiowa beadwork artist whose works have been shown at the Heye Center of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, the Indian City USA Cultural Center in Anadarko, and the Museum of Indian Culture in Allentown, Pennsylvania. 

Jan. 9 – March 17, 2023, the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery will be hosting Au Tion Ma, Woman with a Good Heart: Beadworks by Joy Tonepahhote an exhibition of Tonepahhote’s beaded clothing and powwow regalia. The exhibition will be on continuous view in the gallery windows during this period.