For Nayana LaFond the issue of violence against women is personal. Not only is she a survivor of domestic violence, she’s also a citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario with roots in the Red River Settlement and a descendant of the Anishinaabe and other Indigenous groups. As a cancer survivor as well, art is vital to her healing process, she said.
“Art is medicine for me. In indigenous cultures, it’s medicine. I see the work I do as sacred.”
LaFond’s art life began in childhood when she began using crayons creatively, a talent her kindergarten teacher encouraged. Later she skipped seventh grade to take art classes at a community college in Massachusetts where she refined her skills at drawing, painting and working with stained glass and clay. After finishing high school, she returned to Greenfield Community College where studying art became deeply meaningful to her.
She transferred to the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston just prior to the 9/11 attacks, but for financial reasons, she returned to her hometown in western Massachusetts. There she worked various jobs until the Whitney Center for the Arts opened in Pittsfield, where she became chief curator while continuing to create and exhibit her own work.
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