The 2023 9|9 Native South Art Exhibition presented contemporary work by American Indian artists from across North Carolina at the Museum of the Southeast American Indian.
The juried exhibition included painting, sculpture, beadwork and other forms of visual art.
Culture represented through individual experience
Museum director Nancy Fields described the works as expressions of Native culture and identity capable of challenging persistent stereotypes.
The artists were not asked to reproduce one fixed image of Indigenous tradition.
Different media allowed personal history, community knowledge and contemporary experience to remain visible within the exhibition.
Many works were offered for sale, connecting public recognition with direct economic support for the participating artists.
A museum rooted in regional Indigenous history
The Museum of the Southeast American Indian is located at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
The institution originated within a university founded in 1887 to train American Indian teachers.
Its mission includes preserving material culture, supporting Indigenous artists and examining contemporary issues affecting communities in Robeson County and the wider American Southeast.
The 9|9 exhibition aligned with that purpose by presenting living practice beside historical research and collections.
The available account did not identify individual artists or work titles, limiting detailed analysis of the selection.
Its value can nevertheless be understood through the curatorial framework: Native artists were given space to define culture through their own images and materials.
9|9 Native South treated Indigenous identity as current, diverse and artist-led rather than as a historical subject contained within a museum.