Governors Island
American Indian Community House (AICH) is a community-based organization with a mission to improve and promote the well-being of the American Indian Community and to increase the visibility of American Indian cultures in an urban setting.
In keeping with this mission, we have a home on what is now known as Governors Island, an important place in the lives of the peoples of this region prior to colonization. The Lenape referred to the island as Paggank (“Nut Island”) after its plentiful hickory, oak, and chestnut trees. Like other smaller islands around Manhattan, tribes would visit seasonally, for fishing and gathering.
Today, AICH’s space on Governors Island is used seasonally, to present exhibitions, performances, and other cultural and educational programs, as well as to host artists in residence from May to October.
During the season, visit Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 11am-5pm to meet the artists in residence and view their works in progress.
Indigenous artists may apply for AICH’s Artists in Residence program. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
2025 Artists in Residence
The American Indian Community House is proud to announce our 2025 Artists in Residence! Following in the long line of Native & Indigenous artists who have had their work developed with AICH, these wonderful artists will all be working on Governors Island this summer, creating new pieces and showcasing their art to the public. Watch out for an announcement soon with their schedule of events and public presentations.
May 2025
Vinny P
They/Them/He/Him
Muisca (Colombian) /Chavin (Peruvian)/Spanish/Portuguese/
Vinny has been homeschooled most of his life. They are an artist with experience in acting, drawing, writing, and poetry. He is deeply connected with their emotions and spirituality, and holds learning, introspection, and empathy in a grateful cradle. Vincent is apprenticing in a community-based organization that works to build the relationships between Black, Brown, Queer, Indigenous, and Palestinian people. They support in creating dinners and peace walks to identify systematic oppression locally and globally.
Johnny Hendry
Johnny Hendry was born in Kansas and grew up in the country life complete with horses and baling hay. He is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and is also Muskogee Creek. He was always bent towards the creative, writing poetry and building gliders. It was not until he met his wife Tawnee (Choctaw and Absentee Shawnee) that his artistic vision came together. She learned leatherwork from her mother and passed it on to Johnny. From there he thrived in various mediums until he started constructing purses—they became the perfect blank canvas for his creative visions. For 27 years he has been utilizing his gift in the form of 100% handmade purses and totes. There is no electricity used, and his signature stitch has no knots. The way it starts and stops is continuous, and a symbol of the infinity of the Universe and its connectedness to Us all. Each purse takes a minimum of 100 hours and his blood, sweat, and tears go into each and every piece. He is a storyteller, a traveler through the ages making his mark on the art world through his hands. The Mojave Desert is a major theme in his art, as he lived in Las Vegas with Tawnee as they raised their two daughters Taw-Cre-Nee and Madrona Redhawk before their move to New York City. He spent endless hours hiking around and studying petroglyphs. Moving to New York City has had a profound effect on his art, as he loves to find the nature growing through the concrete. It is very inspiring to him and he is very honored to be sharing his Native art in such an International landscape, bringing awareness of his culture and beliefs to those young and old, one stitch at a time.
June & July 2025
Charlie Kam
Charlie Kam is a designer whose work explores how clothes can hold memory, place, and feeling. With a deep appreciation for Americana, vintage workwear, and the intimacy of hand embroidery—techniques that evoke both personal connection and historical significance— Charlie creates designs that are quiet and introspective. Their work reflects a coming-of-age journey, blending these influences to explore themes of softness, care, and belonging in a fast-moving world.
August & September 2025
Serenity Mariana
Serenity Mariana (she/her) is an Indigenous artist of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, currently based in New York City. She just graduated from NYU Tisch earning her BFA in Drama, studying at both the Experimental Theatre Wing and Lee Strasberg Institute. Credits include: Indian Princesses (La Jolla Playhouse), Peter Pan (National Tour), Can’t Drink Salt Water (Montana Repertory Theatre), and The Tempest (Classic Theatre of Maryland). She is honored to have been chosen as an artist in residency and thrilled to share her work with you. @serenitymariana.
Madeline (Maddie) Easley
Madeline (Maddie) Easley is an NYC-based, Wyandotte playwright. Her work tells epic stories to provide a framework for living in decolonial futures. Madeline’s plays and films have been presented at the La Jolla Playhouse, Kansas City Repertory Theater (KCREP), Native Voices at the Autry, Rattlestick Theater, Yale University, the American Indian Community House (AICH), REACH at the Kennedy Center, the TCL Chinese Theatre, and more. She is a 2025 First Peoples Fund Performing Arts Fellow, a 2025 New Harmony Project Writer, a 2023 Four Directions Playwright, a 2022 Resident at SPACE on Ryder Farm, and a 2021 First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellow. Born in Kansas City, Madeline is a citizen of the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma.
October 2025
Johnny Hendry
Johnny Hendry returns in October.
Kris Waymire
Kris Waymire is an Iñupiaq and Quechua artist that works primarily with beads and textiles. They create geometric patterns inspired by Old Bering Sea hunting tools and Andean weaving. Using leather, sinew, furs and bead they reclaim familial knowledge with their work. Kris Waymire studied studio art at NYU and was a 2023 Windgate Lamar Fellow with the Center for Craft. In 2024 they were an artist in residence at Ma’s House on Shinnecock.
