About me
J. Kae Good Bear (Diné [Navajo], Mandan, and Hidatsa) is a Program Associate for the Mellon Foundation's Arts & Culture team.
Following her work on the Field Museum’s conservation team for their Mellon-funded Native North American Hall renovation project (2018-2022) J. Kae was part of the 2022-2023 UCLA Mellon Opportunity Conservation cohort where her internship took her to Alaska State Museum in Juneau for the summer of 2022. She returned to the Field to serve as Conservation Cultural Liaison where she created and implemented a fellowship program to train emerging Native museum professionals. J. Kae oversaw the programs supervision and applied an Indigenous holistic approach to the professional development of the cohorts. J. Kae worked to build relationships with over 40 Indigenous Tribal offices and organizations to promote the Mellon “Connecting Communities to Collections” Program. J. Kae facilitated collaborative care visits and knowledge exchanges between the Field Museum’s Anthropology department and Indigenous diplomats from the United States and Canada with a focus on collaborative practice incorporating Indigenous artists and cultural experts. She created culturally respectful workshops that uplift and prioritize Native partners, and worked on loans and undertook site visits to tribal institutions.
Born and raised on the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona, J. Kae Good Bear is a multidisciplinary artist who works in both western and Indigenous traditional art mediums."
