PBS高端访谈:艰难前行的流动艺术巴士（在线收听）

AMNA NAWAZ: On the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, about half of all Native household depends on home-based enterprises for income. Many are some form of traditional arts. But many artists living on the reservation lack ways to meet buyers. Jeffrey Brown reports on a mobile effort that's tackling these challenges with a retrofitted bus, part of our series American Creators.

JEFFREY BROWN: It's called the Rolling Rez Arts bus, part art center, school, bank and business incubator rolling through their sprawling section of Southwestern South Dakota.

BRYAN PARKER, Rolling Rez Arts: The art is what brings people together. Filmmaker and painter Bryan Parker manages the Rolling Rez Arts program for the nonprofit First Peoples Fund, which launched the bus in 2016 with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and other foundations. It's a simple idea, using a converted airport shuttle bus as a means to reach and help indigenous artists in some of the poorest counties in the nation to sketch out new career paths.

BRYAN PARKER: Having the resources and those opportunities lets them know that I can take myself a little bit more seriously. And I can try to actually do this as a business. I can try to be a professional artist.

JEFFREY BROWN: Pine Ridge home to the Oglala Sioux Tribe is enormous, a 3,000-square-mile reservation of arid lands long plagued by high unemployment and few economic opportunities. So how hard is it to survive as an artist living here?

BRYAN PARKER: One of the biggest challenges is the distance and...

JEFFREY BROWN: Just how big this place is and how hard to get around.

BRYAN PARKER: Yes, how big, how rural it is. And so the opportunities become less because the distance is so great.

JEFFREY BROWN: A recent study showed that most Native artists live below the poverty line and more than 60 percent of artists starting out report incomes of less than 10,000 dollars a year.

GUS YELLOW HAIR, Artist, Rolling Rez Arts: We're living in extreme poverty conditions here, 60 to 70 percent unemployment.

JEFFREY BROWN: Gus Yellow Hair is a longtime artist living and working on Pine Ridge. He now teaches both traditional and contemporary art classes aboard the Rolling Rez bus.

GUS YELLOW HAIR: Our culture at one time was a very mobile culture. They called us warriors of the plains, being very mobile, lightweight. And so I think that's what Rolling Rez Arts is bringing, that technology, the computer, the supplies, the knowledge, into the communities and providing that to our community members. Very important.

JEFFREY BROWN: Classes on the bus are open to both children and adults of all skill levels. Lessons so far have included basic photography, alternative printmaking techniques, and traditional quill and beadwork. Recently, we watched Yellow Hair give a lesson to Donald Brave in the use of rawhide, animal skin, one of the earliest canvases used by Native artists, and on more practical matters from pricing to shipping.

GUS YELLOW HAIR: If you're going to send a delicate item, then you need to package it so that it's safe, it arrives safely.

JEFFREY BROWN: Rolling Rez puts the focus on making a living, as well as making art.

GUS YELLOW HAIR: You can create the bigger items, like the huge paintings or whatever it is that you're doing, but you want to make the small items as well, the 10, 20-dollar-lower-end items, because people might not be, they might be just passing through.

JEFFREY BROWN: But 10, 20, 30 bucks makes a difference.

GUS YELLOW HAIR: Yes, makes a difference. It does. That's gas money.

JEFFREY BROWN: That's gas money.

GUS YELLOW HAIR: That's gas money too. Every little bit helps here, here on the Pine Ridge.

JEFFREY BROWN: Brave is eager to work with older artists here. He's early in his career and, it turns out, just sold his first piece of artwork for $50.

DONALD BRAVE, Pine Ridge Artist: What I'm hoping to do is I'm hoping to tell a story with my art. I want to, I want to instill the values and the morals of Lakota culture into my artwork. It's not at that stage yet, but it will be.

JEFFREY BROWN: Beyond transportation and training, the project also offers banking services through a partnership with the Lakota Federal Credit Union. Shayna Ferguson is a manager and loan officer.

SHAYNA FERGUSON, Lakota Federal Credit Union: Most of our people on the reservation are unbanked or underbanked.

JEFFREY BROWN: Underbanked, you mean...

SHAYNA FERGUSON: Nothing, never had an account. We had, we did surveys when we first started in 2012, and 60 percent of everybody has never had an account before. They weren't familiar with the concept of banking and of saving money or just depositing or balancing a checkbook. We have to get our members out of the idea of hiding money in your, in your shoes in your closet.

JEFFREY BROWN: Lakota Federal Credit Union now has more than 2,500 members and is helping artists on Pine Ridge establish credit.

SHAYNA FERGUSON: They can definitely come here for a loan, especially artists starting out. Maybe they want to eventually move on to stuff like having a vehicle, transportation, to getting around, to delivering your artwork, or even just showcasing your artwork. That's an important step here, because I know it's not readily available.

JEFFREY BROWN: Back on the bus, I asked Gus Yellow Hair why art remains important on Pine Ridge.

GUS YELLOW HAIR: So, every culture has stories. They have art. They have ways of expressing themselves and telling about their history. And so that's why I think it's very important for artists here on Pine Ridge to be able to express themselves, to tell who we are as a nation of people, and that we have a history as well.

JEFFREY BROWN: The next step? The First Peoples Fund just broke ground on a new art center to expand its work in artistic and entrepreneurial education. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Jeffrey Brown on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

阿姆纳·纳瓦兹：在南达科塔州的松岭保护区，近一半的本地人都要靠在本地的公司打工来赚钱。其中很多都是靠传统艺术来谋生。但该保护区的很多艺术家却没有渠道，无法联系到买家。杰弗里·布朗报道了一项通过流动来展开的工作，这项工作应对了该保护区的诸多挑战，方式就是将一辆巴士进行翻新，这是我们《美国创造者》系列的部分内容。

杰弗里·布朗：这就是流动艺术巴士，他将艺术中心、学校、银行、企业孵化器通过流动的方式在西南部的南达科塔开枝散叶。

布莱恩·帕克，流动艺术巴士：艺术可以将人联系在一起。布莱恩·帕克是电影工作者，也是画家。他管理着非营利组织人民第一基金会。而正是人民第一基金会于2016年创办了这辆巴士，期间也得到了全国艺术基金会等基金会的资金支持。我们的初衷很简单，就是用机场巴士改造的车来找到并帮助一些本地的艺术家们，他们的祖国都赤贫不堪。这样做是为了帮他们谋划崭新的职业道路。

布莱恩·帕克：有了这样好的资源和机会之后，我就明白，我应该更把自己当回事儿的。而且其实这也可以作为一种职业，我可以通过努力成为职业艺术家。

杰弗里·布朗：松岭保护区和奥格拉拉苏部落之间是一片浩瀚的贫瘠之地，这是一片保护区，有3000平方英里。所以，那里的艺术家要想生存下来，难度有多大呢？

布莱恩·帕克：最大的挑战是距离和…..

杰弗里·布朗：也就是说，这个地方广袤无比，走动起来十分困难。

布莱恩·帕克：没错，这里特别大，农村氛围特别浓厚。所以机会也就相应地减少了，因为距离太远了。

杰弗里·布朗：最近的一项研究表明，大多数本土的艺术家，其生活水平都在贫困线以下。而60%的艺术家年收入少于1万美元。

格斯·海尔，艺术家，流动艺术巴士：我们生活在赤贫之中，就业率只有30%-40%。

杰弗里·布朗：格斯·海尔是松岭保护区的老艺术家了，一直在这边工作。现在他会在流动艺术巴士上教传统艺术和当代艺术课。

格斯·海尔：曾几何时，我们的文化流动性很强。有人说，我们是平原上的战士，四海为家，便装出行。我觉得，这就是流动艺术巴士给我们带来的东西，比如科技、计算机、供给品、知识，巴士把这些东西带给了各个社群及其成员。这是非常重要的。

杰弗里·布朗：巴士上的课是对各个技术层级的儿童和成年人公开的。目前为止，所教授课程包括基础摄影、替代版画技术、传统缝纫和珠饰细工技术。最近，我们观看了格斯·海尔先生给唐纳德·布雷夫上的一节课。这节课用到了动物的生牛皮，这是本土艺术家们用到的最早的帆布类型之一。这节课还讲到了一些现实的问题，比如定价、货运等。

格斯·海尔：如果要寄送易碎品，就需要包装精当，确保能够安全送达。

杰弗里·布朗：流动艺术巴士的重点就是让人们有所营生，让人们发扬艺术。

格斯·海尔：还可以制造更大的物品，比如大幅画等等，但艺术家也会想要制作小的物件，比如10-20美元不等的低端物件，因为普通人对大物件可能不会停留驻足，只会匆匆而过。

杰弗里·布朗：但10-30美元也应受到重视。

格斯·海尔：没错，这样的数额也很重要，比如，还能交汽油费。

杰弗里·布朗：这是汽油费。格斯·海尔：这也是汽油费。在松岭保护区，每一笔钱都很重要。

杰弗里·布朗：布雷夫很渴望能跟老一辈的艺术家一起共事。他的事业才刚刚起步，而他的第一幅作品就卖了50美元。

唐纳德·布雷夫，松岭保护区艺术家：我想要做的是：用艺术叙述故事。我希望将拉科塔族文化的价值观和道德观融入我的作品中。虽然目前我还没达到这个阶段，但总有一天会的。

杰弗里·布朗：除了运输服务和培训之外，该项目还可以提供银行服务，方式是通过跟科塔族联合信贷联盟进行合作。谢娜·弗格森是经理，也是信贷员。

谢娜·弗格森，科塔族联合信贷联盟：我们保护区的大多数人都没有银行账户或者得不到充分的金融服务。

杰弗里·布朗：您说的得不到充分的金融服务是什么意思呢？

谢娜·弗格森：就是从来没有开过户的意思。我们曾经做过多次调研，最早是2012年开始的。调研发现，60%的人从未开过户。他们甚至对很多概念都不了解，比如银行业、省钱、存钱、平衡收支。我们必须要让这里的人从过去的观念中走出来，而过去的观念就是把钱藏在衣柜的鞋子里。

杰弗里·布朗：科塔族联合信贷联盟现在有2500多个成员，正在竭力帮助松岭保护区的艺术家们。

谢娜·弗格森：他们当然可以来这里贷款，尤其是刚刚起步的艺术家们。或许他们最后会想要买车来进行运输，他们要去别的地方宣传自己的艺术品，甚至亲自展示自己的作品。这是非常重要的一步，因为我知道现在这一点还无法实现。

杰弗里·布朗：在巴士上的时候，我问到格斯·海尔先生一个问题，即艺术为什么对松岭保护区的人一直都很重要。

格斯·海尔：每个文化都有自己的故事，每个地方的人都有自己的艺术。他们有多种方式来表达自己并讲述自己的历史。因此，我认为松岭保护区的艺术家能够表达自己，这一点是很重要的，这样他们才能告诉外界——我们是一个民族，我们也有自己的历史。

杰弗里·布朗：那下一步是什么呢？人民第一基金会会势如破竹地开展新艺术中心，来扩张其在艺术教育和企业教育方面的工作。感谢收听《新闻一小时》，这里是杰弗里·布朗从南达科塔松岭保护区发回的报道。