An art photograph of a tall person dressed in Native American headpiece and a small person/child also with a native American headpiece standing next to each other

Legacy by artist Alexandra Williams, 2022, digital photograph

Visible History: A Celebration of North Carolina Native American Culture

Raleigh Arts


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Visiting the Exhibition Featured Artist Triangle Native American Society Cultural Arts at Triangle Native American Society Triangle Native American Society Artists
Native american traditional dancer

Chief Keith by Alexandra Williams, 2022, digital photograph

Block Gallery Exhibition
Sept. 17, 2025 - Jan. 9, 2026

This exhibition aims to showcase the bountiful culture of our North Carolina Indigenous communities. Our featured artist, Alexandra Williams captures the proud cultural history and representation celebrated at the Dix Park Inter-Tribal Pow Wow. Her photography highlights the rich traditions of North Carolina’s original residents to bring visibility to this vibrant community.

Additionally, we’ve partnered with the Triangle Native American Society (TNAS) to feature works by their member artists. Each unique work is rooted in their cultural history and is each artist’s contribution to carrying on traditions with new perspective.

Grounded in Tradition by Alexandra Williams, 2022, digital photograph

Pow-Wow Children by Alexandra Williams, 2022, digital photograph

Snake jewelry dish by Jesalyn Keziah (Lumbee Tribe), 2022, pottery

by Gwen Locklear (Lumbee Tribe)

Lifting North Carolina by Ava Paisley Frisard (Lumbee Tribe), 2025, pottery

Chief Keith by Alexandra Williams, 2022, digital photograph

Visiting the Exhibition

The exhibition will be displayed from Sept. 17, 2025 until Jan. 9, 2026.

  • Time: Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. 
    Closed Saturday and Sunday, and on City Holidays.
  • Parking: Visitors can park in the Municipal Complex Parking Deck at 201 W Morgan St., Raleigh, NC 27601
  • Where: Block Gallery, 222 W. Hargett St. (inside Raleigh Municipal Building)
  • Cost: Free and open to the public

Featured Artist

Black and white headshot of artist Alexandra Williams

Artist and Photographer Alexandra Williams

Alexandra Williams
Instagram @apwmedia
apw-media.com

Alexandra Williams (b. 1995, Bergenfield, NJ) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Raleigh, North Carolina, working across photography, filmmaking, and aura reading. She is the co-owner of Nine19 Studio, a woman-led photography studio in Downtown Raleigh which she runs alongside creative partner, Kimberly Angel W. Together, they have cultivated an artist-owned business rooted in community, empowerment, creative freedom, and uplifting underrepresented voices.

Her work centers on the sacred act of seeing and being seen. Through intentional, soul-led portraiture, Alexandra creates space for clients to explore their identity, reconnect with their power, and show up as their fullest selves. Her sessions often blur the line between photoshoot and spiritual ceremony, rooted in the belief that imagery can heal, liberate, and affirm.

In 2025, she collaborated with Raleigh Arts and Triangle Native Society on The Art of Native Regalia, a wheatpaste street-art project that highlights her ongoing dedication to cultural storytelling and visual representation. Her work also highlighting the Dix Pow-Wow, was featured on the cover of the 2024 May Issue of Walter Magazine. Through her studio work and community engagement, Williams continues to build a practice centered on visibility, authenticity, and creative liberation.

Triangle Native American Society

Triangle Native American Society is a 501(c)3 nonprofit serving the Triangle-area Native American population of ~13,000 Tribal Citizens in Wake, Orange, Durham, Chatham, and Johnston counties. This is nearly 10% of the entire Native population of North Carolina, representing many diverse Tribal Nations (all 8 from NC, as well as across the US). Triangle Native is state recognized alongside the NC’s 8 Tribal Nations and 4 Urban Indian organizations and sits on the NC Commission of Indian Affairs as well as the NC American Indian Heritage Commission.

TNAS has a 40-year history of bringing cultural representation into the Triangle. In the earliest years, we organized cultural displays, including Raleigh’s first inter-cultural festival. Our programs reach 1) our internal audience of Triangle Native members, increasing our own access to our unique cultural arts traditions, and 2) the general public, increasing visibility, awareness, accurate representation, and public knowledge of Native American people, cultures, and cultural arts traditions still active in modern society. 

We welcome you to join us at the 2025 Dix Park Pow Wow on October 11 to see our inter-Tribal culture on display. You can learn more about our programming at www.trianglenative.org

Cultural Arts at Triangle Native American Society

As "Urban Indians", it can be challenging to be separated from our home communities.  In terms of cultural arts, this often means that we may be far from the centers of cultural traditions, artists and culture bearers, resources, camaraderie, and kinship support we find in our homeland communities. This is a prime reason for the formation of the Triangle Native American Society, established in 1984 to convene our local urban Native American population and preserve, protect, and connect cultural traditions. Our Urban Indian organization serves as this cultural home away from home. Our culture is embedded in our arts, and our artistic traditions define our identities, bringing cultural arts to a top community priority.

As a cultural organization representing the first artists of this land, Triangle Native American Society weaves culturally representative arts into our programming, as cultural arts are central to our identity as Native people. We serve both our Native community members, enhancing access to cultural arts traditions for Urban Indians, and the general public, boosting visibility and awareness of Native cultures and traditions. Recognizing the underrepresentation of Native culture in the Triangle's vibrant arts scene, our programs improve visibility, public engagement, and cultural understanding. Upcoming initiatives include workshops for Urban Indians to access our own unique cultural arts traditions and become culture bearers, as well as public cultural exchanges including a downtown Raleigh mural, cultural events like the Dix Park Pow Wow, Heritage Celebration, and public cultural performances featuring Native artists.

Triangle Native American Society Artists

Gavin Bell (Lumbee Tribe), Raven Dial Stanley (Lumbee Tribe), Jesalyn Keziah (Lumbee Tribe), Sherry Keziah (Lumbee Tribe), Ava Paisley Frisard (Lumbee Tribe), Gwen Locklear (Lumbee Tribe), Tiana Lowry (Lumbee Tribe), Betty Oxendine Mangum (Lumbee Tribe), Jocelyn Painter (Winnebago Tribe), Ashley Salaz (Coharie Tribe)

Contact

 

Stacy Bloom Rexrode
Curator of Exhibitions and Collections, Raleigh Arts
stacy.bloom-rexrode@raleighnc.gov
919-996-4687

Department:
Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources
Service Categories:
Raleigh Arts
Related Services:
Galleries and ExhibitionsArts Programs

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