Drs. Mary Jo Watson and W. Jackson Rushing III

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Some scholars create special places for community through their trailblazing, their generosity of spirit, and their expectations of rigor. The students who attended the University of Oklahoma seeking degrees in Native American Art History learned these lessons well under the extraordinary leadership of Drs. Mary Jo Watson (Seminole Nation of Oklahoma) and W. Jackson Rushing III. Watson and Rushing passed within a month of each other in 2026, leaving massive voids in their families, the Oklahoma School of Visual Arts, and in the Native American cultural world at large. This short entry is but a small contribution to the memorialization of two scholars who served their communities of scholars with passion and compassion, and who created together an environment that shaped the field of Native American art history.

The Seminole language word for teacher is Mvhayv, a role that Dr. Watson epitomized. She was, by any account, the first Native American woman to receive a degree that qualified her to teach at the highest levels of American art history. Dr. Watson was a visionary who, beginning in the 1970s, forged a path that would recognize the artistic contributions of Native Americans. Dr. Watson received her PhD in Liberal Studies from OU in 1993, following an MA (1979), in which she wrote a thesis on Seminole aesthetics, and a BFA (1974). She was especially attentive to the work of Native women as she began teaching her seminar, American Indian Women Artists, in 1978. This seminar, based on her dissertation research, still forms the core of the PhD in Native American Art History program at OU.

At the time, Native American art was deeply marginalized in the discourses of American art history, as well as in global art historical contexts. Watson reported hearing feedback that her course content would be better suited in a department of Anthropology, Ethnography, or Social Studies. Still, Watson was a persistent visionary and rejected the brush-offs she received. The success of that first seminar, coupled with the rejections, would compel her to formulate and advocate for the creation of an extended curriculum and eventually a graduate program with the explicit objective of producing excellent scholarship on Native American art. The program was the first of its kind to focus on Native American art history, significant at the University of Oklahoma, which has a storied legacy of Native American artists, including the Kiowa Six (1927–29), Dick West (Southern Cheyenne, MFA 1941), and Oscar Howe (Yanktonai Dakota, MFA 1954), among many scholars who now lead the field in shaping discourse on Native American art and art history.

In addition to founding the first PhD program with a track explicitly dedicated to the art of Native America, she also served on many boards and in communities that advocated for the full expression of humanity of Native American Peoples. Watson served as a curator at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art and on state educational committees, including for the Oklahoma History Center and the Oklahoma Art in Public Places Program, among others. She served on boards for the Red Earth Art Center in Oklahoma City and the Jacobson Foundation in Norman—the home of the first director of the OU Art Department. Dr. Watson will be remembered for her tireless advocacy and firmness of belief in the value of careful, rigorous study of Native American expressive and material culture. She was a fierce advocate and gentle friend—a combination that is rare and valuable.

Watson served as a faculty member, then chair of the School of Visual Arts, and as Associate Dean in the Weitzenhoffer College of Fine and Performing Arts. Anyone who visited Dr. Watson’s office was offered a cup of coffee and a comfortable seat to discuss deep issues facing the field of Native American art and was challenged to keep up with Watson’s large circle of friends and influence, which she shared freely. Her many students remember her lectures on Native art, ranging from ancient Maya and Mesoamerica to cutting-edge contemporary work by emerging Native and First Nations artists. Each of her classes was sustained by pedagogical approaches that centered on Native philosophies and sophisticated methodologies. Watson rarely capped her classes, resulting in classrooms that were standing-room only. In most college classes, attendance wanes at the midway point, but Dr. Watson’s students showed up for nearly every class, in part due to her warmth as a leader, her friendly daily welcomes to each student, and her interesting framing as an excellent pedagogical practitioner. OU has a high Native American student population, and Dr. Watson’s reach manifests in the careers, leadership, and visions of hundreds of Native students who passed through the University in the decades, who now serve their Nations in leadership positions, direct major curatorial projects and institutions, and whoare active in making art. Dr. Watson was especially influential in shaping the trajectories of well-established Native contemporary artists working today, and in helping many Native students feel welcome in Oklahoma’s flagship university. Watson passed on November 18, 2025 at the age of eighty-eight.

Dr. W. Jackson Rushing III began working as the Eugene B. Adkins Presidential Professor of Native American Art History at OU in 2008. Rushing received his PhD in art history in 1988, following an MA (1984) and BA (1982) from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to coming to Oklahoma, Dr. Rushing served as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas-Dallas. Throughout his career, Rushing served on the Board of Directors and on many committees for the College Art Association, notably including the Committee on Diversity Practices, which developed a bibliography and resource directory that broadens the scope of discourses in art-historical practice, to which he added perspective on Native American art and material culture. He also served as the president of the Native American Art Studies Association (NAASA), and in many other roles as an avid supporter of Native Peoples and cultures. He published numerous books, exhibition catalogues, and articles. Dr. Rushing’s scholarship contributed to critical thinking on Native art, focused on intersecting areas of Native American art, Modernism, Museum Studies, postcolonialism, and theory. His most recent projects focused on the intersections of modernist primitivism and Indigenous modernism in the United States and Canada. Jack was a member of the American Council of Learned Societies, was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (2003), and earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native American Art Studies Association (2021).

Jack’s students and colleagues remember him as a welcoming friend and supporter who advocated for the equal treatment of Native subjects within art-historical discourse. Jack was a mentor who went out of his way to take time to line-edit important works like dissertations and theses, and to provide close reading and feedback to graduate students. He often welcomed students as friends and colleagues into his home and created opportunities for connection and networking with major figures in the fields of Native American art, curatorial, and archival realms. Dr. Rushing was dedicated to promoting and supporting his students’ work and committed to their academic rigor in all venues. He sought out and created opportunities that were designed for both success and education. Beyond being a rigorous professor, Jack was also quick to share a laugh or an invitation to enjoy a meal or drink. He was a friendly supporter of the many who were honored to enter his illustrious orbit, and our stature was elevated through association with him. Dr. Rushing passed on October 26, 2025, at the age of seventy-five.