Preston Bark is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the son of Franklin Thompson and Robert Bark, and the middle child between two brothers. He was born in Sylva, North Carolina and raised in the Wolftown Community in Cherokee. Preston is a member of the Wolf Clan.

Artistic talent runs in the family of poet and writer Jody Bradley.  A native of Cherokee, N.C., Bradley herself has seen her poems and articles published in multiple regional outlets like Cherokee Writers, Cherokee Heritage Trails and the Cherokee One Feather, among others.

Atsei Cooper is from the Yellowhill community and is a self taught artist. She does beadwork, painting, and drawing. She graduated from the University of Utah in 2021 with a degree in anthropology and has a background in archaeology.

Letitia C. George has resided on the Qualla Boundary for most of her life. A resident of the Painttown Community she learned to bead from her mother as a young girl. She started off doing cornbead necklaces and daisy chains. Eventually she learned how to work on a bead loom and expanded on the beading styles she knew. 

Having the freedom to express herself in a variety of mediums is why Katherine Jacobs is passionate about art. Her feminine style resonates in her paintings and as a make-up artist.

Charles Jumper, or Charlie as he is mostly known, is the baby boy of the late Laura Jumper. A self-taught coppersmith and pyrography artists, Charlie also works in other mediums including clay sculpture and painting. He became interested in art after seeing painting of Basil GoGo’s and Frank Frazetta in Famous Monsters of Film Land magazines in 1992. 

A white oak and river cane basket weaver, and potter, Betty Maney can often be found at her Cherokee, North Carolina home studio cutting and dyeing the oak strips to weave one of her exquisite baskets. That’s when she’s not working out a design for her latest beaded creation.

A self-taught artist specializing in creating unique, contemporary works of art, Rob Radford, loves the challenge of creating something out of nothing. He is known for Native American flutes and one-of-a-kind hand-carved items.

A self-taught and accomplished craftsman, North Carolina native Bill Radford discovered his real passion was carving soapstone and shell after he began wood carving in the early 1980s. Whether it’s a knife, a ceremonial pipe or a small shell hummingbird,

Johnathon David Thompson is a Kituwah Preservation and Education Program graduate, currently entering his Sophomore year at Cherokee High School. From a young age, he is immersed in culture and craft, assisting with cane gathering, harvesting white oak, dying, and processing splits. His current artistic creations include canvas paintings, tile paintings, and painting gourd birdhouses.

A second-generation basket weaver, potter, gardener, and member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), Mary Thompson expresses her appreciation for her ancestry and culture through her signature woven creations.

Alica Murphy Wildcatt is a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Born and raised in the Birdtown Community on the Cherokee Indian Reservation in western North Carolina, Alica was exposed to and had an interest in the Native American arts and crafts tied to her ancestral roots from a very early age.