The MFA Textiles Program in the School of Fashion at the Parsons School of Design is pleased to welcome Jamie Okuma for the Handwork Artist Residency, as part of Handwork 2026 presented by Craft in America.  We invite the Parsons community and the general public to join us in celebrating the artist residency at a Meet & Greet Reception.

RSVP is required.

Renowned fashion designer and artist, Jamie Okuma, will spend a week in the MFA Textiles studios at Parsons, sharing her practice and creating one-of-a-kind pieces with intricate hand-beading. The Parsons MFA Textiles program focuses on creative craft, building meaning through making in our community studio. We are thrilled that Jamie Okuma will share her insights, practice, and presence with us, and most importantly, join us in making with our hands.

The Handwork Artist Residency is a unique opportunity in higher education, linking leaders in the field with students to share and sustain craft. As a fashion designer and artist, Jamie’s work aligns perfectly with the Parsons MFA Textiles program, which is uniquely situated in the School of Fashion at Parsons. Jamie Okuma’s creative work is incomparable and will be an immense source of inspiration for our students.

About the Handwork Artist Residency

www.handwork2026.org
Handwork 2026, presented by Craft in America, is a nationwide initiative timed to the semiquincentennial that highlights the importance of the handmade throughout our history and in contemporary life. The Handwork Artist Residency engages university students in the ongoing story of craft and is made possible through a generous grant from the Windgate Foundation. The MFA Textiles program is one of a select group of colleges and universities to receive this opportunity.

About Jamie Okuma

www.jokuma.com
Jamie Okuma, a Luiseño, Shoshone-Bannock, Wailaki, and Okinawan, is an enrolled member of the La Jolla Band of Indians in Southern California where she lives and works. She specializes in one-of-a-kind pieces that are hand-executed exclusively by the artist herself in all details of process, while also designing ready to wear fashion.

As early as Okuma can remember, her life has been in the art world in one way or another. Her mother Sandra was a graphic artist and worked at MCA records when Jamie was a child.  During her time there, she produced album covers for Lynard Skynyrd and Cher, to name a few. After high school, Okuma took graphic design classes at Palomar College in San Marcos, CA before attending the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM. From the age of 18, she has been a professional artist completely devoted to her art.

Exhibiting her work at the Heard Indian Art Market in Phoenix, AZ and at the Santa Fe Indian Art Market in Santa Fe, NM. She has garnered a total of seven Best in Show awards, four from the Heard and three from the Santa Fe Indian Market, one of only two artists to achieve this distinction. Since that time, her work has traveled the globe. She most recently became the first Native American inducted into the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). She is also a 2025 CFDA Vogue Fashion Finalist.

Okuma has work in the permanent collections of Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, and many more.