Ford Foundation General Counsel Joins NACF Board of Directors

(12-2-10) The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) has appointed Barron M. Tenny to its board of directors. Tenny is executive vice president, secretary and general counsel of the Ford Foundation. He joined the Foundation in 1983 as special assistant to the president and was made vice president, secretary and general counsel in 1984. Prior to joining the Foundation, Tenny spent nine years at the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. He started as a staff attorney in 1974 and became general counsel, vice president, and assistant secretary in 1977. From 1970 to 1974 Tenny was an associate attorney with the New York law firm of Greenbaum, Wolff & Ernst. Tenny graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1969. He received his bachelor’s degree in history and science from Harvard College. Tenny is the vice chair of the Foundation Center and a member of the boards of the International Fellowship Fund and of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York Fund. He will retire from the Ford Foundation in January.

The NACF also recently elected its 2011 board officers. Marshall McKay (Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation) will serve as chair. Walter Echo-Hawk (Pawnee) is vice chair. Elizabeth Woody (Warm Springs, Wasco, Wasco/Navajo) is secretary and Joy Harjo (Mvsckoke/Creek) is treasurer.

“I believe the arts have a sacred place among our people and are an important part of our tangible history,” said McKay. “They have always been paramount in my life; and it is my hope that hundreds and thousands of years from now people will understand who we were through our art. I am dedicated to making certain that our artists and arts organizations are understood and appreciated now and in the future.”

Incorporated in 2007, the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation is a permanently endowed national organization dedicated exclusively to the revitalization, appreciation and perpetuation of Native arts and cultures. The Foundation recently awarded its first grants totalling $394,319 to 26 American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian artists and organizations in 12 states.