Welcome

The Heritage University Visual Arts Program warmly invites our campus community and the general public to Rooted Voices: Creative Exchange in Central Washington, a multi-day celebration of storytelling, community connection, and creative courage.

Hosted on our campus at 3240 Fort Road, Toppenish, WA, this series brings together two legendary MacArthur Fellows: Heritage founding President, Sister Kathleen Ross, and international sound/kinetic artist, Trimpin. Together, they will lead workshops, informal discussions, and public events. As the only two Washington State recipients of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 1997, both Ross and Trimpin share a deep, lifelong commitment to education, communication, and community.

Led by these two icons, this workshop and event series creates an open space for personal storytelling, visual communication, and cross-disciplinary dialogue. All events are free and open to the public.

National Context: Defying Boundaries

Rooted Voices is proud to be an official part of Defying Boundaries: MacArthur Fellows at 45, a nationwide 2026 celebration marking 45 years of the MacArthur Fellows Program. The foundation has spent decades investing in creative solutions, supporting effective institutions, and working to build a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. When the MacArthur Foundation called for projects by their Fellows highlighting creative courage, cross-disciplinary innovation, and public engagement, we knew it was a natural fit for our community.

Rooted in Heritage University

Heritage University empowers a multicultural and inclusive student body to overcome the social, cultural, economic, and geographic barriers that limit access to higher education. Rooted in the homeland of the Yakama Nation, we embrace transformational, student-centered education that cultivates leadership and a commitment to promoting a more just society. Rooted Voices is a direct reflection of this mission—bringing national innovation directly into conversation with our local landscape and stories.

The Lineup:

The goal of this event is to help people practice understanding each other through story-writing and art practice, growing in our ability to be more sensitive and responsive to those around us. 

Rooted Voices is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.  The MacArthur Foundation boldly invests in creative solutions to urgent challenges, sparking hope for our future. We strive toward transformative change on some of the world's most pressing social issues, including the existential threats of climate change, criminal justice reform, revitalizing local news in the U.S., expanding who creates, uses, and benefits from artificial intelligence, and strengthening the well-being of Native communities.

In addition, we maintain enduring commitments in our hometown Chicago, where we invest in people, places, and partnerships to build a more inclusive Chicago and in journalism and media, where we invest in more just and inclusive news and narratives.

We also make awards to extraordinarily creative individuals through the MacArthur Fellows program and for solutions to critical problems of our time through 100&Change.  To learn more, please visit macfound.org

Land Acknowledgment:

Heritage University occupies its home on the traditional lands of the Yakama People. These ancestral homelands are the Yakama, Palouse, Pisquouse, Wenatshapam, Klikatat, Klinquit, Kow- was-say-ee, Li-ay-was, Skin-pah, Wish-ham, Shyiks, Ochechotes, Kah-milt-pa, and Se-ap-cat, who today are represented by the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation [TREATY OF 1855] and, whose relationship with this land continues to this day. Heritage University, grounded in the vision of the two Yakama women founders, respects Indigenous peoples as traditional guardians of the lands and the enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous peoples and their traditional territories.  We offer gratitude for the land itself, for those who have stewarded it for generations, and for the opportunity to study, learn, work, and be in community on this land. We acknowledge that our University’s history, like many others, is fundamentally tied to the first colonial developments in the Yakima Valley. Finally, we respectfully acknowledge and honor past, present, and future Indigenous students who will journey through this home called Heritage University. 

Mission: 

Heritage University empowers a multicultural and inclusive student body to overcome the social, cultural, economic, and geographic barriers that limit access to higher education. Rooted in the homeland of the Yakama Nation, the University embraces transformational student-centered education that cultivates leadership and a commitment to the promotion of a more just society. 

Let us know if you'll be attending!