About Jess
Jess McPherson is a master artisan and arts & culture strategist with twenty years of experience in the arts & culture impact sector. Jess holds a Master of Science in Nonprofit Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice and a Bachelor of Fine Art from Pennsylvania College of Art & Design. She believes in the ability of the arts and the strength of cultural connectedness to build unique, robust, and thriving communities. Her depth of experience as a professional artist, curator, cultural educator, and creative entrepreneur, along with her leadership guiding not-for-profit cultural organizations through periods of growth and change, shape her perspective and inform her careful approach to social impact. She currently owns and operates Jess McPherson Arts & Consulting in York, PA, co-creating strategies for growth with individual artists and culturally-centered initiatives throughout the MidAtlantic.
Jess recently completed her role as a 2024-2025 Reckoning with Lancaster Project Community Fellow at Franklin & Marshall College and has received academic appointment as Visiting Scholar for the Anthropology Department for the 2025-2026 year.
Arts & Culture Impact Consulting
- Are you a Native Organization looking to do some board development, strategic planning, or leadership consultation?
- Are you an arts/arts advocacy or an Indigenous org looking to evaluate or design programs or systems that provide more meaningful impact in your community?
- Are you an educator looking for an arts & culture impact expert with a strong background in Urban Indian or Central PA/Maryland Indigenous experience?
Master Artisan Made Fine Craft
Jess McPherson has been awarded the title of Master Artisan by the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen for her handwrapped threadwork jewelry, mastering the benchmarks of excellence in execution, resolved design, and unique voice.
Artist Statement
My current work focuses on hand-wrapped threadwork jewelry, an amalgam of proficiency in the contemporary craft of threadwork combined with inspiration found in my dad’s garage, my studies in fine art, and my efforts to process the very human experiences of love and grief, holding moments to remember and intentions for strength, balance, and focus through the journey. This work connects the threads of histories past and present, pulling them forward, intertwining and weaving them into new stories carried forward into new futures by each wearer.
Alongside the making of these unique works, I explore things that bring me joy in eastern woodlands aesthetics, pulling together contemporary life and historical influence to create cultural connection points celebrating Susquehanna and Mid-Atlantic Native communities. I hope for each wearer to feel seen and recognized by their audience. It gives me great joy to see my customers wear my work at moments when they want look and feel their best selves.
Recent Events
A sample of what we've been up to...
April 8, 2025
Mennonite Life/Circle Legacy Center MOU Signing
Navigating cross-cultural collaborations can be complicated work, but with time, honesty, humility, accountability, and a good mind, the relationships built lead to work that can honor our ancestors and help build better futures. Ceremonial and public declarations of renewed partnership allow for celebration, and build accountability, and support.
April 4, 2025
Xeroxed Dreams: Send Me Your Zines Exhibit Opening
The DIY/underground magazine format does something wonderful to subvert privilege and democratize knowledge. Born of experimentation, art making, and conversation at a weekly art night at Josh Johnson Creative Studio, writer/collage artist/curator/entrepreneur, Tiffani Spangler, hosted and open call writer's exhibit at The Grotto in York, PA, encouraging artist and writers to experiment, self-publish, and share our zines across a wide range of subjects and approaches.
March 25, 2025
Artist/Arts Impact Talk at F&M
The opportunity to examine the trajectory of a life, of an artist, of a community member making change through the arts, is a special honor. Self-reflection is necessary for growth. In many ways, our Indigenous Futures in Lancaster class, has brought that opportunity. Growth and reflection and growth and reflection exist in endless cycles.
March 28-29, 2025
CFNP Dickinson "For the Peoples" Symposium
Collaborating in institutional reckoning must include accountability to the community. We travelled to the Center for the Futures of Native People in Carlisle, to present our Reckoning with Lancaster research, reflections on the process and, perhaps best of all, to be in intergenerational community with Indigenous scholars, knowledge keepers, and students.
March 22, 2025
Natives at Penn Powwow
Indigenous people from all over the americas gathered at the University of Pennsylvania. Natives at Penn Powwow, more than some, has a small family reunion feel. It's a pleasure to reunite with old friends, colleagues from Penn and to hang out on the balcony with a birds-eye view of the action. Great song, Red Blanket!
March 20, 2025
Cultural Alliance of York County
Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator Grantee Meetup
Grant making processes can and should be structured to assure accessibility and maximize positive outcomes. After three years and nearly 120 artists and creative entrepreneurs funded and resourced in York county, CAYC and its artist navigators gathered with our grantees to strengthen networks, foster collaboration, and celebrate the immense creativity, innovation, and determination in our community.
March 14, 2025
Circle Legacy Center 2nd Friday Program - Loss of Turtle Island
When we approach learning with a good mind, we build empathy and understanding, and hopefully, a community full of allies, advocates, and friends. CLC's 2nd Friday community was joined by visitors from the students and faculty from West Virginia University and members of the Conestoga-Susquehannock Tribe for an interactive history program created by the United Methodists' Council of Native American Ministries.
(Special thanks to Tetra Creative for assisting with equipment.)
March 5, 2025
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Indigenous Health Unit Community Advisory Meeting
CHOP's Indigenous Health Unit is the only IHU to focus on the needs of Indigenous Pennsylvanians.Through community outreach initiatives, the IHU has identified multiple stakeholders and subject matter experts to inform the exploratory phase of their project. Through this connection, our Indigenous Futures in Lancaster graduating senior, Makenna Fitzsimmons, was able to partner with CHOP to contribute to their initial research.
March 4, 2025
Language revitalization lecture with Karelle Hall (Nanticoke)
As we reckon with Lancaster's history of Indigenous/settler relations, including our Nanticoke friends cannot be overlooked. Dr Hall's visit to our Indigenous Futures in Lancaster class to discuss the true meanings of Land Back and her public lecture on the fascinating methodology at play in the resurrection or re-membering of the Nanticoke dialect were truly inspiring.
March 1, 2025
University of Maryland NAISA/MICA Powwow
Native American student unions provide important opportunities for Indigenous students to build communities of support, build leadership, and promote resilience and academic success. The UMD Powwow is a wonderful event that brings together community after a long winter season. Student, community, and public support from the folks in College Park, MD, is top notch and reinvigorates my enthusiasm as a vendor.
February 22nd, 2025
1719 Museum Longhouse Docent Training
Providing substantial training for volunteer docents has allowed the 1719 Museum to rebuild and improve its volunteer engagement and retention. This year's training built upon previous learning, allowing us to focus on key areas responsive to the questions docents feel most challenged to answer and deepening their understanding of the early 1700s human experience in Lancaster.
February 20th, 2025
Masterclass & Lecture with historian Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone)
Ned asks our campus to consider the question "Are Indians viewed as a race in America and if so when did we become racialized?" Reckoning with living in both a political identity and racial identity is a complex experience, but understanding "Indians" as citizens of sovereign nations and examining U.S. history through this lens opens new understandings of how America has built its own identity in a global context.
February 18th, 2025
Food Sovereignty Discussion and Indigenous Foods Feast with Chef Sherry Pocknett (Mashpee Wampanoag)
Rebuilding and deepening connections between Native people is critical to maintaining thriving east coast communities. We reunite old friends and create new connections to give stage to a stories of Indigenous food sovereignty, sharing the interconnectedness of people, life, and environment. Chef Sherry and her family fed our community in so many ways. Sherry's food tastes like love and care and like returning home.
February 11th, 2025
Lecture, Craft Talk & Reading with writer, Angelique Stevens (Haudenosaunee)
Each of us has unique value and our communities require we share of ourselves with abundance. What a special day to have spent so much time listening to Professor Stevens' expert understandings of language and to share in the universality of some experiences. Highlights that ignite new understandings: exploring the language of poverty and "Language limits you, but you are limited by language."
Copyright Jess McPherson, 2025.