TOPPENISH, Wash. -- Author and museum curator Steve Grafe will present an illustrated lecture about Columbia River Plateau beadwork at Heritage University on Wednesday.

The event will begin at 11 a.m. in the Jewett Center on campus, 3240 Fort Road in Toppenish. It will include an overview of 19th- and 20th-century regional beadwork, as well as pictures of public and private collections.

Grafe is the curator of art at the Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale. He’s also the author of several publications, including “Peoples of the Plateau: The Indian Photographs of Lee Moorhouse, 1898-1915,” and “Lanterns on the Prairie: The Blackfeet Photographs of Walter McClintock.”

The presentation is part of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, under the “We the People” project. The grant funds speakers, exhibits and faculty trainings designed to boost teaching and learning in the areas of American Indian studies and Hispanic literature at Heritage University.

— Erin Snelgrove