Bio
Anna Needham (Red Lake Ojibwe) is a theatre artist, Indigenous rights advocate, and arts administrator.
She currently works for the Arizona Commission on the Arts as the Tribal Relations Manager, acting as the liasion between the Agency and the 22 Tribal Nations within the boundaries of Arizona. She joined the Arts Commission in 2019, serving as the Artist Programs Coordinator.
She graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in January 2018, where she received a BFA in Theatre with Honors and a minor in Producing. While at NYU, she was part of the conservatory program held at Playwrights Horizons Theater School (PHTS). She also participated in the 2018 Spring Cohort of the Native American Political Leadership Program at George Washington University.
Anna began as a performer when she entered PHTS. Later in her studies, she focused mainly on directing with an emphasis on works with honest conversations about race, gender, sexuality, and class. Her directing practice now centers audience experience in relationship to Land and its histories. She also received an award for her monologue “A Stolen Word” by the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program in 2020.
As an arts administrator, she has been able to view the intersection of arts and culture with public policy at the local, state, tribal, and federal levels. She looks to using her experience of the public sector as a resource for culturally-specific communities, especially Indigenous communities, to engage with government structures. She has served on panels for local, regional, and national funders, such as the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and Western States Art Federation (WESTAF).
In 2022, Anna developed the tribal consultation policy for the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the first-of-its-kind out of the 56 state and jurisdictional arts agencies across the United States of America. She currently serves as part of the Circle of Advisors in service of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies’ “Strengthening SAA (State Arts Agencies) Relationships with Native Communities” initiative.
“Boozhoo! Anna Needham nindishinikaaz. Ogimaaikwe nindigoo ojibwemong. Wawazhii nindoodem. Miskwaagamiiwizaaga’iganiing nindoonjibaa. Phoenix nindaa.
Hello! My name is Anna Needham. My name in Ojibwe/Anishinaabe (given to me by my grandfather) is Ogimaaikwe (or Boss Woman). My clan is the Bullhead Clan. I come from the Red Lake Nation. I am based in Phoenix.
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