Mouse Woman drawing by Luke J. Parnell



The Beat


A monthly newsletter about the art of

First Nations on Canada’s West Coast


Welcome to the eleventh issue of The Beat, a free, independent newsletter that brings you up-to-date on the art events of the First Nations on Canada’s Pacific Coast.


We respectfully acknowledge the Coast Salish Peoples, on whose traditional territories we live and work, and all the First Nations of our province.

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Auctions

Seahawk Auctions’ Vancouver sale on May 31 2008 brought in good results, especially for the work of Robert Davidson: a silver bracelet from 1971, with an estimate of $6500, sold for $11,000. A 1976 gold bracelet by Davidson sold for $10,500, much more than the estimate of $3800. A Bill Reid silver frog, created in 1971 in a large edition as a fundraiser for the Museum of Anthropology sold for $900. An interesting Stan Greene Goat Boy Mask sold for only $250, perhaps because it was presented for sale near the very end of the long event. For more see www.seahawkauctions.com


A June 9 2008 Bonhams & Butterfields auction in San Francisco brought impressive results for the featured lot, a Chilkat blanket once in the collection of Zane Grey, a popular American writer of “cowboy and Indian” fiction. The beautifully woven artwork depicts a Bear flanked by killer whales and carried an estimate of $78,000. It sold for the sum of US$1.6 million! See www.bonhams.com


A world record was set for sale of First Nations work in a small town auction in Newton Connecticut recently. An elderly woman whose late boyfriend had once given her a battered dark wooden object took it from her attic and brought it for identification to an appraisal clinic in a seniors’ centre. It was eventually recognized as a Tlingit war helmet from about 1800, made of spruce burl, in the shape of a bear head.

The auction on May 18 2008 brought an astonishing price of $US2,185,000! We can only imagine what the ancient warrior ancestor would think of all this. More information at www.fairfieldauction.com


North American Indigenous Games in Cowichan

An article in The Beat July 2008 describes the excitement around this sporting event taking place in British Columbia’s Comox Valley which opens August 2 2008. Best wishes to the participants!

Tribal Journey is the ceremonial arrival at the Games of First Nations peoples in canoes originating all along the North American Pacific coast, as well as the aboriginal guests from Australia and the Arctic. On July 29 106 canoes were greeted by a crowd of 10,000 on the shore.

A beautiful short video of the arrival, narrated by Ron Rice (Cowichan), Manager, Cultural Events and Ceremonies, is available online at The Globe and Mail


Kitselas Canyon Poles Raised

On Monday August 4 2008 another landmark occasion takes place at this magnificent Tsimshian site on the Skeena River near Terrace, British Columbia. Four poles, Wolf, Raven, Eagle and Killer Whale, will be raised at the historical point overlooking the Skeena as it narrows to rush through the Kitselas canyon towards Hazelton. The ceremony takes place at 11 am, and will be followed by a community salmon barbeque. This special ceremony and art market are part of the Terrace Riverboat Days running from August 1 to 10.

The entire Kitselas project is a joint undertaking of the Kitselas Nation and Parks Canada, and is expected to be complete by 2010, says Project Manager Bert Mercer.

For more information, call the Kitselas Treaty Office in Terrace at 250 635 8882 or visit www.kitselas.bc.ca



Galleries

The Drawings and Paintings of Daphne Odjig , an exhibition at the Kamloops Art Gallery features nearly 60 works spanning 40 years by the distinguished Anishnabe artist, until August 31 2008. See www.kag.bc.ca


In Victoria, a solo show by Coast Salish artist lessLIE Sam at the Alcheringa Gallery runs to August 23 2008. The show lessLIE: cuneiform-LINE features images of simple contour shapes with strong optic sensations, based on line traditions found in early coast Salish art and Mesopotamian writing. The $12 catalogue includes a  detailed
examination of his work by Dr. Andrea N. Walsh, his thesis
supervisor at the University of Victoria. See www.alcheringa-gallery.com


Nearby at 630 Yates Street in Victoria, the Legacy Gallery and Café is exhibiting Copper Thunderbird: Invention and Inspiration featuring the late Anishnabe artist Norval Morrisseau and other artists of the Woodland School. In the same gallery is Mary Kerr , an exhibition of costumes, drawings and photographs designed for Copper Thunderbird, the compelling biographical play about Morrisseau by Marie Clement. The exhibitions continue until November 30 2008.

For more, see http://legacygallery.ca


Nisga’a artist Michael Dangeli has won in the Contemporary category of the Sealaska Celebration 2008 Juried Art Show for his drum Manifesting the Intangible . As well, a Dangeli work has been chosen for the 2009 Garfinkel calendar, The Gathering: Contemporary Northwest Coast Art . This is the eighteenth calendar in the series which brings the work of the best First Nations artists to a wider public. For more on the calendar: www.nativenorthwest.com


The Bent Box Gallery at 1536 West 2 nd Avenue in Vancouver is re-inventing itself as the Edzerza Gallery with an opening event on August 21 2008 at 5 pm. Tahltan artist Alano Edzerza is taking over the gallery.

To follow the gallery’s activities see www.edzerzagallery.com


The Omega Gallery at 4290 Dunbar Street in Vancouver has an exhibition of recent work, including glass, by Musqueam artist Susan A. Point until August 8 2008. For more www.omegagallery.ca


The Bill Reid Gallery at 639 Hornby Street in Vancouver has a new website. The Gallery and the Kil Sli Native Gift Shop are open Mon-Fri 10:30 am – 5 pm, weekends 11 am – 5 pm. See the new website at www.billreidgallery.ca


The Copper Wolf Gallery at 210-228 E. Hastings in Vancouver is planning a youth show in the fall.


At the Campbell River Art Gallery in Campbell River British Columbia, George Littlechild’s exhibition Red and White – Chapter 2 continues until August 8. Littlechild “explores relationships between First Nations and White people, including his own family history and identity (Plains Cree, Irish and Scottish) in digitally manipulated photo-based images, mixed media paintings and text.

See www.crartgallery.ca


Haida Delegations Study International Museums

The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England has received approximately Cdn$208,000 from the Leverhulme Trust to support the work of Haida Nation members in their work with that museum, the Haida Gwaii Museum, and the British Museum in London for work with Haida artifacts in UK museum collections. Research questions include “how museums incorporate tribal knowledge about artefacts within databases and public programming, and how museum objects are being used by Haida today.”

Three Haida art curators will travel to study and teach at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford during the summer of 2009. Vince Collison, Nika Collinson and Lucille Bell have worked with Pitt Rivers curator Dr. Laura Peers over many years on projects which have been of use to both parties. The Pitt Rivers Museum has large and fascinating collections of world ethnology and Canadian First Nations art, both ancient and modern. The galleries of the museum itself in Oxford will be closed to renovation until early spring 2009, but its website has databases on its ethnographic and photograph collections which can, of course, be seen online at any time. Visit the museum’s website at www.prm.ox.ac.uk

Lucille Bell of Old Masset in the Haida Gwaii is also organizing a group of Haida naaniis and jadaas (grannies and girls) to visit two American museums: the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. and the Natural History Museum in New York. The Washington Museum holds 1,300 Haida pieces and the New York institution has many treasures including its famous huge Haida canoe collected in 1883. The group, which includes weavers and carvers, will create art work together when they return home. Fundraising has begun on the project.


More Museum News

The Vancouver Art Gallery has received a grant of $207,000 from Arts Partners in Creative Development to commission a wall-mounted sculpture by Haida artist Robert Davidson . The Gallery is planning an exhibition of Davidson’s work.


A distinguished scholar and writer in the field of First Nations art, Aldona Jonaitis, has announced her plans to retire in November 2008 after 15 years as director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North in Fairbanks Alaska.


Another change on the American west coast: CEO of the Seattle Museum of Art , Mimi Gardner Gates will leave her position, retiring on July 1, 2009.


An ancestral stone figure Q’aysca:m is at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The sacred figure went missing for over 20 years until it was re-discovered this January by Musqueam Wayne Point who noticed it sitting in the water at the beach. The female figure is displayed prominently at the Museum and rests on a fine base by Irvin Sparrow which represents a clam shell. Sparrow has carved the base is with a mother orca and calf, spawning salmon and a pair of hummingbirds. The Musqueam nation has kindly lent the figure to MOA until August 31 2008.

The Museum of Anthropology will be closed during renovations from September 2, 2008 to March 3, 2009. For more see www.moa.ubc.ca

The Haida Heritage Centre and Museum at Qay’llnagaay has its festive Grand Opening on August 23 2008, near Skidegate on the Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands. Two poles wil be unveiled: the Heart of Canada Pole, by Reg Davidson, and an ancient pole from Skedans that tells the story of Bear Mother. See more at www.haidaheritagecentre.com

Commissions for Artists

The pace of announcements for Olympic opportunities for artists in Vancouver has picked up considerably. Following are brief mentions with references for further information. Be sure to distinguish between “Calls for Expression of Interest” on the one hand, and “Calls for Submission of Artwork”, on the other.

All calls concerning commissions are posted online, until their expiry,
http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/oca/PublicArt/artistopp.htm .

Deadline for submissions is August 29, 2008. Project Budget:  $150,000. For further information contact John Aldag, Historic Sites Manager, at 604.513.4780 or email: john.aldag@pc.gc.ca

Information and application forms can be found at www.fphlcc.ca


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Comments, news and new subscribers to this free newsletter are welcomed. Please write to: editor@coastalartbeat.ca

Past issues are available at our website www.coastalartbeat.ca

Thank you for assistance from David Dumaresq, Martine Reid, Vince Collison, Bert Mercer, Herb Auerbach, Martin Landmann and Mike Dangeli.

The Beat is an independent, not-for-profit project written and published in Vancouver, Canada by Ann Cameron. Copyright 2008 Ann Cameron.