The Bill Reid Foundation’s office is newly settled at the Chief

Volume I, Issue 3 December 2007

For the first time, the Archives at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia is exhibiting a group of its photographs as an independent show, entitled “Seeing is Believing: Photographs from the Archives”. While small, it provides arresting images of several world cultures. The historical views of northern British Columbia First Nations are magical. The archives, with over 75,000 images, is built from photographic collections donated by anthropologists and others, as well as full documentation of the museum’s own history. Kristina Laszlo, MOA’s archivist, says plans have been made to expand efforts to work with BC’s First Nations communities to identify and better describe the subjects in the photos. The exhibition is on view until December 31, 2007.

The exhibition Treasures of the Tsimshian from the Dundas Collection has attracted much attention during its travels from Prince Rupert to Ottawa, Toronto and Victoria. The extraordinary objects originating in northern British Columbia came to international public attention when they were auctioned in New York in 2006 at record prices, the first sensational echo in the field of Canada’s First Nations art of an overall sharp rise in art prices. Finally in Vancouver at the UBC Museum of Anthropology from February 3 to March 21, 2008. www.moa.ubac.ca

The Bill Reid Foundation is newly settled at 639 Hornby Street in Vancouver, the former Canadian Craft Museum where it will open the Bill Reid Art Gallery for Northwest Art at the Chief Dan George Centre. On November 14 plans were announced for the inaugural exhibition at the Bill Reid Art Gallery, a show of works by Bill Reid chosen from the Foundation’s extensive and growing collection, opening May 10, 2008. That evening a reception was held to honour major donors whose contributions helped secure the founding collection. Supporters cheered the announcement of a donation of $1,000,000 from the Michael Audain Foundation that will help the Bill Reid Foundation to re-fit the building and launch the gallery. Additional generous pledges of financial help were promptly made by many guests. The Gallery is by no means empty in the interval before the May 8^th opening to the public: Haida artist Jim Hart, Chief Edenshaw, is there now carving a pole to celebrate the memory of his mentor Bill Reid.

On February 1 and 2, 2008 the Bill Reid Gallery is hosting a performance of The Spirit of Haida Gwaii, by Bruce Ruddell. The oratorio is based on the prose poem by Bill Reid inspired by his sculpture of the same name. First Nations soloists soprano Melody Mercredi and baritone Clarence Logan, the choir of Christ Church Cathedral and a full live orchestra will be under the direction of Rupert Lang. On February 1 at 7 pm, and on February 2 at 2 pm, the event will begin with a Coast Salish welcome at the Bill Reid Gallery at 639 Hornby Street, and the concert will follow at the neighbouring Christ Church Cathedral. The event is one of many announced on November 30 sponsored by Vancouver’s 2010 Cultural Olympiad.

Concert tickets are available at www.TicketsTonight.ca , by calling 604 231 7535 or in person at the Plaza Level of 200 Burrard Street in Vancouver.

Art prices have been making headlines worldwide and, not surprisingly, some of this extravagant enthusiasm has been reflected in competition to own work by local art “stars”. Brian Jungen‘s sculpture of a mask made of re-assembled Nike shoes, “Prototypes for a New Understanding #5” sold at auction in Toronto for $137,000, after a catalogue estimate of $35,000. With buyer’s premium, the new owner paid a total of $140,000 for the work.

Jungen’s new piece “1990” is among that of three Vancouver artists featured at the Art Basel Miami Beach by the Catriona Jeffries Gallery which handles his work in Vancouver. The gallery describes “1990” as a “twelve-foot high, volumetric tune stack made of high-end golf bags, reconfigured with strong formal resemblance to a totem pole…the sixth and last in the series of tube stack works, five of which are currently on view at the Lyon Biennale” (see The Beat October 2007). The series is said to be an ironic comment on the use of land for elite recreational purposes, the same lands which traditionally sustained the lives of First Nations peoples.

In Bella Coola Nuxalk artist Silyas Saunders was commissioned to create a pole for a Dutch collector. The Petroglyph Gallery in Bella Coola reports that tourists from the Netherlands comprise a significant portion of their visitors and art collectors. Saunders work can be viewed at www.silyasgallery.com The Petroglyph Gallery is at www.petroglyphgallery.ca .

We are all curious about the role that First Nations culture and artists will play in the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games. A recent conversation with Gary Youngman, Consulting Director of Aboriginal Participation at VANOC provided an overview of that role to date. Connie Watts, a noted Nuu-chah-nulth/Gitxsan artist, is in charge of developing the concepts for the commissioning of further First Nations’ work relating to venue operations. More details will be announced in the New Year.

Note that not all venues to be used by the 2010 Games are the responsibility of VANOC. Olympic sport venues that are under the jurisdiction of the City of Vancouver, like the new Convention Centre at the waterfront, will follow City guidelines on the allocation of resources to the purchase or commissioning of works of art.

Another aspect of participation by aboriginal artists will be the design of related, mass-produced products.

While actual programs are still being developed, there is a clear intention to have a respectful acknowledgement of Canada’s First Nations at each Olympic venue.

The October 2007 issue of The Beat mentions Musqueam artist Susan Point’s commission from the City of Richmond to design a part of The Oval . Point’s design is incorporated into the concrete buttresses, a contemporary interpretation of housepost forms. The heron and salmon reliefs are on runnels which channel storm water flow. A longer description of the project can be found at www.richmond.ca/news/2006_city/musqueam.html

Dorothy Grant, well-loved Haida fashion designer, is back in Vancouver after a year’s sabbatical in New Mexico and a visit to Peru. This last winter, Grant received a Dobkin Fellowship at the Indian Arts Research Center in Santa Fe, an honour usually only accorded to Native American women artists from the American Southwest. One of her button blankets was recently purchased by the Liverpool Museum in England, which has an important collection of historical Canadian aboriginal art.

Fresh designs of elegant clothing are displayed and for sale at her studio at 1656 West 75^th Avenue in Vancouver. Luxurious and sometimes costly as the pieces may be, they are so classic in concept that they surely will be treasured for years. If you have a princess on your holiday gift list, a Peruvian alpaca “Eagle Swing Coat” trimmed with mink, with Haida appliquéd designs front and back, might be tempting. www.dorothygrant.com

An exhibition featuring many BC artists of the Northwest coast is showing now in Minneapolis until January 13, 2008. Changing Hands: Art without Reservation 2: Contemporary Native American Art from the West, Northwest & Pacific originated at New York’s Museum of Arts & Design in 2006, and has traveled through the US. Works selected show a wide range of approaches to traditional and contemporary concepts of art – all are beautiful and compelling. The American curators correctly understood the wonderful creative spirit of British Columbia-based First Nations artists. HALF of the 200 artists in the larger New York version of the exhibition were BC-based. These include Christian White, Stan Green, Dempsey Bob, Connie Watts, Marianne Nicolson, David Neel, Norman Tait, John Marston, Mary Longman, Richard Hunt, and Valerie Morgan. This is the second in a three-part series of exhibitions, each presenting how aboriginal artists of different regions of North America “push the boundaries” of their heritage as they explore their personal and cultural identities. A thoughtful and well-designed catalogue is available, with biographies of the artists. The exhibition is at the Frederick W. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, a Frank Gehry building. www.weisman.umn.edu

The October and November issues of The Beat covered a group of exciting First Nations exhibitions and projects at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria: “The Return of Abundance,” a solo show by Marianne Nicolson and “Transformers”, a group show of Coast Salish artists. A residency and public performance project with Anishnabe artist Rebecca Belmore and Cuban-born Osvaldo Yero had the theme “Launch, a poetic reflection on contemporary global ecology”. Belmore is well-known internationally and represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 2005, to great acclaim. The culminating event of their residency in Victoria, “Feast for a Scavenger” took place on November 4 at Dallas Road Beach in Victoria. I could not be present but have inquired of witnesses. According to an account from the Victoria Times Colonist of November 8, a diver strung a line with herring interspersed with floats along the shallow ocean water near the beach, so that hungry birds would be attracted to the site. According to the reporter, a bagpiper on site for the occasion must have scared the birds away; he says nothing happened. A Haida artist present at the event denies that nothing happened. Michael Nicholl yahgulanaas has kindly sent me photographs of a group of gulls behaving indeed like Scavengers. A video is being produced. The Beat will report on further insights gained.

To say that in December many commercial galleries offer jewellery and other art in the hope of attracting holiday shoppers is almost too obvious. But … I cannot refrain from recommending one brilliant gift: a book of First Nations cuisine by Dolly and Annie Watts, published earlier this year. It has had such success, according to publisher Arsenal Pulp Press, that a second printing is being considered. Where People Feast: An Indigenous People’s Cookbook appeared on the BC Bestseller List earlier in 2007. The book is beautifully designed and the recipes offer ideas for substitution of hard-to-find ingredients. www.wherepeoplefeast.com

The Knowledgeable Aboriginal Youth Association is hosting the 2007 Native Youth Artists’ Collective (NYAC) Art exhibition on December 15, 2007, at VIVO Video in Studios at 1965 Main Street in Vancouver, from noon to 7 pm. NYAC’s aim is to foster artistic development in native youth. Deadline for submissions, which may include paintings, films, fashion, and music, is December 4. There is a Facebook group, Native Youth Artists Collective. For more information contact Skeena Reece of the NYAC directly at kaya.artstudio@gmail.com or call 604 254 5513.

Tsimshian art historian Mique’l Askren, a University of British Columbia PhD student, has contributed an essay to a book due to be published in July 2008. Askren’s research on Tsimshian photographer B.A. Haldane (1874-1941) will appear in Visual Currencies: The Native American Photograph in Museums and Galleries edited by Henrietta Lidchi of the National Museums of Scotland.

On November 29^th Vancouver’s Coastal Peoples Fine Arts Gallery in Yaletown opened a second location in Gastown, at 312 Water Street. There is now an impressive concentration of galleries of First Nations art within just a few blocks in this area.

Simon Fraser University’s Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology has a good website for those interested in archaeology and First Nations sites in British Columbia. Based on a recreation of a traditional Fraser River village, “A Journey into Time Immemorial” was developed in partnership with the Sto:lo Web site Development Committee and staff of the Xa:tem Interpretive Centre. There are some innovative pages with games and interactivity, and information aimed at educators and children as well. www.sfu.museum/time

I thank and acknowledge the Musqueam Nation and all the Coastal Salish nations within whose traditional lands we work and live.

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