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 twenty-first issue of The Beat, a free, independent newsletter that brings you up-to-date on the art, artists and 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 the Pacific coast.

 

++++++++++++++++++++

 

Tell The Beat about your favourite First Nations location to visit in British Columbia or nearby! We want to hear from you.

Many of our readers will be on the road or traveling by boat or ferry this summer, and would enjoy visiting community centres or historic sites, having an “aboriginal journey adventure” or perhaps a carving shed or an artist’s studio. Your description might even draw new visitors to the area. It could be in your own community, or one that you have heard about and want to visit soon. It could be a place of pride, or of loss. We will feature many of your comments in the July issue of The Beat. Write to:

editor@coastalartbeat.ca

 

 

The Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Art in Vancouver opens the exhibition Continuum: Vision and Creativity on the Northwest Coast on Saturday June 20 2009. The project has involved the commissioning of art works from 23 emerging and mid-career artists who work in a large range of media and live on the Pacific coast, from Alaska, through British Columbia, to Washington State. Community meetings were held in the artists’ communities to promote discussion of art issues.

Some of the artists in the project are Kwakwaka’wakw Sonny Assu, Tsimshian Phil Gray, Haisla Hollie Bear Bartlett, Nisga’a Mike Dangeli, Haida Carrie Ann Vanderhoop, and Coast Salish Shaun Peterson. The exhibition will run until January 30 2010 and is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.

More at http://www.billreidgallery.ca

 

The Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia and the grunt gallery have launched a joint project called Ruins of Progress: Vancouver Art in the Sixties. It is an online resource and digital archive incorporating hundreds of photographs, press clippings, audio recordings and film clips in an exploration of the diversity of Vancouver art in the 1960’s. The whole project can be found at:

http://vancouverartinthesixties.com

One project section, Aboriginal Art in the Sixties, curated by Marcia Crosby and Roberta Kremer, examines the relationship of Vancouver’s First Nations artists to the broadcast and print media, political movements in the 1960’s.

 

Construction at Vancouver’s Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia has moved into its next phase: now open to the public are the Michael Ames Theatre, the Café MOA and the rotunda with Bill Reid’s large Raven and the First Men sculpture and, in new more secure cases, many of Reid’s masterworks in gold, silver, argillite, ivory and wood. MOA’s Multiversity Galleries (formerly Visible Storage) and the temporary exhibit gallery will open in January 2010. Summer hours are 10 am to 5 pm daily; open Tuesdays until 9 pm. See http://www.moa.ubc.ca

 

A new pole by Haida artist Christian White and apprentices, dedicated to “Communities Working Together,” was raised on May 18 at the new Haida Gwaii Hospital in the Haida Gwai’i (Queen Charlotte Islands). The pole was commissioned by the Old Masset Band Council. It is called Xaad Xilaa Gyaahlaang Gyaa’aang, Haida Medicine Story Pole.

Pictures and the story of the impressive pole and the raising are on the blog of http://caro-on-the-islands.blogspot.com/ Scroll down to the May 18 and 20 entries.

The pole is part of a joint project of the Old Masset Village Council and their Economic Development & Heritage Resources Office. Two more poles are being carved: one by Jaalen Edenshaw and another by Donnie Edenshaw, both to be raised in front of the Community Hall.

A 12-metre Raven pole carved in the 1870’s in Old Masset in the Haida Gwai’i was moved to Jasper National Park in Alberta in 1915 by the grand Trunk Pacific Railway. It had weathered and decayed in Jasper so much that it was taken down earlier this year. The Council of the Haida Nation has requested the return of the pole to the Haida Gwai’i from Parks Canada, but no decision has yet been made.

For more news of the Haida Gwaii, see the May 2009 issue of Haida Laas at the website http://www.haidanation.net

 

We offer respectful condolences to the family and the Haida Nation on the death of Chief Skedans, Niis Wes (Ernie Wilson). Niis Wes was instrumental along with other elders, in starting the Skidegate Haida Immersion Program in Skidegate.

 

Auctions

Sotheby’s Canada and Ritchie’s joint auction of Important Canadian Art held in Toronto on May 25 2009 had uneven results overall, but the sole work by a Northwest First Nations artist, Haida Rufus Moody’s 1974 argillite pole, sold well at $11,400Cdn. The pole was 60 cm high, depicting (from the bottom), a beaver, bear, 10 rings, and an eagle.

 

The most surprising results, given that the world economy is in deep crisis, came from Sotheby’s in New York, where an auction was held on May 20 2009 (See The Beat May 2009). While a few Northwest lots did not sell, many greatly surpassed their estimates: a Bella Bella painted bentwood box, estimated at $6-9,000, sold for $46,875 USD; a Tlingit polychrome wood comb, est $60-80,000, sold for $146,500 USD; a NW Coast Bent Corner Bowl, Tlingit or Haida, est $15-20,000, sold for $56,250 USD; and a NW Coast Figural Wood Box, “probably Salish”, est $25-35,000, sold for $80,500 USD. See http://www.sothebys.com

 

On June 1 2009 Bonhams & Butterfields Native American Art auction  in San Francisco  featured the historic hereditary knife of Tsimshian Chief Legaic, called “Eagle at the Head of the Skeena”, est $4-600,000 sold for $482,000 USD. A “fine Tlingit frontlet” est $50-70,000, sold for $91,500USD. Many of the Northwest lots, however, did not sell. For more details, see http://www.bonhams.com

 

Seahawk Auctions will hold a sale of First Nations Art and Artifacts on June 6 2009 at 11 am at the Engineers Auditorium in Burnaby (Vancouver). See http://seahawkauctions.com

In Victoria, Lunds Auction and Appraisers will hold The Ethno World Auction on Tuesday June 9 2009 at 6 pm at Lunds showrooms at 926 Fort St.  http://www.lunds.com

 

The Seattle Art Museum has named a new director, Derrick R. Cartwright, director of the San Diego Museum of Art since 2004. He will succeed Dr. Mimi Gates, who will end her 15-year tenure at the end of June 2009.

 

Exhibitions

Honouring the Ancient Ones, work by John and Luke Marston will be at the Inuit Gallery in Vancouver at 206 Cambie St June 27 to July 17 2009 Reception 2-5 pm on June 27 See http://www.inuit.com

 

The Stonington Gallery in Seattle has an exhibition Small Treasures of the Northwest Coast June 4 to 28 2009.

See http://www.stoningtongallery.com

 

The second annual Contemporary Coastal Reflections grad show for the Native Education College’s Northwest Coast Jewellery program is at the Lattimer Gallery in Vancouver until June 13 2009.

See http://www.lattimergallery.com/

 

Open Space in Victoria continues with the seven June events organized by artist Peter Morin (see The Beat May 2009). Descriptions can be found at http://www.openspace.ca

 

Coast Salish artist LessLIE has a major solo exhibition at the BC city of Prince George’s Two Rivers Art Gallery. The show is called: lessLIE: Sale(ish) Culture, and runs until August 9 2009. “Using text, and iconography derived from his Coast Salish heritage LessLIE re-examines meaning, form and history” in his work.

http://www.tworiversartgallery.com/

 

The Freda Diesing School at Northwest Community College in Terrace BC has its grad show Northern Exposure III until June 21 2009 at the Spirit Wrestler Gallery in Vancouver. http://www.spiritwrestler.com

 

 

A number of scholarships and awards were recently announced by the Vancouver Airport’s Art Foundation (YVRAF).  On May 27 2009, the YVRAF recognized eight of British Columbia’s young First Nations artists as emerging talents in Northwest Coast Native Art and awarded each with a $5,000 scholarship: Tsimshian Sophia Beaton, Nuxalk Latham Mack, Haida Neil Goertzen, Tsimshian Morgan Green, and Haida and Coast Salish Bryce Williams. The scholarship recipients will use the funds to develop their art through attendance at workshops, schools and through working with masters, mentors or elders in their particular media. Part of their training will be to develop a work for display at Vancouver International Airport.

The YVRAF also sponsors two scholarship programs: for 2009, the Emily Carr University of Art and Design chose Gitxsan Michelle Stoney, and the Frieda Diesing School chose Tsimshian Shawn Aster.

The Foundation also awarded Nuxalk Clyde Tallio, a 21-year old from Bella Coola, the third annual $5,000 Frank O’Neill Visionary Award. He wants to study linguistics at UBC or SFU, but first he wants to publish a book of 400 Nuxalk origin stories. Clyde supports Bella Coola youth through the summer culture camps he runs.

 

First Nations artist (Blood) Terrance Houle’s exhibition, The World Upside Down, is at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria until September 7 2009; he calls it “one in which the symbolic order is turned on its head.”

See http://aggv.bc.ca/Exhibitions+Archive.aspx?year=-1&id=2129

On June 4, a Curator’s tour by Richard William Hill of The World Upside Down will be held at the AGGV at 7:30 pm. Also at the AGGV, a film screening of Honey Moccasin by Mohawk Shelley Niro “creates a playful comedy/thriller to investigate authenticity, cultural identity and the articulation of modern Native American experience.”

As a related project, Houle is filming a performance work on Saturday June 20 2009, from 2 – 5 pm, at the AGGV. He has issued a casting call for First Nations participants.

The performance is an event involving “auditions for roles of Natives playing Non-Natives acting in Native roles.” To participate or book an audition, email nstanbridge@aggv.bc.ca .

For more details on the June 20 project, see http://aggv.bc.ca/pdfs/AGGV-CastingCall-Victoria.pdf

 

Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition: Indigenous Voices Reply has opened at the Burke Museum in Seattle (see The Beat January 2009), until November 29 2009. The exhibition is about the representation of the indigenous communities at the 1909 international exposition in Seattle. Sixteen contemporary First Nations artists explore how the representation and understanding of indigenous people and cultures has changed over 100 years. http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/index.php

 

Cosmologies: anything that exists has a beginning is a multi-media four-person exhibition at Centre A Gallery in Vancouver, created by individual artists from various indigenous cultures. Their subject is the way each society creates a cosmology, a knowledge system to perceive and explain the world. Jason Baerg’s project creates a virtual world combining his Cree and Métis culture with his investigations of contemporary painting. Richard Kereopa’s work deconstructs his own Maori cultural identities in relation to a global culture. Dana Claxton’s video is a mesmerizing account of spirit work and a powerful Lakota medicine woman. Lewis deSoto, from the Cahuilla Nation, creates an installation that speaks to his interest in Buddhist philosophy and the understanding of self and desire. The exhibition runs from July 4 until August 8 2009, with an artists’ talk at 2 pm on July 4. Centre A is at 2 West Hastings Street in Vancouver.

More information is at http://www.centrea.org

 

Challenging Traditions: Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast will open at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg near Toronto on June 27, continuing until September 20 2009. The project began as a book commissioned from Ian R. Thom and has grown into an exhibition of over seventy pieces of contemporary art which show how First Nations artists are drawing inspiration from history and facing the challenges of interpreting their visual traditions and creating new art reflecting both these traditions and contemporary concerns. Among the forty artists represented are Nuxalk Glen Tallio, Haida Don Yeomans, Tahltan-Tlingit Dempsey Bob and Coast Salish Lawrence Paul Yuxwelupton.

The 176-page book by curator Thom will be launched at the exhibition opening in June.

The exhibition will travel to other museums, but very oddly, not to Vancouver. See http://www.mcmichael.com

 

Canada’s National Aboriginal Day 2009

U’Mista Cultural Society at Alert Bay. There will be a 2009 Aboriginal Day picnic on the beach, with performances by the T’sasata Cultural Group. “All dances and songs are presented with pride and have our Elders approval, and remain unchanged since our Creator gave them to us.” As well, a memorable public performance will be presented at 1:15pm in the traditional Gukwdzi (Big House). Throughout the summer in Alert Bay, dance performances will be held Thursday through Saturday at 1 pm by the T’sasata Dance Group. For more see http://www.umista.org

 

In Ucluelet on Vancouver Island, on June 20 and 21, 2009 Aboriginal Days will be celebrated at Pacific Rim National Park, with performances of dance and music. A guided Nuu-chah-nulth trail tour is offered.

http://www.ucluelet.travel/en/festivals-events.html

 

A pancake breakfast will be held at 9 am at the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre on East Hastings, followed by a parade along Commercial Drive to John Hendry Park at Trout Lake in East Vancouver. The family celebration at Trout Lake from 12 to 5 pm includes performers, canoeing, arts and crafts tables and food vendors.

For more information, call Crystal Phillips at 604 872 6723.

 

There are celebrations in Mission BC at the Xa:ytem Longhouse Interpretive Centre on June 21.

 

The 51^st Annual Cultus Lake War Canoe Race on June 5, 6, and 7, is hosted by the Soowahlie First Nation. Both are just east of Vancouver along the Fraser River.

 

 

++++++++++++++

 

 

 

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

Past issues are available at our website http://www.coastalartbeat.ca

Thank you to Eric Deis, David Dumaresq, Martin Landmann, Simon Davies, Jim Hart, Stan Bevan, Dan Wallace, Martine Reid, and others, for their kind assistance.  If you are searching for particular topics covered in past issues, try searching the web with Google.

The Beat is an independent, not-for-profit project written and published in Vancouver Canada by Ann Cameron. Copyright 2009 Ann Cameron.