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 eighteenth 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 the Pacific coast.
Peace and goodwill to you all in 2009!
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The North Shore of Vancouver
North Star: The Art of Lyle Wilson opens at the West Vancouver Museum at 680 17th Street in West Vancouver. The exhibition runs from March 4 to May 30 2009, and is presented as part of the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad.
Haisla artist Wilson was born in Kitimaat village on the north coast of British Columbia and has distinguished himself as both a serious artist and as an active participant in the extensive research of traditional First Nations art undertaken at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia over the last few decades. This retrospective exhibition shows the diversity of Wilson’s art, its exploration of various themes and imagery, and his meticulous work in various materials. The West Van Museum is open from Tuesday to Saturday, 11 am to 5 pm. For more information call 604 925 7295.
Lyle Wilson will speak about his work at the museum on Saturday April 18 2009.
The opening of the new West Vancouver Community Centre, at Marine Drive and 21st Street on March 28 2009, from 11 am to 4 pm, will be a significant occasion for admirers of First Nations art.
Jody Broomfield is carving a Spirit House Post called Gathering of Nations on the "Great Lawn" along a forest walk leading to the Spirit Square of the building.
(Rick Harry) Xwa-lack-tun has created a wall relief on three large yellow cedar panels.
You might arrange to visit the exhibition of Lyle Wilson’s art at the nearby West Vancouver Museum on the same day.
We mentioned the performance of Raven Stole the Sun in The Beat February 2009. This play by Drew Hayden Taylor, performed by Toronto’s Red Sky Theatre, will be on Sunday March 8 2009 at 2 pm. at the Centennial Theatre in North Vancouver.
See http://www.centennialtheatre.com
Walter Harris Tribute
The Urban Gitksan Society and the Walter Harris Family are hosting an event in honour of Gitksan Chief Geel, Walter Harris who died in January 2009 (see The Beat February 2009). On March 15 at 2 pm an Ant’im Hanak Ceremony will be held at the First Nations House of Learning, 1985 West Mall, University of British Columbia in Vancouver. A UBC Scholarship will be established in Walter’s name. The ceremony will be followed with a Potluck and social time. For further information, call 604 730 0822 or email dm.jensen@shaw.ca
Galleries
The Douglas Reynolds Gallery at 2335 Granville Street in Vancouver carries both contemporary and historical Northwest art. A mounted segment of an historic red cedar pole is in the gallery now. The pole was created about 1860 in the community of Kitwancool near Hazelton, British Columbia, priced at $120,000. It is being sold to support a project to build a structure to house and protect other pole segments. The area’s imposing and treasured poles were frequently depicted by Emily Carr.
To see a photograph of the Kitwancool pole mounted segment, see: http://www.douglasreynoldsgallery.com
Sonny Assu’s exhibition iDrums at the upstairs Gallery 2 of the Equinox Gallery at 2321 Granville Street in Vancouver continues until March 14 2009.
Works can be viewed online at http://www.equinoxgallery.com
The Spirit Wrestler Gallery in Vancouver’s Gastown area is presenting an exhibition called Woven & Sewn in Time: Traditional Containers in a Modern World. Work created by artists from Alaska, British Columbia, Nunavut and Nunavik, Ontario and Labrador, as well as New Zealand, will be shown. The theme uniting these objects is that they are contemporary interpretations of traditional containers. Haida weaver Isabel Rorick created work for the exhibition. Tsimshian artist William White’s basket “Raven’s Nest” utilizes red cedar with raven’s tail and Chilkat weaving techniques. Alaskan Tlingit artist Preston Singletary created blown glass baskets for the show. The exhibition will be previewed online from March 1 and will be open in the gallery from March 21 to April 11 2009. For information see http://www.spiritwrestler.com
The Appleton Galleries held a Northwest coast and Inuit Art auction on Sunday March 1 at 1 pm at the Floral Hall of the VanDusen Botanical Gardens at 5251 Oak Street in Vancouver.
In Seattle, the Stonington Gallery is featuring Skokomish artists Andy and Ruth Peterson in March. They will give a carving and weaving demonstration, respectively, on March 15 at 2-5 pm. More at the gallery’s website: http://stoningtongallery.com
Great celebrations are planned for the re-opening to the public of Vancouver’s Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, beginning on Sunday March 8 2009. Renovations will continue out-of-sight as the museum improves its building and environmental systems. Despite the museum being closed to the public for six months, the staff has carried on with work on the collections: more than 32,068 out of the 35,000 objects in the museum’s collection were surveyed, 28,728 digitized and 10,010 mounted in preparation for installation in new galleries and storage facilities. An impressive achievement!
The grand launch of all the new spaces is scheduled for January 23, 2010, to coincide with the 2010 Cultural Olympiad.
Work by Musqueam artist Susan Point will be installed on the new Welcome Plaza. A panel entitled ‘ehhwe’p syuth (To Share History) by Coast Salish artist John Marston has been installed. It will be accompanied by excerpts from Killer Whale and Crocodile, a documentary about Marston’s journey to Papua New Guinea.
The Museum recently received a grant from the Canada Council Acquisitions Assistance program to support the purchase of Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas’ work Bone Box, one of the installations in the 2007 M o A exhibition Meddling in the Museum.
We ya hani nah Coastal First Nations Dance Festival begins with a gala on Thursday March 12 2009. Public performances are Saturday March 14 and Sunday March 15, each day at 2 to 4 pm, and are free with admission to Museum of Anthropology. The festival is named for a feast song belonging to Chief Kenneth Harris of the Dakhumhast House of the Gitksan Nation, which is used to welcome visitors to witness at a feast.
Participating groups on Saturday are: Chinook Song Catchers – Squamish, Nisga’a Tsa’miks – Nisga’a, Le la la Dancers – Kwakwaka’wakh, First Peoples Performances – Tagish/Tlingit, Eagle Song Dancers – Squamish and Git Hayetsk Dancers – Nisga’a/Tsimshian.
On Sunday, there will be performances by Children of Takaya – Tseil-waututh, First Peoples Performances – Tagish/Tlingit, Kuteeyaa Dancers – Alaska & Washington State tribes, Git Hoan Dancers – Tsimshian and Dancers of Damelahamid – Gitksan.
For more: http://www.damelahamid.ca/festival/2009/2009festival.htm
This is a rare, perhaps unique, opportunity to see such a wide range of Northwest cultural groups perform.
The Pitt Rivers Museum of Anthropology and World Archaeology in Oxford England, which has very large holdings of Northwest coast art, is re-opening to the public after renovations on May 1 2009. The extent of the museum’s collections can be partially viewed on the web at http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk
A notice came in from Spence’s Bridge, British Columbia of a cultural celebration with a hand drum competition and tournament, Coyote’s Lahal, on March 21 2009. Call 250 458 2226 for details.
The Native Youth Artists Collective in Vancouver had its first EXPO on February 13 2009, with many artists exhibiting, workshops and the Ultimate Intertribal Improv Tournament (won by The Coyote Brothers).
The Collective is at #200-2019 Dundas Street in Vancouver.
On March 5 and March 9, from 4-8 pm, there will be another NYAC event The Living Healing Quilt Project, aiming to help heal the effects of residential school “one stitch at a time”, with Alice Williams.
For more information on the Collective, telephone 604 254 5536 or go to http://www.nativeyouthart.com
The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto presents an exhibition Remix: New Modernities in a Post-Indian World from April 4 to August 23 2009. Fifteen artists of native and mixed background from the United States, Canada and Mexico have works in the exhibition. Oddly, there is no art from western Canada. Curator Gerald McMaster comments, about the term “Post-Indian World”: “it is where voice, as expressed in authority, perspective, and representation, to name a few, is powerfully exercised by First Nations, rather than through the ventriloquist filter of others. The term “Indian” has the connotations of being named by someone else … [whereas] terms such as “First Nations”, “Inuit” “Métis”, are self-definitions of sovereignty with the power to name oneself.” He cites American writer Gerald Vizenor in the use of the term “post-Indian”.
The Alcheringa Gallery in Victoria BC is trying a new kind of sale: a Silent Auction will be held on line for works from the Northwest coast, Papua New Guinea and Australia. Bidding began on February 27 and ends March 13 at 8 pm.
For more information, http://www.alcheringa-gallery.com/exhibit.html/v5/78
Big Presence of BC First Nations in Ottawa at BC Scene!
The celebration of the arts of British Columbia being held in Ottawa from April 21 to May 3 was mentioned in The Beat February 2009. Details have now been released, and it’s clear that there is more BC art for the public to enjoy in Ottawa than here in Vancouver. Kwakwaka’wakw Marianne Nicolson has created a projected installation for the west façade of the Government Conference Centre to transform the building into a Northwest coast ceremonial house. The site becomes a site of cultural exchange reminding us of the failed First Ministers Conferences on
Aboriginal Self-Government held in the 1980’s. At the National Gallery of Canada, a selection of work by BC artists, including Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun is on display.
In the foyer of the National Arts Centre stands Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas’ work Peddle to the Meddle, a Pontiac car recalls Chief Pontiac, the Ottawa Nation leader in the eighteenth-century wars of First Nations resistance to European encroachment. The car is covered with the artist’s Haida manga designs. Beat Nation – Hip Hop as an Indigenous Culture is at the SAW Gallery.
Canada Council Art Bank has a “Celebration of BC Art” on the Mezzanine of the National Art Centre with work by Haida Chief Jim Hart and Kwakwaka’wakw artist Liz Carter, among others.
There is more! See the website http://www.bcscene.ca/en/
At the Brussels Antiques and Fine Arts Fair in January, an unusually beautiful Tlingit 18th-century halibut hook was offered was offered by London dealer Finch & Co. for 18,500 Euros. The hook has a finely carved killer whale, with a raven inside it, and a tiny face inside that. A photo is available on the dealer’s website, at http://www.finch-and-co.co.uk
An ancient Tsimshian stone club was on the art market until recently. Its sale was blocked in June 2008 by the Federal Government to give a Canadian museum a chance to attempt to buy it. The Museum of Northern British Columbia in Prince Rupert requested a grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage to help purchase the club, but the grant request was refused. The ancient club, valued at $250,000 by its owner, went to an American buyer in February 2009.
Good news! Challenging Traditions : Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast is an exhibition of Northwest coast art discussed in The Beat in December 2008. It will be at the Toronto area at the McMichael Collection of Canadian Art from June 27 to September 20 2009 and may well travel to Calgary and Vancouver afterwards.
See http://www.mcmichael.com/exhibitions/upcoming.cfm
The conference on Oceans in Skidegate in the Haida Gwaii in January was a challenging and thought-provoking event, and well-attended.
For a more complete account, see the February edition of the Haida Laas, the newsletter of the Council of the Haida Nation at
http://www.haidanation.ca/Pages/Haida_Laas/PDF/Newsletters/HL_feb_09.72.pdf
We have received advance notice that on April 18 to 20, 2009, the 8th International Haida Language Gathering will be held at Kaay Llnagaay Haida Heritage Centre near Skidegate in the Haida Gwaii aka Queen Charlotte Islands, open to anyone interested in saving and revitalizing the Haida language. For more information contact ship@haidagwaii.net
Near the Canadian-American coastal border in Washington State, the Whatcom Museum of History & Art in Bellingham has an exhibition of seven Native American artists, until March 22 2009.
“Through a variety of media, including installation and video works, prints, photography, and paintings, the participating artists challenge the motivations for war, the on-going struggle for cultural and political sovereignty, environmental degradation, and the commercialization of spirituality and religion.”
For more information, see http://www.whatcommuseum.org
In Seattle, a new curator of Native American ethnology has been appointed at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington. Deana Dartt-Newtown is a member of the Coastal Band Chumash, and has a doctorate in anthropology from the University of Oregon, which focused on Native American representation in museums and anthropological studies. She replaces retiring Dr. James Nason.
REEL ROOTz 2009 Media Arts Exhibition is presented at the Kelowna Art Gallery by En’owkin Centre and Capilano University’s Indigenous Independent Digital Filmmaking Program to showcase the works of emerging indigenous artists residing on the west coast. It will run from March 7 to April 19.
For more information see: http://www.kelownaartgallery.com
A call is out for submission of nominations for the 2009 British Columbia Creative Achievement Award for Aboriginal Art. The deadline is March 31 2009. For more information see http://www.bcachievement.com
A number of assistance programs are available for aboriginal artists, curators and critics from the Canada Council for the Arts. There is a competition for aboriginal curators wishing to attend the 2009 Venice Biennale, with closing date applications of March 16, 2009. See the website http://www.canadacouncil.ca/visualarts
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Past issues are available at our website http://www.coastalartbeat.ca
Thank you to David Dumaresq, Martin Landmann, Lyle Wilson, Carl Martin, Peter Lattimer and others, for your assistance. If you are searching for particular stories covered in past issues, try searching with Google.
The Beat is an independent, not-for-profit project written and published in Vancouver Canada by Ann Cameron.
Copyright 2009 Ann Cameron.