Contact: Julia Sapin, (360) 650-3670, Julia.Sapin@wwu.edu
BELLINGHAM - The Western Washington University Department of Art will present a lecture titled "Coast Salish Art: Gathering Strength" by Barbara Brotherton, curator of Native American Art for the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 28 in room 150 of the SMATE building on Western's campus.
The event is free and open to the public.
Brotherton will discuss the planning for a major exhibition of Coast Salish art - a collaborative effort with Salish advisors, 50 lending institutions, and 35 contemporary artists. This exhibition, which is now touring the United States and Canada, is the first comprehensive look at the customs of the Coast Salish people whose traditional homelands are the Seattle-Vancouver-Victoria region. Over 180 ancient artifacts, pre-contact arts, weavings and carvings of the historic period are showcased, as well as contemporary arts in glass, metal, photography, and acrylic paints by artists whose innovative approaches have engendered a Salish artistic renaissance.
Before coming to SAM in 2001, Brotherton worked at the Burke Museum and as an associate professor at Western Michigan University. The focus of the new Native American installations, Brotherton said, is to emphasize the authority of individual native artists, past and present.
"The underlying principle is on the artist behind the art," she said.
Brotherton obtained a doctorate in Art History from the University of Washington, where she studied with Bill Holm and Robin Wright, and is a member of the Lushootseed research organization founded by Upper Skagit elder and scholar Vi Hilbert.
For more information about the lecture, please call (360) 650-3670. For disability accommodations, please call (360) 650-3660.
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