PORT ANGELES — For a new kind of show at the Longhouse Art Gallery, the staff decided to open its doors wide.
“In the past, our calls for artists have been pretty specific,” said Amy McIntyre, curator and installer of the first-ever Native Student Art Exhibit at the Longhouse at Peninsula College.
For this public display, McIntyre and her colleagues wanted to include all kinds of students.
They wanted to invite tribal members from across the Olympic Peninsula — and the West — to show their work.
And in the art came. Tribes from California to Canada are represented alongside those from Sequim, Port Angeles and Neah Bay.
The Longhouse holds them all in the show open now through July, and there’s no charge to visit.
Reception Thursday
A reception with the artists and Peninsula College President Luke Robins will start at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Longhouse, which is in the southwest corner of the campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
Among the 31 art pieces in the show are a carved eagle walking stick, a paddle necklace and an unfinished cedar mask, all by Jamestown S’Klallam tribal member Jeff Monson.
Monson, creator of the Longhouse’s Welcome Pole, also has added to the show his personal paddle from the Canoe Journey that takes place in Pacific Northwest waters every summer.
The well-known Jamestown S’Klallam artist became a Peninsula College student last fall, McIntyre said.
One of the youngest students in the show is also a member of Monson’s tribe: Sequim High School student Olivia Barrell.
She’s contributed a paddle she made at the age of 9.
“It’s very unconventional,” McIntyre said.
“Everyone else was putting animals on their paddles. On hers, she decided to put a hippopotamus.”
Olivia’s sister, Sequim High and Peninsula College Running Start student Emma Barrell, is also in the show, with her woven cedar headband and bracelet and a Coast Salish wool scarf.
A fourth Jamestown tribal member, University of Washington student Kissendrah Johnson, is here with a beaded eagle feather, a Coast Salish basket and a drum bearing a painted wasp.
Many tribes
Alaska, British Columbia and California tribes are represented, too: Susan Hamilton of the Haida Nation and Garrett Mueller of the Tsi-Akim Maidu people have contributed their beaded jewelry; dream-catchers made of feathers, wood and sinew; and a spear with 200-year-old beads attached.
Jackie “BB” Parker and Randall Pritchard, both of the Makah tribe, and Jamie Valadez and A.B. Charles Jr. of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe have contributed their artwork, as has Eric Tom, a Kingston High School student and member of the Port Gamble S’Klallam tribe.
Through this month, the Longhouse Gallery is open from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Fridays and from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays.
In July, the gallery doesn’t keep regular hours, but McIntyre encourages people to phone 360-452-9277 to arrange a visit.
“People can always call for appointments and tours,” she said.
The Longhouse Art Gallery, which mounts three shows a year, will next present an exhibit of Native American baskets from Olympic National Park’s collection.
That will come this fall, McIntyre said.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
