Basket collection stunning, unmatched

An impressive exhibition of American Indian basketry opens Saturday at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.

“Fibers of Life: From A Weaver’s View” offers more than 100 striking baskets from the museum’s far-reaching collection, along with historical photographs of weavers in their environments.

“What is so stunning is that we have a very high-quality, encyclopedic collection,” says Michael Holloman, director of the museum’s Center for Plateau Cultural Studies,

The 3,000-piece collection “covers a breadth of eras,” says Holloman. “It is not concentrated in any one specific time frame, style or tribal region.”

When Bruce Bernstein, director of Culture Resources for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, visited the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture he was amazed at what he saw.

“After Dr. Bernstein looked at our 3,000 baskets,” says Holloman, “he said it is probably one of the great, least-researched collections in America.”

Bernstein, a national expert in American Indian basketry, helped select the objects for the “Fibers of Life” exhibit and wrote much of the text for display labels.

The exhibition highlights baskets from regional and tribal groups spanning Alaska to the Southwest.

“When one studies the insides of the baskets as much as the designs and materials on the outside,” says Holloman, “it is obvious that the majority were utilitarian objects used in their daily lives.”

There are, however, other exceptional works created for commercial purposes.

One example is a pristine Chinook basket (circa 1910) made with twine, cattail and cedar bark overlaid with a stylized, dyed beargrass design.

Collectable baskets like these reference the early trade era when tribes started interacting with an economy-based world, says Holloman.

“The weaver probably made this basket hoping that the non-Indian buyer would like the motif and purchase it,” he says. “Weavers would make certain things that would appeal to purchasers; but were not necessarily the same basket they would make traditionally.”

The exhibition not only focuses on the baskets as objects, it also speaks to the ceremonial process of making them.

“These baskets are sacred things,” says Holloman, “because they were made from materials very sacred to the people. When weavers collected the fibers they would pray, they would cleanse themselves, they would perform ceremonies. The rituals were part of that cosmology of the people.”

Holloman says he hopes that viewers don’t just “look at the pretty baskets – but that they leave the exhibit with a sense of why these baskets resonate so much with the Elders who say they can feel the prayers that were imbued in these baskets.”

The exhibit runs through Dec. 31 at the museum, 2316 W. First Ave. Admission is $7 for adults, $5 for seniors (62 and older) and students, free for children 5 and under.

Hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Mondays and major holidays). For information call 456-3931 or go to www.northwestmuseum.org.

Whitworth celebrates with art

Art events help mark Whitworth College’s 116th anniversary.

A two-day art exhibit takes place in the Legion Building, 108 S. Washington St., this weekend as part of the Visual Arts Tour. It features selections from the college’s permanent collection along with alumni, faculty and student work.

An “Alumni Invitational and Juried Art Exhibit” opens on Monday in three Whitworth campus locations: Fine Arts Gallery II, Koehler Gallery and Hixson Union Building.

The exhibit feature works by Whitworth alumni “who are engaged in exceptional professional art careers, as well as those who are beginning their careers in an impressive fashion,” says associate professor Scott Kolbo in a news release.

An artists’ reception is Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Fine Arts Building lobby.

Following the reception, alumnus Ben Frank Moss (1959), a professor of studio art at Dartmouth College, will present “Turning Toward the Light” at 7 p.m. in the Robinson Teaching Theatre, Weyerhaeuser Hall.

The work is up through March 10. For more information about Whitworth’s art events call 777-3258. A complete list of Whitworth’s Heritage Week events is available at www.whitworth.edu/Alumni/HeritageWeek.

Bank Left Gallery gets musical

John Elwood’s “Wood Carving/Musical Instruments Exhibit” opens Saturday at the Bank Left Gallery, 100 S. Bridge St. in Palouse, Wash.

“Each piece of wood is a miracle. I’m grateful that I get to hold the tools,” says Elwood in an e-mail.

There will be a musical performance by Elwood and Sally Burkhart during an opening reception Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m.

View the work until Feb. 28, Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call (509) 878-8425 or go to www.visitpalouse.com/bankleft for more information.

New show at Parlor Gallery

Meredith Dement’s paintings and Michel Campbell’s etchings are showing during February in the Parlor Gallery at Paulsen House, Episcopal Diocese of Spokane, 245 E. 13th Ave.

Meet the artists on Feb. 10 from 7 to 9 p.m. Gallery hours are 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays. For information call curator Gloria Waggoner at 455-6661.