The exhibition showcases a variety of artwork by young Penobscot and Passamaquoddy students from early childhood education through the eighth grade, as well as a number of pieces created by Penobscot and Passamaquoddy high school students.
This exhibition of some 60 baskets included examples from over 40 North American tribes of bowls, burden baskets, fancy baskets, baby baskets, bags, trays, hats, miniatures, and gathering baskets..
December 4, 2008 - January 5, 2010
Featuring ten contemporary Native artists, this invitational exhibition features artwork that reflects personal stories about tribal identity and balancing life in a complex world.
The title Twisted Path is based on a traditional beadwork pattern of the same name, describing a back and forth or meandering quality. It is symbolic of Native artists alternating between two cultures, striving to preserve historical and spiritual traditions while experiencing modern lifestyles and new art forms.
Artists include Watie Akins (Penobscot), Pam Cunningham (Penobscot), Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit), Rick Hunt
(Abenaki), George Longfish (Seneca/Tuscarora), Teresa Marshall (Mikmaq), Lenny Novak (Abenaki), Cheryl Savageau (Abenaki), Susie Silook (Yupik/Inupiaq), and Marie Watt (Seneca).
Left: Blanket Stories by Marie Watt
April 23 - September 30, 2009
The Abbe Museum in collaboration with Maine Indian Education is honored to present the 2009 Waponahki Student Art Show. This marks the eighth year of this popular annual exhibition of artworks by young Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Artists. These annual exhibitions demonstrate a strong purposeful partnership and an outstanding collaboration of two institutions devoted to promoting art education and Waponahki culture.
For generations, Native American traditional artists in the Northeast have passed on their culture through beadwork, basketry, birchbark, and woodcarving.
Organized and curated by Kathleen Mundell, this traveling exhibition sponsored by Cultural Resources, Inc. presents these traditions through the work and words of over
thirty-five traditional artists living and working primarily in Maine and upstate New York. In the creative hands of those who continue to practice them, these arts reflect the values and traditions of contemporary communities with each generation recasting old forms into new expressions.
Many different types of images relating to Maine's Tribal History exist which are seldom seen except by researchers and scholars In the field. In addition, the general public is seldom given a broader cultural context in which to view them. Providing contemporary poetry, written by Mikhu Paul-Anderson from Kingsclear First Nations, will simultaneously alter and reframe the context of those images, in effect, mediating the historical gaze of a marginalized people.
The prose that accompanies each image is one method of bringing history into the present moment, supporting another possible view of that history. The connection between past and present is then strengthened, and new ways of understanding history hopefully result.
Mikhu Paul-Anderson is a Native American woman, author and curator of this exhibit and grew up in Old Town, Maine.