For Immediate Release
May 2, 2006
Contact: Fionn Meade, 206/467-8734 x11, fionn@artisttrust.org

Native Creative Development Program, A Program of Artist Trust and the Longhouse Education & Cultural Center, Awards Six Grant Recipients

Artist Trust and The Longhouse Education and Cultural Center at The Evergreen State College have teamed up to provide a new resource for Native artists living in the Pacific Northwest. With initial seed funding from Artist Trust and additional support from the Tulalip Tribes Charitable Fund, and the Fund for Folk Culture, Artist Trust and the Longhouse are pleased to introduce the Native Creative Development Program.

In this inaugural year, six artists from the Northwest were chosen by a selection committee comprised of native artists and arts professionals to receive $2,000 in the form of project grants. These projects include funding materials for ongoing projects, traveling to attend training workshops and important cultural gatherings, as well as supporting artist-initiated mentoring and outreach projects. Each of the selected artists plans to use their funding within the coming year to further their practice as individual artists while also engaging their respective communities.

The following profiles give a glimpse of this year’s six grant recipients and the projects planned for the coming year.

Shirod Younker is a Portland-based printmaker and member of the Coquille Indian Tribe who plans to bring workshops to Native youth in both rural and urban communities throughout the coming year. Exploring such techniques as relief cut printmaking, monotype, and drypoint, Younker will offer all these techniques in workshops coordinated with arts organizations and tribal youth programs. His efforts to bring contemporary art to outlying communities will introduce new avenues of expression for Native youth. Working with a knowledge of traditional design and art from along the Columbia River, Willamette Valley and Southern Oregon Coast, Younker draws from a host of source material to create prints that explore a wide range of formal and political themes, exploring traditional weaving patterns as well as figurative scenes with historical and contemporary resonances. Having received a BFA in sculpture from Oregon State University, Younker works as a summer program manager for “Journeys in Creativity” at the Oregon College of Art and Craft. He has received a number of commissions, including an illustration series for the Oregon Department of Education and a commemorative print for the Mill Luck Salmon Celebration, “Miluk” being the language used by Coos and Coquille people from his area.

 
Ho-Wan-Ut “Haila” Peterson is a traditional Skokomish/Chehalis weaver who plans to use her funding to further her proficiency at the processing and making of cedar baskets. Under the tutelage of master weavers Bill and Fran James of the Lummi Tribe, Peterson will follow up on the first steps in her apprenticeship including stripping, processing, and drying red cedar bark last summer; Peterson will travel to Bellingham this spring and summer for a series of scheduled sessions on the ways of traditional and ceremonial basketry. Considered a young master weaver already, Peterson will bring techniques learned and use in this mentoring relationship into her own practice while also working with her extended family of weavers and tribal youth throughout the South Puget Sound region. This extends Peterson’s impressive apprentice work with such artists as Hazel Pete, Bruce Miller, Yvonne Peterson, and Karen Reed among others.

    
Melene Lovato is an Apache/Navajo jewelry artist and sculptor whose work draws on native designs and inspirations from different tribes across the country. Lovato will attend a Precious Metal Clay certification workshop that stands to greatly enhance his current studio practice. A relatively new material, ‘PMC’ is a highly malleable composite that allows Lovato to work in a non-toxic environment and continue his exploration of traditional and contemporary styles. Having served in the US Army in many countries, Lovato began his art practice after retiring from the military in 1983. He has since worked with and taught painting, drawing and sculpture, but has recently focused on refining his unique style of fine art jewelry. Lovato has participated in many exhibitions and showcases, including the Gathering of Northwest Carvers.

Sandra Sunrising Osawa, a member of the Makah Tribe, has been an independent filmmaker since 1970, beginning her work for television with The Native American Series, a ten part series for KNBC-TV. She has received a United Nations Fellowship to study at NYU's Center for Media, History and Culture, the National Video Resources' Media Arts Fellowship, and the Taos Mountain Award for Lifetime Achievement. Osawa works with her husband, Yasu (as Upstream Productions), together having produced two films about treaty rights: Usual and Accustomed Places and Lighting the Seventh Fire, which together inaugurated Native American programming on Point of View (P.O.V.), a PBS showcase. Osawa's interest in profiling contemporary Indian artists has also led her to such projects as On and Off the Res' w/ Charlie Hill and Pepper's Pow Wow—as well as her current work-in progress Maria Tallchief: America's First Prima Ballerina. Osawa will use funding to upgrade editing software, enabling her to work at current industry standards.

       
Melissa Streun is a S’Klallam artist trained in traditional weaving who first began weaving at the age of ten, and then working with master weaver Lillian Pullen from the Quileute Tribe. Her practice has expanded greatly in recent years as she has had the opportunity to study with Suquamish elder Betty Pasco and attend last year’s gathering of the Northwest American Basketweaver’s Association Conference. Following last year’s exploration of new weaving techniques with Squaxin Tribal Member Gail White Eagle, Streun was appointed Lead Weaver of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Weaving Committee and currently oversees numerous demonstrations and classes aimed at passing on weaving techniques to new generations within her community. Furthering her efforts to spur further interest in traditional arts within the community and beyond, Streun will use funds to attend the Northwest Native American Basketweaver’s Conference in its entirety this coming fall in Worley, Idaho. She plans to bring her children Natashe, James and Shayna—all beginning weavers—and hold a series of weaving classes for the community upon her return.

    
Lou Anne Squally, a Puyallup artist trained in traditional weaving, will offer twenty hours of weaving workshops at the Nisqually Recreational Center on weaving with cedar and wool. Aimed at engaging Native youth with traditional forms, Squally plans to complement her leadership of the workshops by inviting tribal elders into the workshops to work directly with young artists. Squally received a certificate in Northwest Coastal Art from the Northwest Indian College and has recently incorporated digital photography and printmaking techniques into her wider studio practice. Many of her works are essential to tribal celebrations, including cedar headbands used for annual summer canoe journeys as well as vessels and gifts contributed to seasonal potlatch gatherings.