By Molly Walsh
This is on pages 5-6 of OLY ARTS Summer 2024 print edition.
For almost two decades, the IN THE SPIRIT Arts Market and Northwest Native Festivaland accompanying IN THE SPIRIT Contemporary Native Arts Exhibition have showcased the many facets of modern-day Native artwork.
The tradition continues with the 2024 IN THE SPIRIT Arts Market and Northwest Native Festival which will take place August 10. Festival attendees can immerse themselves in mediums like glass, wood carving, beadwork, fashion, music and other live performances from Native American artists based in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The one-day event will span three locations including the Washington State History Museum, Tacoma Art Museum and Museum of Glass, with all three locales providing free admission on the day of the festival.
The IN THE SPIRIT Contemporary Native Arts Exhibition is a juried show that will be on display at the Washington State History Museum throughout the summer season, from July 20 to September 29.
“We like to showcase what’s happening now and show that there’s been a continuation of…Native culture this whole time,” said Derek Nguyen, director of marketing and communications for the Washington State Historical Society. “And the showcase is really about the contemporary Native artist and the melding of traditional styles and…new techniques.”
Nguyen said the IN THE SPIRIT festival and exhibition began as a joint effort with the Longhouse Education and Cultural Center at The Evergreen State College. As time went on, the Longhouse Center transitioned to an advisory partner, and the Washington State Historical Society adopted the festival and exhibition as annual programming, partnering with the Tacoma Art Museum and Museum of Glass to host the festival.
During the IN THE SPIRIT Arts Market and Northwest Native Festival, a unique schedule of interactive activities, performances and demonstrations will span the three main locales. In the plaza of the Washington State History Museum, Nguyen said attendees will have a chance to chat with Native artists and vendors, and purchase genuine Native American artwork. Food vendors and live performances will also be part of the plaza festivities. Inside the Washington State History Museum, attendees can take in the IN THE SPIRIT Contemporary Native Arts Exhibition. Each attendee can select their most-loved piece for the People’s Choice Award, which will be announced during the afternoon of the festival.
At the Museum of Glass, attendees will be able to experience live demonstrations from Native artists in the museum’s Hot Shop. The 2024 Indigenous Fashion Show will return to the Tacoma Art Museum after a years-long hiatus, and will highlight three Native designers, alongside youth designers, according to Nguyen.
At the outset, the IN THE SPIRIT Contemporary Native Arts Exhibition primarily showcased artists from the Pacific Northwest, but as the exhibition has grown in popularity, Nguyen said there is now countrywide interest from Native artists. Each art submission is reviewed by a jury composed of Native artists and members who have a deep knowledge of Native arts, according to Nguyen.
“We’re really excited this year because we had more submissions than ever from across the country and it’s becoming a really competitive exhibition to get into,” said Nguyen. “So we’re really pleased to see so much interest and growth in the program.”
Pieces for the 2024 Exhibition have been chosen and Nguyen said there will be a unique range of works that span more classic and modern forms, including wood carving, metalwork photography and textiles alongside “digital augmented reality” work.
Visual artist, Megan McDermott, was first featured in the 2023IN THE SPIRIT Contemporary Native Arts Exhibition and will also have two pieces displayed in the 2024 exhibition, including a beaded piece, “May A Calm Breeze Soothe Your Aching Heart,” and painting, “Elk Spirit Calling.”
To create “Elk Spirit Calling” McDermott used acrylic paint and fluorescent acrylic paint to showcase an elk figure enveloped by the electric-hued aurora borealis. McDermott describes using vibrant color and movement within the painting, and it is a mixture of styles between her three tribes.
“I’m enrolled Little Shell Chippewa, and I’m also Blackfeet and Cree,” said McDermott.
McDermott described “May A Calm Breeze Soothe Your Aching Heart” as a multimedia beadwork on canvas, which she said combines the historic and modern through the use of canvas.
“I primarily bead on canvas, because I don’t always have the finances or the ease of access of always having hide to work with,” said McDermott. “So canvas is kind of like my contemporary way to still show that I’m still working in this traditional medium.”
Through this piece, McDermott said she was able to demonstrate the many facets of her artistic practice, and included the use of many present-day and antique seed beads and bugle beads, buffalo hide, fire polish beads, nymo thread, acrylic paint, and more.
“I’m showing others how we don’t have to do everything a certain way…and because I’m a painter first, I think about my beadwork as a painter,” said McDermott. “So a lot of my beadwork has a very, almost realistic kind of style sometimes.”
McDermott is looking forward to how viewers may connect with her artwork while it is on display, and is looking forward to viewing the other types of art that will be part of the exhibition. McDermott said she appreciates the exhibition’s focal point on modern Native art, and the sense of community developed from the wide array of artists who are living and creating across different regions.
“One of the best things, too, is just showing how diverse Native people…who get accepted into the show are,” said McDermott. “And that’s probably one of the, really, the coolest things about it. Is to show we’re all…very different people. We’re very modern, we all have our own ways of looking at life, and our subject matter. And it’s gonna be really cool.”
WHAT:
19th Annual IN THE SPIRIT Arts Market and Northwest Native Festival
IN THE SPIRIT Contemporary Native Arts Exhibition 2024
WHEN:
Festival: Saturday, August 10, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Exhibition: July 20 to September 29
WHERE:
Festival
Washington State History Museum, 1911 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma
Tacoma Art Museum, 1701 Pacific Ave, Tacoma
Museum of Glass, 1801 Dock St, Tacoma
Exhibition
Washington State History Museum (5th Floor)
1911 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma
COST:
Festival: Free (Washington State History Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, and Museum of Glass will have free admission the day of the festival.)
Exhibition: Part of admission to museum.
LEARN MORE:
Festival: https://www.washingtonhistory.org/event/in-the-spirit-festival-2024/
Exhibition: https://www.washingtonhistory.org/exhibit/in-the-spirit-2024/