What: You won’t want to miss this Native Artist Series event! For Vancouver’s September First Friday our featured guest is a contemporary and traditional artist, Greg Archuleta. Of Clackamas Chinook, Santiam Kalapuya, and Shasta heritage, he is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.
When: Friday, September 7th, 2018 from 5:00-8:00 pm
Who: Greg Archuleta, an artist and educator, has a thriving artistic practice. In addition, he is the developer and instructor for the Lifeways program of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, an immersion program of the culture and history of the tribes of Western Oregon. The program offers hands-on cultural learning in the arts and includes other components of cultural life vital to Grand Ronde people. Archuleta’s areas of expertise include ethnobotany, carving, cedar hat making, Native art design and basketry.
Many of his cedar and basalt carvings have been on display in the northwest, linked to Willamette Falls and the Columbia and Clackamas Rivers. Archuleta notes that his work focuses on place and often depicts a Native perspective on historical events. These include the destruction of tribal community after the Federal government’s termination of the Grand Ronde tribes in 1954, but also serve to document the cultural reclamation of community, identity and cultural arts since the Grand Ronde reservation’s restoration in 1983.
Archuleta will bring a variety of carved and woven pieces that will be offered for sale. For more information on Greg’s work, enjoy this short interview from 2015. It was videoed by the Portland Art Museum at the Cathlapotle Plankhouse, a replica of a traditional Chinook building.
Where: Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, National Headquarters, The Academy, 400 E. Evergreen Blvd. #101B, Vancouver, WA 98660
Our art is not just something to put on the wall but integrated into and utilized in everything. The Chinookan people traditionally used lots of red cedar, but there are also materials I use from other Oregon tribes. In my work, I incorporate contemporary pigments in combination with our traditional natural pigments. I like to remind people that art is not stagnant but continues to advance as part of living [culture].
― Greg Archuleta