This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the Bill Holm Center at the Burke Museum, a milestone for the globally accessible learning center dedicated to the study of Native arts of the Northwest.
The Center, established in 2003, honors Bill Holm (1925–2020), curator emeritus of Northwest Coast Art at the Burke Museum and professor emeritus of art history at the University of Washington. His work at the Burke established the groundwork for the relationships and ethical practices that still flourish today.
Since 2014, the University of Washington Press has been proudly partnering with the Bill Holm Center on Native Art of the Pacific Northwest: A Bill Holm Center Series. Publications from the series and a wide selection of Native art books will be featured at the 20th Anniversary Symposium and Reception on November 2.
Learn more about the decade-long publishing partnership between the Bill Holm Center and UW Press as well as the upcoming anniversary events below.
Native Art of the Pacific Northwest: A Bill Holm Center Series
The Bill Holm Center book series aims to foster appreciation of the dynamic cultural and artistic expressions of the Indigenous peoples of the greater Pacific Northwest through the publication of important new research on Native art and culture. Guided by editors Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse and Robin K. Wright, the series features a variety of approaches to the history of art and expression along the Northwest Coast.
Books in the series investigate historical productions and contemporary manifestations of cultural expression as well as the important intersections between time, place, technique, and viewpoint. In the Spirit of the Ancestors celebrates the vitality of Pacific Northwest Coast art by showcasing a selection of objects from the Burke Museum’s vast collection. Return to the Land of the Head Hunters, the definitive guide to photographer Edward S. Curtis’s flawed but significant film, offers unique Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw perspectives, accounts of the film’s production and subsequent circulation, and evaluations of its depictions of cultural practice. The fiftieth anniversary edition of Bill Holm’s foundational Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form features reflections from contemporary Northwest Coast artists about the impact of the book, which has been credited with having drawn a number of artists into their own practice.
Series publications also consider cultural knowledge and the embodiment of that knowledge in material productions from multiple and sometimes conflicting cultural perspectives, expanding understanding of the role of art in the complicated history of the region. Megan A. Smetzer’s Painful Beauty, which recently won the Eldredge Prize from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, contributes to the growing literature addressing women’s artistic expressions on the Northwest Coast. Skidegate House Models, based on Robin K. Wright’s twenty-plus years of collaborative research with the Skidegate Haida community, explores the Skidegate model village carved by Haida artists for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
Upcoming Events
Saturday, November 2, 2024: 11 am–4:30 pm
Passages: Tracing Routes to the Future
This free symposium will bring together leading Native American and First Nations artists and scholars to discuss trends and recent research on the distinctive art traditions of the region. Speakers include Sonny Assu (Ligwiłda’xw of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations), Shawn Brigman (Spokane), Joe Feddersen (Colville), Dan Friday (Lummi), Kadusné Ursala Hudson (Tlingit), James Johnson (Tlingit), and Tillie Jones (Tulalip), with opening songs from Joe Seymour (Squaxin Island/Acoma Pueblo).
Saturday, November 2, 2024: 6–9 pm
Bill Holm Center 20th Anniversary Reception
Celebrate twenty years of the Bill Holm Center with an evening reception at the Burke Museum. Speakers include Evelyn Vanderhoop (Haida), Calvin Hunt (Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw), and David Boxley (Tsimshian).
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