Calendar

Mukai Farm & Garden will host our fourth annual Haiku Festival in March, bringing the beauty of haiku, an ancient style of Japanese poetry, to Vashon Island residents once again. The festival has drawn hundreds of entries and fans annually from countries all over the world!

The Mukai Haiku Festival is a juried poetry competition for people of all ages. Contestants can submit up to three haikus. Each haiku will be divided into one of five categories: Nature, Social Justice, Heritage, Reflections, and Young Poets. Prizes will be awarded in each category, as well as for “People’s Choice.” Only original, unpublished haiku will be considered for awards.

Contest winners will be announced on Sunday, April 9th.

Mukai will print and display a selection of individually calligraphed haiku on the grounds of Mukai Farm & Garden throughout the month of April. We encourage visitors to Mukai Farm & Garden to vote for their favorite haikus, the People’s Choice award, online or at the kiosk.

No entry fee. Donations welcome.

A young woman, Yoko, travels with a small crew to Uzbekistan to shoot an episode of her reality TV travel show. In front of the camera her persona is carefree and happy-go-lucky, but behind the scenes she is cautious and introverted.  Despite her best efforts, all the shootings end unsuccessfully. Frustrated by the failed filming, she takes to the streets of this mysterious country on her own. Lost in the streets of Tashkent, she finds herself adrift and alone, confronting her deepest fears and hidden aspirations.

A brilliant mix of black comedy, travelogue, drama, and an adventure-imbued mockery of showbiz, TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH is a young woman’s journey from displacement to a place of self-discovery.

3 day rental • NR • 120 min. • Japanese with subtitles

Persepolis first garnered attention as a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, the story of her years growing up as an outspoken and precocious girl in the midst of the Iranian revolution. In this film adaptation, Satrapi’s incredible tale and beautiful animation come together to create something magnificent. The New York Times calls it “full of warmth and surprise, alive with humor and a fierce independence of spirit.”

The film traces Satrapi’s growth from child to rebellious, punk-music-loving teenager in Iran. In the background are the growing tensions of the political climate in Iran in the 70s and 80s, with members of her liberal-leaning family detained, and the background of the disastrous Iran/Iraq war.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 96 min.

This heartwarming and poignant winner of the Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard prize is the mesmerizing and witty story of strangers in a strange land. On an ordinary day, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event, only find there is no delegation to meet them, nor any arrangements to get to their destination of Petah Tiqva. When they find their own ride, they arrive instead at the remote town of Beit Hatikva. Stuck there until the next morning’s bus, the band, led by the repressed Tawfiq Zacharaya, gets help from the worldly lunch owner, Dina, who offers to put them up for the night. As the band settles in as best it can, each of the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them. Set against a breathtaking desert landscape, this cross-cultural comedy proves that getting lost is sometimes the best way to find yourself.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 87 mins. • Hebrew and Arabic with subtitles

Salish School of Spokane organizes the Karaoke Contest at the annual Celebrating Salish Conference. This year, there is no entry fee and all performers will receive a minimum payment for performing. Also, prize money amounts have been increased.

Running is medicine. Running is tradition. Running is healing. Running is prayer. Running is community. Indigenous people are known for running – for the messages they carry – for the prayers they carry – for the tradition it brings. We run together as relatives, as a community, to recognize and celebrate Indigenous people and their history, their contributions and heart work! We run together as community to honor the lands, run with the lands, and learn who the caretakers still are. We all have an opportunity to learn and grow! To acknowledge the past and what Native people have had to experience to be here today. We celebrate the present existence of Indigenous people and all the good medicine we bring to our relatives. As we look ahead – we have the opportunity to dismantle current systems of oppression and racism and rebuild a better and visible future! Our relatives across Turtle Island (North America) are sharing so much of their heart work to support their communities and build a future for our next generations. This virtual race is to bring together and call people in – to support not just the survival of Indigenous Peoples, but honor and celebrate their strength, and their resilience – because we are still here and we are THRIVING! – Jordan Marie Daniel

Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe introduces new generations to one of the twentieth century’s most innovative Native American painters. Howe (1915–1983) committed his artistic career to the preservation, relevance, and ongoing expression of his Yanktonai Dakota culture. He proved that art could be simultaneously modern and embedded in customary Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux) culture and aesthetics—to him there was no contradiction.Howe challenged the art establishment’s preconceptions and definitions of Native American painting. In doing so, he catalyzed a movement among Native artists to express their individuality rather than conforming to an established style. This legacy of innovation and advocacy continues to inspire generations of Native artists to take pride in their heritage and resist stereotypes.

Dakota Modern traces more than forty years of the artist’s career and development from early conventional work created while in high school in the 1930s through the emergence in the 1950s and 1960s of his innovative and abstract approach to painting.

Across Mexico, mask-making is a vibrant and playful artform with roots in the celebration of religious holidays. Worn by dancers in rollicking performances known as danzas, the masks depict devils and holy men; celebrities from media and politics, and other known individuals who personify sinners and false idols.

In contextualizing masks and the expressive art forms through the life and work of contemporary Mexican mask artists, the exhibition dispels the common notion that masks and danzas are “archaic” Indigenous customs that are disappearing in the face of encroaching modernity. Instead, they are presented as expressions of contemporary living culture in which symbols and scripts from pop culture and religious narratives are combined to communicate about spiritual matters, political issues, and community life.

Showcasing abstract art featuring the works of Northwest artists: Vincent Keele, Shantell Jackson,Lo Mar Metoyer, and Yeggy Michael.

Black cowboys have long been an integral part of the American West. Thousands of Black cowboys, for instance, rode in the Western cattle drives of the 1860s. Their stories are largely untold in popular narratives, but modern-day Black rodeos keep their traditions alive. A new, original High Desert Museum exhibit celebrates this thriving culture.

In the Arena: Photographs from America’s Only Touring Black Rodeo running from November 19, 2022 – June 25, 2023. Through the lens of San Francisco Bay Area photographer Gabriela Hasbun, this exhibit documents the exhilarating atmosphere of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo—the only touring Black rodeo in the country—and the show stopping style and skill of the Black cowboys and cowgirls who compete in it year after year.

The exhibit features a wide range of stories including the Quinault Nation fighting climate change, water protectors resisting fossil fuel development, Duwamish River stewardship, rising seas threatening Pacific Islands and other coastal communities, Native Hawaiians opposing military installations via traditional ceremony, and local community groups fighting disproportionate airplane noise and pollution on Seattle’s Beacon Hill.

Anchorage, AK – NACF LIFT Artist Brian Walker II (King Island and Deg Hit’an Athabascan)
Supernal Enlivened at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Arc Gallery.
Feb 3rd – May 5th, 2023
For more info:
https://alaska.digication.com/kimura-gallery/arc-gallery

Across multiple geographies and a range of aesthetic approaches—from figurative clay sculpture to audio recordings of the swamp—these artists engage mud as a material or subject that shapes personal and collective histories, memory, and imagination. Each artist brings a distinct perspective to the theme, conjuring dynamics embedded in the landscape that include colonial and racialized forms of dispossession, cultural reclamation, narratives of self-actualization, and ecological loss and adaptation.
Mud moves through the exhibition as a metaphor as well as a tangible material. Both water and earth, mud exists in an in-between state. A medium that dissolves binaries, mud invites a blurring of past and present, personal and political, bodies and landscape, feeling and knowing. In various ways, the artworks in Thick as Mud move across these porous boundaries, disrupting linear narratives and dominant hierarchies that shape which places and stories matter.
Across the artworks, mud becomes an agent of time and transformation and a medium of decomposition and creation. As such, Thick as Mud tracks the afterlives of violence against people and the environment while also evoking the potential for regeneration. The exhibition is an invitation to ask what lives in the mud and to reconnect with the possibilities that this material holds.

This is the Future, by the film and new media artist Hito Steyerl, explores a vibrant, imagined garden through an immersive environment of video projection, sculpture, and architectural intervention. Steyerl is one of the foremost artists offering critical reflections on the complexities of the digital world, global capitalism, and the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for society, which is explored in this exhibition.

For many Native communities throughout the High Desert, what constitutes art spans beyond the walls of a gallery or a museum. Objects are alive, tied to purpose and intrinsic to thriving communities. Art is at once utilitarian and ceremonial, as well as part of the continuation of Native traditions.

Opening on January 28, 2023, Creations of Spirit will immerse High Desert Museum visitors in the Indigenous Plateau worldview, reflecting knowledge systems of tribes along the Columbia River and its tributaries.

Six Native artists commissioned for this new, original exhibition are creating artwork that will be used in Native communities before arriving at the Museum. A seventh artist is creating an interactive piece for the center of the gallery. Creations of Spirit will be a one-of-a-kind, celebratory experience featuring the stories of these living works of art. Videos, audio and large projections will immerse visitors in the landscapes and communities in which these objects are used, highlighting the theme of artwork as alive, full of stories and created for specific purposes and people. The original works will be supplemented with nine cultural items on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

The signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin Roosevelt and the resulting mass incarceration of Japanese American families living on the West Coast is among the single most traumatic events in the history of Asian America, but many history books present an incomplete view of the full story. The truth is that this event did not happen in a vacuum nor did the people who lived this event do so quietly.
The exhibit leads visitors through a historical narrative beginning with the experience of Japanese American incarcerees in the 1940s and the complicated feelings of shame, anger, fear, and varied faces of resistance from within the community. Through the following decades, the story illustrates the generational trauma and cultural aftershocks of incarceration, while highlighting the lingering sense of injustice and awakening to justice movements at home and abroad. Fast forward to 2001 and beyond, the exhibit draws parallels between the stigmatization of Japanese Americans and modern-day anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, anti-Indigenous, anti-Black, and anti-immigrant policies. Visitors leave with a final prompt to consider: In the pursuit of justice, how will you show solidarity for movements today and into the future?
Through art, first-person accounts, historical material, and artifacts, this exhibit connects Japanese American resistance movements during the WWII era to modern BIPOC justice movements and activism today.

The Higo 10 Cents Store, owned by the Murakami family and a social hub in Seattle’s Japantown, has a long and fascinating community and family history. Meet Me at Higo welcomes younger generations to connect with and explore what it means to be Japanese American. Impressive personal photos, journals and artifacts are included in this traveling exhibition. Today, Higo 10 Cents Store (or Higo Variety Store) is KOBO at Higo and is still located at 604 South Jackson Street in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.

From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers celebrates the enduring innovation and impact of Black architects across the United States. This traveling exhibit highlights individual architects and designers from the late 1800s to today who have broken barriers formed by racism and have created spaces and places that support communities and culture with projects ranging from public housing, to places of worship, museums and universities. Visitors will recognize iconic landmarks from across the country and experience stories of people who paved the way for future generations.

Visitors will also learn about historic and contemporary Black architects and designers from the Seattle-area who have had a local impact, such as Benjamin F. McAdoo Jr., the first Black architect registered in Washington.

Black architects continue to bring their designs to life as a creative response to ever-changing needs, and as a testimonial to a rich heritage. In this exhibit, learn about past and present influential Black architects, hear from Black leaders in the architecture and design fields in video interviews, and engage with tactile interactives. From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers encourages guests to discover how Black architects and designers respond to the ever-changing needs of humanity and not only make changes to their communities but the world.

A day-long showcase of films commemorating the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans in American concentration camps during World War II. Go to https://annual.filmsofremembrance.org/2023/ for full schedule.

Watch In-Person or Online
The 2023 Films of Remembrance returns to in-person screenings and discussions with filmmakers in both San Francisco and San Jose. For those who can’t attend the in-person programs, the films will be available for online viewing from February 25 through March 12, 2023. Film passes can be purchased for each program, or for those who plan to watch all the films, all-access ticket packs are available for the San Francisco and San Jose screenings as well as for on-demand viewing online.

People who identify as neurodivergent have a range of accommodations that work for them. Sensory friendly or relaxed performances are one strategy, but it is not the only one. A panel consisting of several arts organizations and experts in neurodiversity will discuss what sensory inclusion involves and how the arts sector can rethink planning and access for neurodiverse patrons.
REGISTRATION REQUIRED by March 6.
Captioning and ASL interpreters provided.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers along with the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors, Catskill Mountainkeeper and the Apache Stronghold welcome you to join their unified effort to bring awareness and prayers for Oak Flat, an Apache holy site. It is through generous contributions that help provide these campaigns internationally, inter-tribally and intergenerationally.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers gratefully accept donations to help with fuel and food on their cross-country journey. They will join the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors to defend traditional Apache lands from Resolution Copper a division of British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto. According to Apache Stronghold founder Wendsler Nosie Sr., Resolution Copper’s mine will swallow the site in a massive crater and render “longstanding religious practices impossible.”

33 days , 41 stops, and 6497 miles. All stops and gatherings are free and open to the public.

Stereotypes of Native American peoples are ubiquitous and familiar. The exhibition Savages and Princess: The Persistence of Native American Stereotypes brings together twelve contemporary Native American visual artists who reclaim their right to represent their identities as Native Americans. Whether using humor, subtlety, or irony, the telling is always fiercely honest and dead-on. Images and styles are created from traditional, contemporary, and mass culture forms.

The exhibition intends to counteract the disappearance of Native portrayals. It embraces Native Americans’ power to replace stereotypical images that permeate the current pop culture landscape. Recognizing that stereotypes often occur without conscious awareness, the exhibition includes didactic information that explores common stereotypes about Native peoples that are falsehoods, followed by the truths behind them. The exhibition’s artists use the unexpected—humor, emotion, or shock—to encourage viewers to question and challenge stereotypes, even unspoken, unacknowledged ones.

Art and history come together to tell a multidimensional story about humanity. Art is a catalyst for healing cultural pain, both personal and collective. In this exhibition, four artists address stories of immigration where art is a sanctuary, resulting in regeneration and innovation. They speak through their works about histories and heritage, using non-traditional media and configuring materials in new ways. Through their practices, they unearth a life purpose and an empowered self.

When artist Victor Kai Wang arrived in the United States in 1980 from China, he felt alone and adrift, struggling to comprehend his new surroundings. Suchitra Mattai’s ancestors navigated a bewildering and dangerous journey across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Balancing between two cultures unsettled Tuan Nguyen and Jean Nagai. In childhood, they felt a need to adapt to survive. Each of these artists turned to creative innovation to change their focus and direction.

We have all felt a sense of disorientation since the COVID-19 pandemic began. We have had to adjust and find our way to a new reality. What does it take to reorient yourself to joy? Creating art, of any kind, is an active meditation. Creative innovation leads to joy, and joy brings healing.

China’s rich legacies in art, language, and culture are conceptualized by the artists in Beyond the Mountain: Contemporary Chinese Artists on the Classical Forms as visual, auditory, and kinetic experiences to tackle urgent and complex issues facing our globalized world. They allude to Chinese tradition—from the materials of ink, brush, and paper to the time-honored genre of landscape painting—to depict present-day events, such as street protests and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. New works by Yang Yongliang and Lam Tung Pang join those by Ai Weiwei and Zhang Huan from SAM’s collection in contemplating the societal tolls of modernity and globalization and the challenge that humans create for the natural world. Developed in collaboration with University of Washington students, Beyond the Mountain is the second special exhibition presented in the newly renovated Seattle Asian Art Museum.

Paradice Avenue Souf and the Wing Luke Museum join in collaboration to explore the intersection of Black and Brown communities in Seattle and across the globe, in the present day and through time immemorial.

This exhibition will feature the “Black and Brown Solidarity” mural by Paradice Avenue Souf along with new work and a video short documenting the story of Paradice Avenue Souf and their travels and connections throughout African and Southeast Asia.

Explore the second run of this past exhibit with stories sourced from the local Burmese / Myanmar community. With the original exhibit run cut short due to our closure during the pandemic, we’ve taken the opportunity to update the exhibit to include new content covering the military coup that happened in February 2021.

SAM presents American Art: The Stories We Carry, a transformation of its American art galleries, created through a wide-ranging collaboration among SAM curators and staff, artists, and advisors from the Seattle community. Funded primarily by a $1 million grant from The Mellon Foundation and a $75,000 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the project features work from SAM’s collection and new works and curation by contemporary artists, and it deepens the museum’s commitment to inclusive exhibition-planning practices with a shared-authorship model that reflects and responds to community knowledge.

Each new generation of artists responds to and builds on the art of earlier periods. Bringing together artworks that bridge decades, Reverberations seeks to spark a hum between historical works and those by artists working today. Organized in thematic groups, Reverberations introduces a different topic in each gallery, ranging from landscape and lyrical abstraction to the use of the body in addressing psychological, social, and political concerns. As you move through the modern and contemporary galleries, you will encounter harmonies and dissonance as younger artists stake their claim. In turn, works from earlier decades will acquire new meaning and new layers of relevance.

This installation draws from SAM’s growing collection and incorporates many works acquired in recent years, by artists including Margarita Cabrera, Dana Claxton, Senga Nengudi, Rashid Johnson, Woody De Othello, Jenny Saville, Sarah Sze, and Naama Tsabar. Many works are on view for the first time. Among the modern classics, viewers will find works by Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko, and David Smith on view. The museum’s ongoing commitment to building a collection with equity and diverse points of view can be seen when perusing the galleries.

Specializing in intricate natural and oil-dyed wooden and paper mosaics, artist Naoko Morisawa invites viewers to experience Happy Room — Mosaic Collage, a collection of over 50 small, mid, and large-scale works that evoke a sense of joy and draw from the Hygge lifestyle. The installation is divided into four rooms, Shoes/Closet, Kitchen/Living Room, Theater Japonism/Living Room, and Heart Room.

Each piece and room transforms everyday objects like a dependable pair of shoes or a pastry from a café into ornate, dynamic mosaics that invite viewers to find beauty in the details. Happy Room — Mosaic Collage features pieces from various bodies of work from the past 15 years including pieces from My Collection Shoes, Mosaic Café, Japanese Opera – Noh Mask, and newer abstract works.

A showcase of transgender and sacred gender indigenous artists working in digital media, transmedia, film, 360 video, glitch art, contemporary interpretations of traditional forms, and future mediums. digital indigiqueer: a showcase of trans transmedia includes 11 individual pieces exploring the diversity of contemporary indigenous creativity and touching their futures and pasts. Work from Raven TwoFeathers, Ty Defoe, Raven Kameʻenui-Becker, Communidad Catrileo+Carrion, Elijah Forbes, and organizer Hexe Fey.

The Salmon People” is an interactive installation curated by Matika Wilbur at Climate Pledge Arena that immerses the audience in the world of the Salmon. For thousands of years the Coast Salish people of the Pacific Northwest have organized their lives around the management and return of the Salmon People, who are considered relatives. “The Salmon People” urges onlookers to consider the human impacts on Salmon habitat and climate change.

We are excited to celebrate our 4 year Anniversary Pachanga Saturday February 4th! Join us for free activities, comida, prizes and the opening of our February Art Exhibition.
This is our way of saying gracias to our beautiful community for their amazing support these past 4 years. Nepantla is a Nahuatl (Aztec language) term which describes being in the middle or the space in the middle. The term was popularized by Chicana writer/scholar Gloria Anzaldua. Most often the term references endangered communities, cultures or gender who due to colonialism/marginalization or historical trauma, that engage in resistance strategies of survival. Nepantla becomes the alternative space in which to live, heal, function and create.
So what does Nepantla mean to you? We can’t wait to see your art! Email submissions to nepantlaculturalarts@gmail.com

Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence showcases a new form of bead art, the ndwango, developed by a community of women living and working together in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The six artists featured in the exhibition call their paintings in beads ndwangos, which translates as “cloth” or “rag.” The black fabric on which the Ubuhle women work is reminiscent of the Xhosa headscarves and skirts which many of them grew up wearing. By stretching this textile like a canvas, the artists transform the flat cloth into a contemporary art form colored with Czech glass beads.

Using skills handed down through generations and working in their own unique style “directly from the soul,” according to artist Ntombephi Ntobela, the women create abstract as well as figurative subjects for their ndwangos.

The first play by acclaimed intertribal sketch comedy troupe. The 1491s—best known for the hit television series “Reservation Dogs”—takes audiences on a searing and absurdly funny series of vignettes through American history centered on one family’s account of their experiences from the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 to the protests there in 1973.

Approximately Run Time is 2 hours with one 15-minute intermission

Come celebrate strong and empowered women of the community! Join the Iraqi Community Center for activities, food, raffle games, and gifts!

Mukai Farm & Garden will host our fourth annual Haiku Festival in March, bringing the beauty of haiku, an ancient style of Japanese poetry, to Vashon Island residents once again. The festival has drawn hundreds of entries and fans annually from countries all over the world!

The Mukai Haiku Festival is a juried poetry competition for people of all ages. Contestants can submit up to three haikus. Each haiku will be divided into one of five categories: Nature, Social Justice, Heritage, Reflections, and Young Poets. Prizes will be awarded in each category, as well as for “People’s Choice.” Only original, unpublished haiku will be considered for awards.

Contest winners will be announced on Sunday, April 9th.

Mukai will print and display a selection of individually calligraphed haiku on the grounds of Mukai Farm & Garden throughout the month of April. We encourage visitors to Mukai Farm & Garden to vote for their favorite haikus, the People’s Choice award, online or at the kiosk.

No entry fee. Donations welcome.

A young woman, Yoko, travels with a small crew to Uzbekistan to shoot an episode of her reality TV travel show. In front of the camera her persona is carefree and happy-go-lucky, but behind the scenes she is cautious and introverted.  Despite her best efforts, all the shootings end unsuccessfully. Frustrated by the failed filming, she takes to the streets of this mysterious country on her own. Lost in the streets of Tashkent, she finds herself adrift and alone, confronting her deepest fears and hidden aspirations.

A brilliant mix of black comedy, travelogue, drama, and an adventure-imbued mockery of showbiz, TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH is a young woman’s journey from displacement to a place of self-discovery.

3 day rental • NR • 120 min. • Japanese with subtitles

Persepolis first garnered attention as a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, the story of her years growing up as an outspoken and precocious girl in the midst of the Iranian revolution. In this film adaptation, Satrapi’s incredible tale and beautiful animation come together to create something magnificent. The New York Times calls it “full of warmth and surprise, alive with humor and a fierce independence of spirit.”

The film traces Satrapi’s growth from child to rebellious, punk-music-loving teenager in Iran. In the background are the growing tensions of the political climate in Iran in the 70s and 80s, with members of her liberal-leaning family detained, and the background of the disastrous Iran/Iraq war.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 96 min.

This heartwarming and poignant winner of the Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard prize is the mesmerizing and witty story of strangers in a strange land. On an ordinary day, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event, only find there is no delegation to meet them, nor any arrangements to get to their destination of Petah Tiqva. When they find their own ride, they arrive instead at the remote town of Beit Hatikva. Stuck there until the next morning’s bus, the band, led by the repressed Tawfiq Zacharaya, gets help from the worldly lunch owner, Dina, who offers to put them up for the night. As the band settles in as best it can, each of the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them. Set against a breathtaking desert landscape, this cross-cultural comedy proves that getting lost is sometimes the best way to find yourself.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 87 mins. • Hebrew and Arabic with subtitles

Salish School of Spokane organizes the Karaoke Contest at the annual Celebrating Salish Conference. This year, there is no entry fee and all performers will receive a minimum payment for performing. Also, prize money amounts have been increased.

Running is medicine. Running is tradition. Running is healing. Running is prayer. Running is community. Indigenous people are known for running – for the messages they carry – for the prayers they carry – for the tradition it brings. We run together as relatives, as a community, to recognize and celebrate Indigenous people and their history, their contributions and heart work! We run together as community to honor the lands, run with the lands, and learn who the caretakers still are. We all have an opportunity to learn and grow! To acknowledge the past and what Native people have had to experience to be here today. We celebrate the present existence of Indigenous people and all the good medicine we bring to our relatives. As we look ahead – we have the opportunity to dismantle current systems of oppression and racism and rebuild a better and visible future! Our relatives across Turtle Island (North America) are sharing so much of their heart work to support their communities and build a future for our next generations. This virtual race is to bring together and call people in – to support not just the survival of Indigenous Peoples, but honor and celebrate their strength, and their resilience – because we are still here and we are THRIVING! – Jordan Marie Daniel

Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe introduces new generations to one of the twentieth century’s most innovative Native American painters. Howe (1915–1983) committed his artistic career to the preservation, relevance, and ongoing expression of his Yanktonai Dakota culture. He proved that art could be simultaneously modern and embedded in customary Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux) culture and aesthetics—to him there was no contradiction.Howe challenged the art establishment’s preconceptions and definitions of Native American painting. In doing so, he catalyzed a movement among Native artists to express their individuality rather than conforming to an established style. This legacy of innovation and advocacy continues to inspire generations of Native artists to take pride in their heritage and resist stereotypes.

Dakota Modern traces more than forty years of the artist’s career and development from early conventional work created while in high school in the 1930s through the emergence in the 1950s and 1960s of his innovative and abstract approach to painting.

Across Mexico, mask-making is a vibrant and playful artform with roots in the celebration of religious holidays. Worn by dancers in rollicking performances known as danzas, the masks depict devils and holy men; celebrities from media and politics, and other known individuals who personify sinners and false idols.

In contextualizing masks and the expressive art forms through the life and work of contemporary Mexican mask artists, the exhibition dispels the common notion that masks and danzas are “archaic” Indigenous customs that are disappearing in the face of encroaching modernity. Instead, they are presented as expressions of contemporary living culture in which symbols and scripts from pop culture and religious narratives are combined to communicate about spiritual matters, political issues, and community life.

Showcasing abstract art featuring the works of Northwest artists: Vincent Keele, Shantell Jackson,Lo Mar Metoyer, and Yeggy Michael.

Black cowboys have long been an integral part of the American West. Thousands of Black cowboys, for instance, rode in the Western cattle drives of the 1860s. Their stories are largely untold in popular narratives, but modern-day Black rodeos keep their traditions alive. A new, original High Desert Museum exhibit celebrates this thriving culture.

In the Arena: Photographs from America’s Only Touring Black Rodeo running from November 19, 2022 – June 25, 2023. Through the lens of San Francisco Bay Area photographer Gabriela Hasbun, this exhibit documents the exhilarating atmosphere of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo—the only touring Black rodeo in the country—and the show stopping style and skill of the Black cowboys and cowgirls who compete in it year after year.

The exhibit features a wide range of stories including the Quinault Nation fighting climate change, water protectors resisting fossil fuel development, Duwamish River stewardship, rising seas threatening Pacific Islands and other coastal communities, Native Hawaiians opposing military installations via traditional ceremony, and local community groups fighting disproportionate airplane noise and pollution on Seattle’s Beacon Hill.

Anchorage, AK – NACF LIFT Artist Brian Walker II (King Island and Deg Hit’an Athabascan)
Supernal Enlivened at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Arc Gallery.
Feb 3rd – May 5th, 2023
For more info:
https://alaska.digication.com/kimura-gallery/arc-gallery

Across multiple geographies and a range of aesthetic approaches—from figurative clay sculpture to audio recordings of the swamp—these artists engage mud as a material or subject that shapes personal and collective histories, memory, and imagination. Each artist brings a distinct perspective to the theme, conjuring dynamics embedded in the landscape that include colonial and racialized forms of dispossession, cultural reclamation, narratives of self-actualization, and ecological loss and adaptation.
Mud moves through the exhibition as a metaphor as well as a tangible material. Both water and earth, mud exists in an in-between state. A medium that dissolves binaries, mud invites a blurring of past and present, personal and political, bodies and landscape, feeling and knowing. In various ways, the artworks in Thick as Mud move across these porous boundaries, disrupting linear narratives and dominant hierarchies that shape which places and stories matter.
Across the artworks, mud becomes an agent of time and transformation and a medium of decomposition and creation. As such, Thick as Mud tracks the afterlives of violence against people and the environment while also evoking the potential for regeneration. The exhibition is an invitation to ask what lives in the mud and to reconnect with the possibilities that this material holds.

This is the Future, by the film and new media artist Hito Steyerl, explores a vibrant, imagined garden through an immersive environment of video projection, sculpture, and architectural intervention. Steyerl is one of the foremost artists offering critical reflections on the complexities of the digital world, global capitalism, and the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for society, which is explored in this exhibition.

For many Native communities throughout the High Desert, what constitutes art spans beyond the walls of a gallery or a museum. Objects are alive, tied to purpose and intrinsic to thriving communities. Art is at once utilitarian and ceremonial, as well as part of the continuation of Native traditions.

Opening on January 28, 2023, Creations of Spirit will immerse High Desert Museum visitors in the Indigenous Plateau worldview, reflecting knowledge systems of tribes along the Columbia River and its tributaries.

Six Native artists commissioned for this new, original exhibition are creating artwork that will be used in Native communities before arriving at the Museum. A seventh artist is creating an interactive piece for the center of the gallery. Creations of Spirit will be a one-of-a-kind, celebratory experience featuring the stories of these living works of art. Videos, audio and large projections will immerse visitors in the landscapes and communities in which these objects are used, highlighting the theme of artwork as alive, full of stories and created for specific purposes and people. The original works will be supplemented with nine cultural items on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

The signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin Roosevelt and the resulting mass incarceration of Japanese American families living on the West Coast is among the single most traumatic events in the history of Asian America, but many history books present an incomplete view of the full story. The truth is that this event did not happen in a vacuum nor did the people who lived this event do so quietly.
The exhibit leads visitors through a historical narrative beginning with the experience of Japanese American incarcerees in the 1940s and the complicated feelings of shame, anger, fear, and varied faces of resistance from within the community. Through the following decades, the story illustrates the generational trauma and cultural aftershocks of incarceration, while highlighting the lingering sense of injustice and awakening to justice movements at home and abroad. Fast forward to 2001 and beyond, the exhibit draws parallels between the stigmatization of Japanese Americans and modern-day anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, anti-Indigenous, anti-Black, and anti-immigrant policies. Visitors leave with a final prompt to consider: In the pursuit of justice, how will you show solidarity for movements today and into the future?
Through art, first-person accounts, historical material, and artifacts, this exhibit connects Japanese American resistance movements during the WWII era to modern BIPOC justice movements and activism today.

The Higo 10 Cents Store, owned by the Murakami family and a social hub in Seattle’s Japantown, has a long and fascinating community and family history. Meet Me at Higo welcomes younger generations to connect with and explore what it means to be Japanese American. Impressive personal photos, journals and artifacts are included in this traveling exhibition. Today, Higo 10 Cents Store (or Higo Variety Store) is KOBO at Higo and is still located at 604 South Jackson Street in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.

From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers celebrates the enduring innovation and impact of Black architects across the United States. This traveling exhibit highlights individual architects and designers from the late 1800s to today who have broken barriers formed by racism and have created spaces and places that support communities and culture with projects ranging from public housing, to places of worship, museums and universities. Visitors will recognize iconic landmarks from across the country and experience stories of people who paved the way for future generations.

Visitors will also learn about historic and contemporary Black architects and designers from the Seattle-area who have had a local impact, such as Benjamin F. McAdoo Jr., the first Black architect registered in Washington.

Black architects continue to bring their designs to life as a creative response to ever-changing needs, and as a testimonial to a rich heritage. In this exhibit, learn about past and present influential Black architects, hear from Black leaders in the architecture and design fields in video interviews, and engage with tactile interactives. From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers encourages guests to discover how Black architects and designers respond to the ever-changing needs of humanity and not only make changes to their communities but the world.

A day-long showcase of films commemorating the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans in American concentration camps during World War II. Go to https://annual.filmsofremembrance.org/2023/ for full schedule.

Watch In-Person or Online
The 2023 Films of Remembrance returns to in-person screenings and discussions with filmmakers in both San Francisco and San Jose. For those who can’t attend the in-person programs, the films will be available for online viewing from February 25 through March 12, 2023. Film passes can be purchased for each program, or for those who plan to watch all the films, all-access ticket packs are available for the San Francisco and San Jose screenings as well as for on-demand viewing online.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers along with the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors, Catskill Mountainkeeper and the Apache Stronghold welcome you to join their unified effort to bring awareness and prayers for Oak Flat, an Apache holy site. It is through generous contributions that help provide these campaigns internationally, inter-tribally and intergenerationally.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers gratefully accept donations to help with fuel and food on their cross-country journey. They will join the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors to defend traditional Apache lands from Resolution Copper a division of British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto. According to Apache Stronghold founder Wendsler Nosie Sr., Resolution Copper’s mine will swallow the site in a massive crater and render “longstanding religious practices impossible.”

33 days , 41 stops, and 6497 miles. All stops and gatherings are free and open to the public.

Stereotypes of Native American peoples are ubiquitous and familiar. The exhibition Savages and Princess: The Persistence of Native American Stereotypes brings together twelve contemporary Native American visual artists who reclaim their right to represent their identities as Native Americans. Whether using humor, subtlety, or irony, the telling is always fiercely honest and dead-on. Images and styles are created from traditional, contemporary, and mass culture forms.

The exhibition intends to counteract the disappearance of Native portrayals. It embraces Native Americans’ power to replace stereotypical images that permeate the current pop culture landscape. Recognizing that stereotypes often occur without conscious awareness, the exhibition includes didactic information that explores common stereotypes about Native peoples that are falsehoods, followed by the truths behind them. The exhibition’s artists use the unexpected—humor, emotion, or shock—to encourage viewers to question and challenge stereotypes, even unspoken, unacknowledged ones.

Art and history come together to tell a multidimensional story about humanity. Art is a catalyst for healing cultural pain, both personal and collective. In this exhibition, four artists address stories of immigration where art is a sanctuary, resulting in regeneration and innovation. They speak through their works about histories and heritage, using non-traditional media and configuring materials in new ways. Through their practices, they unearth a life purpose and an empowered self.

When artist Victor Kai Wang arrived in the United States in 1980 from China, he felt alone and adrift, struggling to comprehend his new surroundings. Suchitra Mattai’s ancestors navigated a bewildering and dangerous journey across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Balancing between two cultures unsettled Tuan Nguyen and Jean Nagai. In childhood, they felt a need to adapt to survive. Each of these artists turned to creative innovation to change their focus and direction.

We have all felt a sense of disorientation since the COVID-19 pandemic began. We have had to adjust and find our way to a new reality. What does it take to reorient yourself to joy? Creating art, of any kind, is an active meditation. Creative innovation leads to joy, and joy brings healing.

China’s rich legacies in art, language, and culture are conceptualized by the artists in Beyond the Mountain: Contemporary Chinese Artists on the Classical Forms as visual, auditory, and kinetic experiences to tackle urgent and complex issues facing our globalized world. They allude to Chinese tradition—from the materials of ink, brush, and paper to the time-honored genre of landscape painting—to depict present-day events, such as street protests and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. New works by Yang Yongliang and Lam Tung Pang join those by Ai Weiwei and Zhang Huan from SAM’s collection in contemplating the societal tolls of modernity and globalization and the challenge that humans create for the natural world. Developed in collaboration with University of Washington students, Beyond the Mountain is the second special exhibition presented in the newly renovated Seattle Asian Art Museum.

Paradice Avenue Souf and the Wing Luke Museum join in collaboration to explore the intersection of Black and Brown communities in Seattle and across the globe, in the present day and through time immemorial.

This exhibition will feature the “Black and Brown Solidarity” mural by Paradice Avenue Souf along with new work and a video short documenting the story of Paradice Avenue Souf and their travels and connections throughout African and Southeast Asia.

Explore the second run of this past exhibit with stories sourced from the local Burmese / Myanmar community. With the original exhibit run cut short due to our closure during the pandemic, we’ve taken the opportunity to update the exhibit to include new content covering the military coup that happened in February 2021.

SAM presents American Art: The Stories We Carry, a transformation of its American art galleries, created through a wide-ranging collaboration among SAM curators and staff, artists, and advisors from the Seattle community. Funded primarily by a $1 million grant from The Mellon Foundation and a $75,000 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the project features work from SAM’s collection and new works and curation by contemporary artists, and it deepens the museum’s commitment to inclusive exhibition-planning practices with a shared-authorship model that reflects and responds to community knowledge.

Each new generation of artists responds to and builds on the art of earlier periods. Bringing together artworks that bridge decades, Reverberations seeks to spark a hum between historical works and those by artists working today. Organized in thematic groups, Reverberations introduces a different topic in each gallery, ranging from landscape and lyrical abstraction to the use of the body in addressing psychological, social, and political concerns. As you move through the modern and contemporary galleries, you will encounter harmonies and dissonance as younger artists stake their claim. In turn, works from earlier decades will acquire new meaning and new layers of relevance.

This installation draws from SAM’s growing collection and incorporates many works acquired in recent years, by artists including Margarita Cabrera, Dana Claxton, Senga Nengudi, Rashid Johnson, Woody De Othello, Jenny Saville, Sarah Sze, and Naama Tsabar. Many works are on view for the first time. Among the modern classics, viewers will find works by Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko, and David Smith on view. The museum’s ongoing commitment to building a collection with equity and diverse points of view can be seen when perusing the galleries.

Specializing in intricate natural and oil-dyed wooden and paper mosaics, artist Naoko Morisawa invites viewers to experience Happy Room — Mosaic Collage, a collection of over 50 small, mid, and large-scale works that evoke a sense of joy and draw from the Hygge lifestyle. The installation is divided into four rooms, Shoes/Closet, Kitchen/Living Room, Theater Japonism/Living Room, and Heart Room.

Each piece and room transforms everyday objects like a dependable pair of shoes or a pastry from a café into ornate, dynamic mosaics that invite viewers to find beauty in the details. Happy Room — Mosaic Collage features pieces from various bodies of work from the past 15 years including pieces from My Collection Shoes, Mosaic Café, Japanese Opera – Noh Mask, and newer abstract works.

A showcase of transgender and sacred gender indigenous artists working in digital media, transmedia, film, 360 video, glitch art, contemporary interpretations of traditional forms, and future mediums. digital indigiqueer: a showcase of trans transmedia includes 11 individual pieces exploring the diversity of contemporary indigenous creativity and touching their futures and pasts. Work from Raven TwoFeathers, Ty Defoe, Raven Kameʻenui-Becker, Communidad Catrileo+Carrion, Elijah Forbes, and organizer Hexe Fey.

The Salmon People” is an interactive installation curated by Matika Wilbur at Climate Pledge Arena that immerses the audience in the world of the Salmon. For thousands of years the Coast Salish people of the Pacific Northwest have organized their lives around the management and return of the Salmon People, who are considered relatives. “The Salmon People” urges onlookers to consider the human impacts on Salmon habitat and climate change.

We are excited to celebrate our 4 year Anniversary Pachanga Saturday February 4th! Join us for free activities, comida, prizes and the opening of our February Art Exhibition.
This is our way of saying gracias to our beautiful community for their amazing support these past 4 years. Nepantla is a Nahuatl (Aztec language) term which describes being in the middle or the space in the middle. The term was popularized by Chicana writer/scholar Gloria Anzaldua. Most often the term references endangered communities, cultures or gender who due to colonialism/marginalization or historical trauma, that engage in resistance strategies of survival. Nepantla becomes the alternative space in which to live, heal, function and create.
So what does Nepantla mean to you? We can’t wait to see your art! Email submissions to nepantlaculturalarts@gmail.com

Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence showcases a new form of bead art, the ndwango, developed by a community of women living and working together in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The six artists featured in the exhibition call their paintings in beads ndwangos, which translates as “cloth” or “rag.” The black fabric on which the Ubuhle women work is reminiscent of the Xhosa headscarves and skirts which many of them grew up wearing. By stretching this textile like a canvas, the artists transform the flat cloth into a contemporary art form colored with Czech glass beads.

Using skills handed down through generations and working in their own unique style “directly from the soul,” according to artist Ntombephi Ntobela, the women create abstract as well as figurative subjects for their ndwangos.

You are invited to join API Chaya’s 28th Annual Vigil, “Kapwa: Pieces of the Whole”, hosted on March 9, 2-5 PM at the King County Superior Court.

Every year, API Chaya hosts a vigil to honor lives ended by domestic and sexual violence. In particular, this vigil honors the lives of Susana Remerata Blackwell and her unborn baby Kristine, and her friends Phoebe Orbiso Dizon and Veronica Laureta Johnson. All three were murdered by Susana’s abusive husband on March 2nd, 1995 at the Courthouse. Leading up to their deaths, Phoebe and Veronica supported Susana in seeking services and care to keep her safe from the harm she was surviving. Masks are required at all times except for eating and drinking. Extra masks, COVID rapid tests, and hand sanitizer will be available onsite.

The first play by acclaimed intertribal sketch comedy troupe. The 1491s—best known for the hit television series “Reservation Dogs”—takes audiences on a searing and absurdly funny series of vignettes through American history centered on one family’s account of their experiences from the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 to the protests there in 1973.

Approximately Run Time is 2 hours with one 15-minute intermission

Come learn to make Native American Regalia while listening to story telling.

* Bead or loom
* Make a ribbon skirt or shirt
* Make a pair of moccasins
* The variety is open if we have the materials!

Everyone is welcome!!

This Lavender Lounge is all about your music video inspiration!
We will be sharing and discussing the music videos that inspire our artistry! We’ll talk about everything from the visuals and the lyrics to the way music videos are produced and edited. Come prepared to share your favorite music vids!

Registration required, zoom link will be sent after registration.

LAVENDER LOUNGE:

Lavender Lounge is a part of our Lavender Sessions program. Our lounge is a place and space to check in with one another, share art, receive feedback on your current works, be witnessed, and to just hang out with other artists in our community!

ABOUT LAVENDER SESSIONS:

Lavender Sessions is an intentional space for the women, trans men, and nonbinary artists of Totem Star ages 14-25 to gather together around music and artistry, and provide mutual support and care for one another.Join Artist Mentors — Momma Nikki, Amy Lp, Tracey Wong, and Christina Nguyen in creating art, collaborating, holding community discussions, and just being together.

Mukai Farm & Garden will host our fourth annual Haiku Festival in March, bringing the beauty of haiku, an ancient style of Japanese poetry, to Vashon Island residents once again. The festival has drawn hundreds of entries and fans annually from countries all over the world!

The Mukai Haiku Festival is a juried poetry competition for people of all ages. Contestants can submit up to three haikus. Each haiku will be divided into one of five categories: Nature, Social Justice, Heritage, Reflections, and Young Poets. Prizes will be awarded in each category, as well as for “People’s Choice.” Only original, unpublished haiku will be considered for awards.

Contest winners will be announced on Sunday, April 9th.

Mukai will print and display a selection of individually calligraphed haiku on the grounds of Mukai Farm & Garden throughout the month of April. We encourage visitors to Mukai Farm & Garden to vote for their favorite haikus, the People’s Choice award, online or at the kiosk.

No entry fee. Donations welcome.

A young woman, Yoko, travels with a small crew to Uzbekistan to shoot an episode of her reality TV travel show. In front of the camera her persona is carefree and happy-go-lucky, but behind the scenes she is cautious and introverted.  Despite her best efforts, all the shootings end unsuccessfully. Frustrated by the failed filming, she takes to the streets of this mysterious country on her own. Lost in the streets of Tashkent, she finds herself adrift and alone, confronting her deepest fears and hidden aspirations.

A brilliant mix of black comedy, travelogue, drama, and an adventure-imbued mockery of showbiz, TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH is a young woman’s journey from displacement to a place of self-discovery.

3 day rental • NR • 120 min. • Japanese with subtitles

Persepolis first garnered attention as a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, the story of her years growing up as an outspoken and precocious girl in the midst of the Iranian revolution. In this film adaptation, Satrapi’s incredible tale and beautiful animation come together to create something magnificent. The New York Times calls it “full of warmth and surprise, alive with humor and a fierce independence of spirit.”

The film traces Satrapi’s growth from child to rebellious, punk-music-loving teenager in Iran. In the background are the growing tensions of the political climate in Iran in the 70s and 80s, with members of her liberal-leaning family detained, and the background of the disastrous Iran/Iraq war.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 96 min.

This heartwarming and poignant winner of the Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard prize is the mesmerizing and witty story of strangers in a strange land. On an ordinary day, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event, only find there is no delegation to meet them, nor any arrangements to get to their destination of Petah Tiqva. When they find their own ride, they arrive instead at the remote town of Beit Hatikva. Stuck there until the next morning’s bus, the band, led by the repressed Tawfiq Zacharaya, gets help from the worldly lunch owner, Dina, who offers to put them up for the night. As the band settles in as best it can, each of the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them. Set against a breathtaking desert landscape, this cross-cultural comedy proves that getting lost is sometimes the best way to find yourself.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 87 mins. • Hebrew and Arabic with subtitles

Salish School of Spokane organizes the Karaoke Contest at the annual Celebrating Salish Conference. This year, there is no entry fee and all performers will receive a minimum payment for performing. Also, prize money amounts have been increased.

Running is medicine. Running is tradition. Running is healing. Running is prayer. Running is community. Indigenous people are known for running – for the messages they carry – for the prayers they carry – for the tradition it brings. We run together as relatives, as a community, to recognize and celebrate Indigenous people and their history, their contributions and heart work! We run together as community to honor the lands, run with the lands, and learn who the caretakers still are. We all have an opportunity to learn and grow! To acknowledge the past and what Native people have had to experience to be here today. We celebrate the present existence of Indigenous people and all the good medicine we bring to our relatives. As we look ahead – we have the opportunity to dismantle current systems of oppression and racism and rebuild a better and visible future! Our relatives across Turtle Island (North America) are sharing so much of their heart work to support their communities and build a future for our next generations. This virtual race is to bring together and call people in – to support not just the survival of Indigenous Peoples, but honor and celebrate their strength, and their resilience – because we are still here and we are THRIVING! – Jordan Marie Daniel

Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe introduces new generations to one of the twentieth century’s most innovative Native American painters. Howe (1915–1983) committed his artistic career to the preservation, relevance, and ongoing expression of his Yanktonai Dakota culture. He proved that art could be simultaneously modern and embedded in customary Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux) culture and aesthetics—to him there was no contradiction.Howe challenged the art establishment’s preconceptions and definitions of Native American painting. In doing so, he catalyzed a movement among Native artists to express their individuality rather than conforming to an established style. This legacy of innovation and advocacy continues to inspire generations of Native artists to take pride in their heritage and resist stereotypes.

Dakota Modern traces more than forty years of the artist’s career and development from early conventional work created while in high school in the 1930s through the emergence in the 1950s and 1960s of his innovative and abstract approach to painting.

Across Mexico, mask-making is a vibrant and playful artform with roots in the celebration of religious holidays. Worn by dancers in rollicking performances known as danzas, the masks depict devils and holy men; celebrities from media and politics, and other known individuals who personify sinners and false idols.

In contextualizing masks and the expressive art forms through the life and work of contemporary Mexican mask artists, the exhibition dispels the common notion that masks and danzas are “archaic” Indigenous customs that are disappearing in the face of encroaching modernity. Instead, they are presented as expressions of contemporary living culture in which symbols and scripts from pop culture and religious narratives are combined to communicate about spiritual matters, political issues, and community life.

Showcasing abstract art featuring the works of Northwest artists: Vincent Keele, Shantell Jackson,Lo Mar Metoyer, and Yeggy Michael.

Black cowboys have long been an integral part of the American West. Thousands of Black cowboys, for instance, rode in the Western cattle drives of the 1860s. Their stories are largely untold in popular narratives, but modern-day Black rodeos keep their traditions alive. A new, original High Desert Museum exhibit celebrates this thriving culture.

In the Arena: Photographs from America’s Only Touring Black Rodeo running from November 19, 2022 – June 25, 2023. Through the lens of San Francisco Bay Area photographer Gabriela Hasbun, this exhibit documents the exhilarating atmosphere of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo—the only touring Black rodeo in the country—and the show stopping style and skill of the Black cowboys and cowgirls who compete in it year after year.

The exhibit features a wide range of stories including the Quinault Nation fighting climate change, water protectors resisting fossil fuel development, Duwamish River stewardship, rising seas threatening Pacific Islands and other coastal communities, Native Hawaiians opposing military installations via traditional ceremony, and local community groups fighting disproportionate airplane noise and pollution on Seattle’s Beacon Hill.

Anchorage, AK – NACF LIFT Artist Brian Walker II (King Island and Deg Hit’an Athabascan)
Supernal Enlivened at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Arc Gallery.
Feb 3rd – May 5th, 2023
For more info:
https://alaska.digication.com/kimura-gallery/arc-gallery

Across multiple geographies and a range of aesthetic approaches—from figurative clay sculpture to audio recordings of the swamp—these artists engage mud as a material or subject that shapes personal and collective histories, memory, and imagination. Each artist brings a distinct perspective to the theme, conjuring dynamics embedded in the landscape that include colonial and racialized forms of dispossession, cultural reclamation, narratives of self-actualization, and ecological loss and adaptation.
Mud moves through the exhibition as a metaphor as well as a tangible material. Both water and earth, mud exists in an in-between state. A medium that dissolves binaries, mud invites a blurring of past and present, personal and political, bodies and landscape, feeling and knowing. In various ways, the artworks in Thick as Mud move across these porous boundaries, disrupting linear narratives and dominant hierarchies that shape which places and stories matter.
Across the artworks, mud becomes an agent of time and transformation and a medium of decomposition and creation. As such, Thick as Mud tracks the afterlives of violence against people and the environment while also evoking the potential for regeneration. The exhibition is an invitation to ask what lives in the mud and to reconnect with the possibilities that this material holds.

This is the Future, by the film and new media artist Hito Steyerl, explores a vibrant, imagined garden through an immersive environment of video projection, sculpture, and architectural intervention. Steyerl is one of the foremost artists offering critical reflections on the complexities of the digital world, global capitalism, and the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for society, which is explored in this exhibition.

For many Native communities throughout the High Desert, what constitutes art spans beyond the walls of a gallery or a museum. Objects are alive, tied to purpose and intrinsic to thriving communities. Art is at once utilitarian and ceremonial, as well as part of the continuation of Native traditions.

Opening on January 28, 2023, Creations of Spirit will immerse High Desert Museum visitors in the Indigenous Plateau worldview, reflecting knowledge systems of tribes along the Columbia River and its tributaries.

Six Native artists commissioned for this new, original exhibition are creating artwork that will be used in Native communities before arriving at the Museum. A seventh artist is creating an interactive piece for the center of the gallery. Creations of Spirit will be a one-of-a-kind, celebratory experience featuring the stories of these living works of art. Videos, audio and large projections will immerse visitors in the landscapes and communities in which these objects are used, highlighting the theme of artwork as alive, full of stories and created for specific purposes and people. The original works will be supplemented with nine cultural items on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

The signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin Roosevelt and the resulting mass incarceration of Japanese American families living on the West Coast is among the single most traumatic events in the history of Asian America, but many history books present an incomplete view of the full story. The truth is that this event did not happen in a vacuum nor did the people who lived this event do so quietly.
The exhibit leads visitors through a historical narrative beginning with the experience of Japanese American incarcerees in the 1940s and the complicated feelings of shame, anger, fear, and varied faces of resistance from within the community. Through the following decades, the story illustrates the generational trauma and cultural aftershocks of incarceration, while highlighting the lingering sense of injustice and awakening to justice movements at home and abroad. Fast forward to 2001 and beyond, the exhibit draws parallels between the stigmatization of Japanese Americans and modern-day anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, anti-Indigenous, anti-Black, and anti-immigrant policies. Visitors leave with a final prompt to consider: In the pursuit of justice, how will you show solidarity for movements today and into the future?
Through art, first-person accounts, historical material, and artifacts, this exhibit connects Japanese American resistance movements during the WWII era to modern BIPOC justice movements and activism today.

The Higo 10 Cents Store, owned by the Murakami family and a social hub in Seattle’s Japantown, has a long and fascinating community and family history. Meet Me at Higo welcomes younger generations to connect with and explore what it means to be Japanese American. Impressive personal photos, journals and artifacts are included in this traveling exhibition. Today, Higo 10 Cents Store (or Higo Variety Store) is KOBO at Higo and is still located at 604 South Jackson Street in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.

From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers celebrates the enduring innovation and impact of Black architects across the United States. This traveling exhibit highlights individual architects and designers from the late 1800s to today who have broken barriers formed by racism and have created spaces and places that support communities and culture with projects ranging from public housing, to places of worship, museums and universities. Visitors will recognize iconic landmarks from across the country and experience stories of people who paved the way for future generations.

Visitors will also learn about historic and contemporary Black architects and designers from the Seattle-area who have had a local impact, such as Benjamin F. McAdoo Jr., the first Black architect registered in Washington.

Black architects continue to bring their designs to life as a creative response to ever-changing needs, and as a testimonial to a rich heritage. In this exhibit, learn about past and present influential Black architects, hear from Black leaders in the architecture and design fields in video interviews, and engage with tactile interactives. From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers encourages guests to discover how Black architects and designers respond to the ever-changing needs of humanity and not only make changes to their communities but the world.

A day-long showcase of films commemorating the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans in American concentration camps during World War II. Go to https://annual.filmsofremembrance.org/2023/ for full schedule.

Watch In-Person or Online
The 2023 Films of Remembrance returns to in-person screenings and discussions with filmmakers in both San Francisco and San Jose. For those who can’t attend the in-person programs, the films will be available for online viewing from February 25 through March 12, 2023. Film passes can be purchased for each program, or for those who plan to watch all the films, all-access ticket packs are available for the San Francisco and San Jose screenings as well as for on-demand viewing online.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers along with the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors, Catskill Mountainkeeper and the Apache Stronghold welcome you to join their unified effort to bring awareness and prayers for Oak Flat, an Apache holy site. It is through generous contributions that help provide these campaigns internationally, inter-tribally and intergenerationally.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers gratefully accept donations to help with fuel and food on their cross-country journey. They will join the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors to defend traditional Apache lands from Resolution Copper a division of British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto. According to Apache Stronghold founder Wendsler Nosie Sr., Resolution Copper’s mine will swallow the site in a massive crater and render “longstanding religious practices impossible.”

33 days , 41 stops, and 6497 miles. All stops and gatherings are free and open to the public.

Stereotypes of Native American peoples are ubiquitous and familiar. The exhibition Savages and Princess: The Persistence of Native American Stereotypes brings together twelve contemporary Native American visual artists who reclaim their right to represent their identities as Native Americans. Whether using humor, subtlety, or irony, the telling is always fiercely honest and dead-on. Images and styles are created from traditional, contemporary, and mass culture forms.

The exhibition intends to counteract the disappearance of Native portrayals. It embraces Native Americans’ power to replace stereotypical images that permeate the current pop culture landscape. Recognizing that stereotypes often occur without conscious awareness, the exhibition includes didactic information that explores common stereotypes about Native peoples that are falsehoods, followed by the truths behind them. The exhibition’s artists use the unexpected—humor, emotion, or shock—to encourage viewers to question and challenge stereotypes, even unspoken, unacknowledged ones.

Art and history come together to tell a multidimensional story about humanity. Art is a catalyst for healing cultural pain, both personal and collective. In this exhibition, four artists address stories of immigration where art is a sanctuary, resulting in regeneration and innovation. They speak through their works about histories and heritage, using non-traditional media and configuring materials in new ways. Through their practices, they unearth a life purpose and an empowered self.

When artist Victor Kai Wang arrived in the United States in 1980 from China, he felt alone and adrift, struggling to comprehend his new surroundings. Suchitra Mattai’s ancestors navigated a bewildering and dangerous journey across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Balancing between two cultures unsettled Tuan Nguyen and Jean Nagai. In childhood, they felt a need to adapt to survive. Each of these artists turned to creative innovation to change their focus and direction.

We have all felt a sense of disorientation since the COVID-19 pandemic began. We have had to adjust and find our way to a new reality. What does it take to reorient yourself to joy? Creating art, of any kind, is an active meditation. Creative innovation leads to joy, and joy brings healing.

China’s rich legacies in art, language, and culture are conceptualized by the artists in Beyond the Mountain: Contemporary Chinese Artists on the Classical Forms as visual, auditory, and kinetic experiences to tackle urgent and complex issues facing our globalized world. They allude to Chinese tradition—from the materials of ink, brush, and paper to the time-honored genre of landscape painting—to depict present-day events, such as street protests and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. New works by Yang Yongliang and Lam Tung Pang join those by Ai Weiwei and Zhang Huan from SAM’s collection in contemplating the societal tolls of modernity and globalization and the challenge that humans create for the natural world. Developed in collaboration with University of Washington students, Beyond the Mountain is the second special exhibition presented in the newly renovated Seattle Asian Art Museum.

Paradice Avenue Souf and the Wing Luke Museum join in collaboration to explore the intersection of Black and Brown communities in Seattle and across the globe, in the present day and through time immemorial.

This exhibition will feature the “Black and Brown Solidarity” mural by Paradice Avenue Souf along with new work and a video short documenting the story of Paradice Avenue Souf and their travels and connections throughout African and Southeast Asia.

Explore the second run of this past exhibit with stories sourced from the local Burmese / Myanmar community. With the original exhibit run cut short due to our closure during the pandemic, we’ve taken the opportunity to update the exhibit to include new content covering the military coup that happened in February 2021.

SAM presents American Art: The Stories We Carry, a transformation of its American art galleries, created through a wide-ranging collaboration among SAM curators and staff, artists, and advisors from the Seattle community. Funded primarily by a $1 million grant from The Mellon Foundation and a $75,000 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the project features work from SAM’s collection and new works and curation by contemporary artists, and it deepens the museum’s commitment to inclusive exhibition-planning practices with a shared-authorship model that reflects and responds to community knowledge.

Each new generation of artists responds to and builds on the art of earlier periods. Bringing together artworks that bridge decades, Reverberations seeks to spark a hum between historical works and those by artists working today. Organized in thematic groups, Reverberations introduces a different topic in each gallery, ranging from landscape and lyrical abstraction to the use of the body in addressing psychological, social, and political concerns. As you move through the modern and contemporary galleries, you will encounter harmonies and dissonance as younger artists stake their claim. In turn, works from earlier decades will acquire new meaning and new layers of relevance.

This installation draws from SAM’s growing collection and incorporates many works acquired in recent years, by artists including Margarita Cabrera, Dana Claxton, Senga Nengudi, Rashid Johnson, Woody De Othello, Jenny Saville, Sarah Sze, and Naama Tsabar. Many works are on view for the first time. Among the modern classics, viewers will find works by Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko, and David Smith on view. The museum’s ongoing commitment to building a collection with equity and diverse points of view can be seen when perusing the galleries.

Specializing in intricate natural and oil-dyed wooden and paper mosaics, artist Naoko Morisawa invites viewers to experience Happy Room — Mosaic Collage, a collection of over 50 small, mid, and large-scale works that evoke a sense of joy and draw from the Hygge lifestyle. The installation is divided into four rooms, Shoes/Closet, Kitchen/Living Room, Theater Japonism/Living Room, and Heart Room.

Each piece and room transforms everyday objects like a dependable pair of shoes or a pastry from a café into ornate, dynamic mosaics that invite viewers to find beauty in the details. Happy Room — Mosaic Collage features pieces from various bodies of work from the past 15 years including pieces from My Collection Shoes, Mosaic Café, Japanese Opera – Noh Mask, and newer abstract works.

A showcase of transgender and sacred gender indigenous artists working in digital media, transmedia, film, 360 video, glitch art, contemporary interpretations of traditional forms, and future mediums. digital indigiqueer: a showcase of trans transmedia includes 11 individual pieces exploring the diversity of contemporary indigenous creativity and touching their futures and pasts. Work from Raven TwoFeathers, Ty Defoe, Raven Kameʻenui-Becker, Communidad Catrileo+Carrion, Elijah Forbes, and organizer Hexe Fey.

The 18th annual DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon is a hybrid festival with an exceptional line-up of both live and virtual film screenings as well as in-person filmmaker Q&A’s. All live screenings will be at the Art House in Eugene.
We launch our 2023 season with a Preview Screening on Feb. 24 (live) and Feb. 25-26 (virtual)! In March, join us at the Art House theaters for March 10-12 and on our virtual platform on March 13-19. Don’t miss this 10 day celebration of AANHPI independent films!
Some films are only available at in-person screenings while other films may only be in the virtual film program. There are some films that will be available in both. Most films in the virtual program are open to audiences in OR, WA, CA, and HI unless otherwise indicated. Some films have additional geoblock restrictions. Some films have limited tickets and may sell out. Mature themes are found throughout the program. If this is of concern, you can peruse the film descriptions to assess age-appropriateness. Please rate the films that you watch as they are eligible for Audience Choice Awards, which will be posted during the week after the festival.

The Salmon People” is an interactive installation curated by Matika Wilbur at Climate Pledge Arena that immerses the audience in the world of the Salmon. For thousands of years the Coast Salish people of the Pacific Northwest have organized their lives around the management and return of the Salmon People, who are considered relatives. “The Salmon People” urges onlookers to consider the human impacts on Salmon habitat and climate change.

We are excited to celebrate our 4 year Anniversary Pachanga Saturday February 4th! Join us for free activities, comida, prizes and the opening of our February Art Exhibition.
This is our way of saying gracias to our beautiful community for their amazing support these past 4 years. Nepantla is a Nahuatl (Aztec language) term which describes being in the middle or the space in the middle. The term was popularized by Chicana writer/scholar Gloria Anzaldua. Most often the term references endangered communities, cultures or gender who due to colonialism/marginalization or historical trauma, that engage in resistance strategies of survival. Nepantla becomes the alternative space in which to live, heal, function and create.
So what does Nepantla mean to you? We can’t wait to see your art! Email submissions to nepantlaculturalarts@gmail.com

Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence showcases a new form of bead art, the ndwango, developed by a community of women living and working together in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The six artists featured in the exhibition call their paintings in beads ndwangos, which translates as “cloth” or “rag.” The black fabric on which the Ubuhle women work is reminiscent of the Xhosa headscarves and skirts which many of them grew up wearing. By stretching this textile like a canvas, the artists transform the flat cloth into a contemporary art form colored with Czech glass beads.

Using skills handed down through generations and working in their own unique style “directly from the soul,” according to artist Ntombephi Ntobela, the women create abstract as well as figurative subjects for their ndwangos.

The first play by acclaimed intertribal sketch comedy troupe. The 1491s—best known for the hit television series “Reservation Dogs”—takes audiences on a searing and absurdly funny series of vignettes through American history centered on one family’s account of their experiences from the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 to the protests there in 1973.

Approximately Run Time is 2 hours with one 15-minute intermission

Join the Macondistas at a reception and an open mic reading, that will be held at the Anxestral Gallery.

Join La Casa Hogar in a celebration exclusively for Latina women 18 and older. There will be chances for networking, music/dance, food, prizes, and more.

Native Action Network is proud to present their Spring show, Familiar Place, featuring work by Raven Juarez. Raven intuitively layers images of plants, open skies, and family faces with found materials to create artworks that feel both intimate, and universal. This exhibition will feature never-before-seen pieces, unearthed from the artist’s personal archive.

Join them this Friday, March 10, from 6 PM to 9 PM for the opening of our second art exhibit at the Native Action Network office space.

You’re invited to an off-site poetry reading during AWP 2023, named in tribute to Seattle icon Sir Mix-A-Lot!

Missing, by Métis playwright Marie Clements and Juno-winning composer Brian Current, gives voice, in English and Gitxsan, to the stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. A poetic expression of loss, hope and the spirit finding home. Although the action of Missing takes place in the stark reality of a current epidemic, “it also takes place in the realm of dreams, the land of myth and the caverns of the unconscious. At its core is something very real: how our culture stereotypes Indigenous women and puts them in constant danger of rape or worse” – The Straight, A. Varty. The USA premiere presentation of Missing by Anchorage Opera, Indigenous led and cast, speaks to the tragic situation in Alaska where high violence rates against Alaska Native women has created a culture in which they feel invisible and disposable.

Mukai Farm & Garden will host our fourth annual Haiku Festival in March, bringing the beauty of haiku, an ancient style of Japanese poetry, to Vashon Island residents once again. The festival has drawn hundreds of entries and fans annually from countries all over the world!

The Mukai Haiku Festival is a juried poetry competition for people of all ages. Contestants can submit up to three haikus. Each haiku will be divided into one of five categories: Nature, Social Justice, Heritage, Reflections, and Young Poets. Prizes will be awarded in each category, as well as for “People’s Choice.” Only original, unpublished haiku will be considered for awards.

Contest winners will be announced on Sunday, April 9th.

Mukai will print and display a selection of individually calligraphed haiku on the grounds of Mukai Farm & Garden throughout the month of April. We encourage visitors to Mukai Farm & Garden to vote for their favorite haikus, the People’s Choice award, online or at the kiosk.

No entry fee. Donations welcome.

A young woman, Yoko, travels with a small crew to Uzbekistan to shoot an episode of her reality TV travel show. In front of the camera her persona is carefree and happy-go-lucky, but behind the scenes she is cautious and introverted.  Despite her best efforts, all the shootings end unsuccessfully. Frustrated by the failed filming, she takes to the streets of this mysterious country on her own. Lost in the streets of Tashkent, she finds herself adrift and alone, confronting her deepest fears and hidden aspirations.

A brilliant mix of black comedy, travelogue, drama, and an adventure-imbued mockery of showbiz, TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH is a young woman’s journey from displacement to a place of self-discovery.

3 day rental • NR • 120 min. • Japanese with subtitles

Persepolis first garnered attention as a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, the story of her years growing up as an outspoken and precocious girl in the midst of the Iranian revolution. In this film adaptation, Satrapi’s incredible tale and beautiful animation come together to create something magnificent. The New York Times calls it “full of warmth and surprise, alive with humor and a fierce independence of spirit.”

The film traces Satrapi’s growth from child to rebellious, punk-music-loving teenager in Iran. In the background are the growing tensions of the political climate in Iran in the 70s and 80s, with members of her liberal-leaning family detained, and the background of the disastrous Iran/Iraq war.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 96 min.

This heartwarming and poignant winner of the Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard prize is the mesmerizing and witty story of strangers in a strange land. On an ordinary day, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event, only find there is no delegation to meet them, nor any arrangements to get to their destination of Petah Tiqva. When they find their own ride, they arrive instead at the remote town of Beit Hatikva. Stuck there until the next morning’s bus, the band, led by the repressed Tawfiq Zacharaya, gets help from the worldly lunch owner, Dina, who offers to put them up for the night. As the band settles in as best it can, each of the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them. Set against a breathtaking desert landscape, this cross-cultural comedy proves that getting lost is sometimes the best way to find yourself.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 87 mins. • Hebrew and Arabic with subtitles

Running is medicine. Running is tradition. Running is healing. Running is prayer. Running is community. Indigenous people are known for running – for the messages they carry – for the prayers they carry – for the tradition it brings. We run together as relatives, as a community, to recognize and celebrate Indigenous people and their history, their contributions and heart work! We run together as community to honor the lands, run with the lands, and learn who the caretakers still are. We all have an opportunity to learn and grow! To acknowledge the past and what Native people have had to experience to be here today. We celebrate the present existence of Indigenous people and all the good medicine we bring to our relatives. As we look ahead – we have the opportunity to dismantle current systems of oppression and racism and rebuild a better and visible future! Our relatives across Turtle Island (North America) are sharing so much of their heart work to support their communities and build a future for our next generations. This virtual race is to bring together and call people in – to support not just the survival of Indigenous Peoples, but honor and celebrate their strength, and their resilience – because we are still here and we are THRIVING! – Jordan Marie Daniel

Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe introduces new generations to one of the twentieth century’s most innovative Native American painters. Howe (1915–1983) committed his artistic career to the preservation, relevance, and ongoing expression of his Yanktonai Dakota culture. He proved that art could be simultaneously modern and embedded in customary Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux) culture and aesthetics—to him there was no contradiction.Howe challenged the art establishment’s preconceptions and definitions of Native American painting. In doing so, he catalyzed a movement among Native artists to express their individuality rather than conforming to an established style. This legacy of innovation and advocacy continues to inspire generations of Native artists to take pride in their heritage and resist stereotypes.

Dakota Modern traces more than forty years of the artist’s career and development from early conventional work created while in high school in the 1930s through the emergence in the 1950s and 1960s of his innovative and abstract approach to painting.

Across Mexico, mask-making is a vibrant and playful artform with roots in the celebration of religious holidays. Worn by dancers in rollicking performances known as danzas, the masks depict devils and holy men; celebrities from media and politics, and other known individuals who personify sinners and false idols.

In contextualizing masks and the expressive art forms through the life and work of contemporary Mexican mask artists, the exhibition dispels the common notion that masks and danzas are “archaic” Indigenous customs that are disappearing in the face of encroaching modernity. Instead, they are presented as expressions of contemporary living culture in which symbols and scripts from pop culture and religious narratives are combined to communicate about spiritual matters, political issues, and community life.

Showcasing abstract art featuring the works of Northwest artists: Vincent Keele, Shantell Jackson,Lo Mar Metoyer, and Yeggy Michael.

Black cowboys have long been an integral part of the American West. Thousands of Black cowboys, for instance, rode in the Western cattle drives of the 1860s. Their stories are largely untold in popular narratives, but modern-day Black rodeos keep their traditions alive. A new, original High Desert Museum exhibit celebrates this thriving culture.

In the Arena: Photographs from America’s Only Touring Black Rodeo running from November 19, 2022 – June 25, 2023. Through the lens of San Francisco Bay Area photographer Gabriela Hasbun, this exhibit documents the exhilarating atmosphere of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo—the only touring Black rodeo in the country—and the show stopping style and skill of the Black cowboys and cowgirls who compete in it year after year.

The exhibit features a wide range of stories including the Quinault Nation fighting climate change, water protectors resisting fossil fuel development, Duwamish River stewardship, rising seas threatening Pacific Islands and other coastal communities, Native Hawaiians opposing military installations via traditional ceremony, and local community groups fighting disproportionate airplane noise and pollution on Seattle’s Beacon Hill.

Anchorage, AK – NACF LIFT Artist Brian Walker II (King Island and Deg Hit’an Athabascan)
Supernal Enlivened at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Arc Gallery.
Feb 3rd – May 5th, 2023
For more info:
https://alaska.digication.com/kimura-gallery/arc-gallery

Across multiple geographies and a range of aesthetic approaches—from figurative clay sculpture to audio recordings of the swamp—these artists engage mud as a material or subject that shapes personal and collective histories, memory, and imagination. Each artist brings a distinct perspective to the theme, conjuring dynamics embedded in the landscape that include colonial and racialized forms of dispossession, cultural reclamation, narratives of self-actualization, and ecological loss and adaptation.
Mud moves through the exhibition as a metaphor as well as a tangible material. Both water and earth, mud exists in an in-between state. A medium that dissolves binaries, mud invites a blurring of past and present, personal and political, bodies and landscape, feeling and knowing. In various ways, the artworks in Thick as Mud move across these porous boundaries, disrupting linear narratives and dominant hierarchies that shape which places and stories matter.
Across the artworks, mud becomes an agent of time and transformation and a medium of decomposition and creation. As such, Thick as Mud tracks the afterlives of violence against people and the environment while also evoking the potential for regeneration. The exhibition is an invitation to ask what lives in the mud and to reconnect with the possibilities that this material holds.

This is the Future, by the film and new media artist Hito Steyerl, explores a vibrant, imagined garden through an immersive environment of video projection, sculpture, and architectural intervention. Steyerl is one of the foremost artists offering critical reflections on the complexities of the digital world, global capitalism, and the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for society, which is explored in this exhibition.

For many Native communities throughout the High Desert, what constitutes art spans beyond the walls of a gallery or a museum. Objects are alive, tied to purpose and intrinsic to thriving communities. Art is at once utilitarian and ceremonial, as well as part of the continuation of Native traditions.

Opening on January 28, 2023, Creations of Spirit will immerse High Desert Museum visitors in the Indigenous Plateau worldview, reflecting knowledge systems of tribes along the Columbia River and its tributaries.

Six Native artists commissioned for this new, original exhibition are creating artwork that will be used in Native communities before arriving at the Museum. A seventh artist is creating an interactive piece for the center of the gallery. Creations of Spirit will be a one-of-a-kind, celebratory experience featuring the stories of these living works of art. Videos, audio and large projections will immerse visitors in the landscapes and communities in which these objects are used, highlighting the theme of artwork as alive, full of stories and created for specific purposes and people. The original works will be supplemented with nine cultural items on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

The signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin Roosevelt and the resulting mass incarceration of Japanese American families living on the West Coast is among the single most traumatic events in the history of Asian America, but many history books present an incomplete view of the full story. The truth is that this event did not happen in a vacuum nor did the people who lived this event do so quietly.
The exhibit leads visitors through a historical narrative beginning with the experience of Japanese American incarcerees in the 1940s and the complicated feelings of shame, anger, fear, and varied faces of resistance from within the community. Through the following decades, the story illustrates the generational trauma and cultural aftershocks of incarceration, while highlighting the lingering sense of injustice and awakening to justice movements at home and abroad. Fast forward to 2001 and beyond, the exhibit draws parallels between the stigmatization of Japanese Americans and modern-day anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, anti-Indigenous, anti-Black, and anti-immigrant policies. Visitors leave with a final prompt to consider: In the pursuit of justice, how will you show solidarity for movements today and into the future?
Through art, first-person accounts, historical material, and artifacts, this exhibit connects Japanese American resistance movements during the WWII era to modern BIPOC justice movements and activism today.

The Higo 10 Cents Store, owned by the Murakami family and a social hub in Seattle’s Japantown, has a long and fascinating community and family history. Meet Me at Higo welcomes younger generations to connect with and explore what it means to be Japanese American. Impressive personal photos, journals and artifacts are included in this traveling exhibition. Today, Higo 10 Cents Store (or Higo Variety Store) is KOBO at Higo and is still located at 604 South Jackson Street in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.

From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers celebrates the enduring innovation and impact of Black architects across the United States. This traveling exhibit highlights individual architects and designers from the late 1800s to today who have broken barriers formed by racism and have created spaces and places that support communities and culture with projects ranging from public housing, to places of worship, museums and universities. Visitors will recognize iconic landmarks from across the country and experience stories of people who paved the way for future generations.

Visitors will also learn about historic and contemporary Black architects and designers from the Seattle-area who have had a local impact, such as Benjamin F. McAdoo Jr., the first Black architect registered in Washington.

Black architects continue to bring their designs to life as a creative response to ever-changing needs, and as a testimonial to a rich heritage. In this exhibit, learn about past and present influential Black architects, hear from Black leaders in the architecture and design fields in video interviews, and engage with tactile interactives. From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers encourages guests to discover how Black architects and designers respond to the ever-changing needs of humanity and not only make changes to their communities but the world.

A day-long showcase of films commemorating the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans in American concentration camps during World War II. Go to https://annual.filmsofremembrance.org/2023/ for full schedule.

Watch In-Person or Online
The 2023 Films of Remembrance returns to in-person screenings and discussions with filmmakers in both San Francisco and San Jose. For those who can’t attend the in-person programs, the films will be available for online viewing from February 25 through March 12, 2023. Film passes can be purchased for each program, or for those who plan to watch all the films, all-access ticket packs are available for the San Francisco and San Jose screenings as well as for on-demand viewing online.

The 28th Seattle Jewish Film Festival is “cinemanna” for film-lovers and our community: a cinematic feast for the eyes and, like manna from heaven, a surprise gift of sustenance for the soul.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers along with the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors, Catskill Mountainkeeper and the Apache Stronghold welcome you to join their unified effort to bring awareness and prayers for Oak Flat, an Apache holy site. It is through generous contributions that help provide these campaigns internationally, inter-tribally and intergenerationally.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers gratefully accept donations to help with fuel and food on their cross-country journey. They will join the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors to defend traditional Apache lands from Resolution Copper a division of British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto. According to Apache Stronghold founder Wendsler Nosie Sr., Resolution Copper’s mine will swallow the site in a massive crater and render “longstanding religious practices impossible.”

33 days , 41 stops, and 6497 miles. All stops and gatherings are free and open to the public.

Stereotypes of Native American peoples are ubiquitous and familiar. The exhibition Savages and Princess: The Persistence of Native American Stereotypes brings together twelve contemporary Native American visual artists who reclaim their right to represent their identities as Native Americans. Whether using humor, subtlety, or irony, the telling is always fiercely honest and dead-on. Images and styles are created from traditional, contemporary, and mass culture forms.

The exhibition intends to counteract the disappearance of Native portrayals. It embraces Native Americans’ power to replace stereotypical images that permeate the current pop culture landscape. Recognizing that stereotypes often occur without conscious awareness, the exhibition includes didactic information that explores common stereotypes about Native peoples that are falsehoods, followed by the truths behind them. The exhibition’s artists use the unexpected—humor, emotion, or shock—to encourage viewers to question and challenge stereotypes, even unspoken, unacknowledged ones.

Come support local, support art, and have a fun, caffeinated time while you discover a diverse selection of artists!

Art and history come together to tell a multidimensional story about humanity. Art is a catalyst for healing cultural pain, both personal and collective. In this exhibition, four artists address stories of immigration where art is a sanctuary, resulting in regeneration and innovation. They speak through their works about histories and heritage, using non-traditional media and configuring materials in new ways. Through their practices, they unearth a life purpose and an empowered self.

When artist Victor Kai Wang arrived in the United States in 1980 from China, he felt alone and adrift, struggling to comprehend his new surroundings. Suchitra Mattai’s ancestors navigated a bewildering and dangerous journey across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Balancing between two cultures unsettled Tuan Nguyen and Jean Nagai. In childhood, they felt a need to adapt to survive. Each of these artists turned to creative innovation to change their focus and direction.

We have all felt a sense of disorientation since the COVID-19 pandemic began. We have had to adjust and find our way to a new reality. What does it take to reorient yourself to joy? Creating art, of any kind, is an active meditation. Creative innovation leads to joy, and joy brings healing.

China’s rich legacies in art, language, and culture are conceptualized by the artists in Beyond the Mountain: Contemporary Chinese Artists on the Classical Forms as visual, auditory, and kinetic experiences to tackle urgent and complex issues facing our globalized world. They allude to Chinese tradition—from the materials of ink, brush, and paper to the time-honored genre of landscape painting—to depict present-day events, such as street protests and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. New works by Yang Yongliang and Lam Tung Pang join those by Ai Weiwei and Zhang Huan from SAM’s collection in contemplating the societal tolls of modernity and globalization and the challenge that humans create for the natural world. Developed in collaboration with University of Washington students, Beyond the Mountain is the second special exhibition presented in the newly renovated Seattle Asian Art Museum.

Paradice Avenue Souf and the Wing Luke Museum join in collaboration to explore the intersection of Black and Brown communities in Seattle and across the globe, in the present day and through time immemorial.

This exhibition will feature the “Black and Brown Solidarity” mural by Paradice Avenue Souf along with new work and a video short documenting the story of Paradice Avenue Souf and their travels and connections throughout African and Southeast Asia.

Explore the second run of this past exhibit with stories sourced from the local Burmese / Myanmar community. With the original exhibit run cut short due to our closure during the pandemic, we’ve taken the opportunity to update the exhibit to include new content covering the military coup that happened in February 2021.

SAM presents American Art: The Stories We Carry, a transformation of its American art galleries, created through a wide-ranging collaboration among SAM curators and staff, artists, and advisors from the Seattle community. Funded primarily by a $1 million grant from The Mellon Foundation and a $75,000 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the project features work from SAM’s collection and new works and curation by contemporary artists, and it deepens the museum’s commitment to inclusive exhibition-planning practices with a shared-authorship model that reflects and responds to community knowledge.

Each new generation of artists responds to and builds on the art of earlier periods. Bringing together artworks that bridge decades, Reverberations seeks to spark a hum between historical works and those by artists working today. Organized in thematic groups, Reverberations introduces a different topic in each gallery, ranging from landscape and lyrical abstraction to the use of the body in addressing psychological, social, and political concerns. As you move through the modern and contemporary galleries, you will encounter harmonies and dissonance as younger artists stake their claim. In turn, works from earlier decades will acquire new meaning and new layers of relevance.

This installation draws from SAM’s growing collection and incorporates many works acquired in recent years, by artists including Margarita Cabrera, Dana Claxton, Senga Nengudi, Rashid Johnson, Woody De Othello, Jenny Saville, Sarah Sze, and Naama Tsabar. Many works are on view for the first time. Among the modern classics, viewers will find works by Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko, and David Smith on view. The museum’s ongoing commitment to building a collection with equity and diverse points of view can be seen when perusing the galleries.

Specializing in intricate natural and oil-dyed wooden and paper mosaics, artist Naoko Morisawa invites viewers to experience Happy Room — Mosaic Collage, a collection of over 50 small, mid, and large-scale works that evoke a sense of joy and draw from the Hygge lifestyle. The installation is divided into four rooms, Shoes/Closet, Kitchen/Living Room, Theater Japonism/Living Room, and Heart Room.

Each piece and room transforms everyday objects like a dependable pair of shoes or a pastry from a café into ornate, dynamic mosaics that invite viewers to find beauty in the details. Happy Room — Mosaic Collage features pieces from various bodies of work from the past 15 years including pieces from My Collection Shoes, Mosaic Café, Japanese Opera – Noh Mask, and newer abstract works.

A showcase of transgender and sacred gender indigenous artists working in digital media, transmedia, film, 360 video, glitch art, contemporary interpretations of traditional forms, and future mediums. digital indigiqueer: a showcase of trans transmedia includes 11 individual pieces exploring the diversity of contemporary indigenous creativity and touching their futures and pasts. Work from Raven TwoFeathers, Ty Defoe, Raven Kameʻenui-Becker, Communidad Catrileo+Carrion, Elijah Forbes, and organizer Hexe Fey.

The 18th annual DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon is a hybrid festival with an exceptional line-up of both live and virtual film screenings as well as in-person filmmaker Q&A’s. All live screenings will be at the Art House in Eugene.
We launch our 2023 season with a Preview Screening on Feb. 24 (live) and Feb. 25-26 (virtual)! In March, join us at the Art House theaters for March 10-12 and on our virtual platform on March 13-19. Don’t miss this 10 day celebration of AANHPI independent films!
Some films are only available at in-person screenings while other films may only be in the virtual film program. There are some films that will be available in both. Most films in the virtual program are open to audiences in OR, WA, CA, and HI unless otherwise indicated. Some films have additional geoblock restrictions. Some films have limited tickets and may sell out. Mature themes are found throughout the program. If this is of concern, you can peruse the film descriptions to assess age-appropriateness. Please rate the films that you watch as they are eligible for Audience Choice Awards, which will be posted during the week after the festival.

Please mark your calendar for March 11 & 12 and come support our Indigenous artisans. It is with great pride that we welcome all to come experience the beauty of our culture.

The Salmon People” is an interactive installation curated by Matika Wilbur at Climate Pledge Arena that immerses the audience in the world of the Salmon. For thousands of years the Coast Salish people of the Pacific Northwest have organized their lives around the management and return of the Salmon People, who are considered relatives. “The Salmon People” urges onlookers to consider the human impacts on Salmon habitat and climate change.

We are excited to celebrate our 4 year Anniversary Pachanga Saturday February 4th! Join us for free activities, comida, prizes and the opening of our February Art Exhibition.
This is our way of saying gracias to our beautiful community for their amazing support these past 4 years. Nepantla is a Nahuatl (Aztec language) term which describes being in the middle or the space in the middle. The term was popularized by Chicana writer/scholar Gloria Anzaldua. Most often the term references endangered communities, cultures or gender who due to colonialism/marginalization or historical trauma, that engage in resistance strategies of survival. Nepantla becomes the alternative space in which to live, heal, function and create.
So what does Nepantla mean to you? We can’t wait to see your art! Email submissions to nepantlaculturalarts@gmail.com

Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence showcases a new form of bead art, the ndwango, developed by a community of women living and working together in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The six artists featured in the exhibition call their paintings in beads ndwangos, which translates as “cloth” or “rag.” The black fabric on which the Ubuhle women work is reminiscent of the Xhosa headscarves and skirts which many of them grew up wearing. By stretching this textile like a canvas, the artists transform the flat cloth into a contemporary art form colored with Czech glass beads.

Using skills handed down through generations and working in their own unique style “directly from the soul,” according to artist Ntombephi Ntobela, the women create abstract as well as figurative subjects for their ndwangos.

The festival is produced by the Irish Heritage Club (IHC) and is a highlight of Irish Week. This year, literary accomplishments out of Ireland will be highlighted, such as the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Literature Prize awarded to W. B. Yeats. The festival will also celebrate its Irish roots with musical performances, step-dancing, genealogy workshops, history lectures, craft goods, and more.

Our final session will be a potluck. Participants are encouraged to bring a food item to share that connects with their project. We will also share our creative products and reflect through playback theatre with Brave Practice.

The first play by acclaimed intertribal sketch comedy troupe. The 1491s—best known for the hit television series “Reservation Dogs”—takes audiences on a searing and absurdly funny series of vignettes through American history centered on one family’s account of their experiences from the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 to the protests there in 1973.

Approximately Run Time is 2 hours with one 15-minute intermission

After a three-year hiatus and pause for the safety of our community to endure the COVID-19 pandemic, UTOPIA Washington is proud to present the 2023 Miss Island Goddess Pageant.
We have made the decision to meet the new year, our new reality, and introduction back in to our community with a new name for our beloved Miss UTOPIA International Pageant.
The Miss Island Goddess Pageant will debut this March 11, 2023!
As the saying goes, with the new year comes new beginnings and a fresh start to showcase our community’s beauty, grace, and talent. Save the date and join us as we seek the 2023 Miss Island Goddess!

Chinatown-International District is full of our own superhero origin stories. Join us in celebrating the unsung heroes and stories that have shaped our community at the Wing Luke Museum hybrid Annual Dinner & Auction. Visit with generations of fellow Wing Luke Museum staff & supporters IN-PERSON at the Hyatt Regency Seattle, or tune into our Virtual Program & Auction from the comfort of your own home.
Community giants and heroes walk among us every day, inspiring the next generation to become their own catalyst for the changes they want to see in the world. Join us as we empower our future changemakers in uncovering their own origin stories.

Join us at Wa Na Wari for an in-person reading by Keisha Bush.
Bush was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. She received her MFA in creative writing from The New School, where she was a Riggio Honors Teaching Fellow and recipient of an NSPE Dean’s Scholarship. After a career in corporate finance and international development that brought her to live in Dakar, Senegal, she decided to focus full-time on her writing. She lives in East Harlem.
No Heaven for Good Boys
Set in Senegal, this modern-day Oliver Twist is a meditation on the power of love, and the strength that can emerge when we have no other choice but to survive.

Balkan Night Northwest is a celebration of Balkan music and dance, with more than a dozen bands, dance performance and more! Come join the circle, enjoy delicious Greek food and drink, and help awaken the spring!

Balkan Night Northwest is the biggest Balkan festival on the west coast, bringing together the music and dance traditions from all across the Balkans, and the music will get you on the dance floor and celebrating Mardi Gras, Balkan Style! Traditional food is available for purchase, provided by the Saint Demetrios Dance Program. Beer, wine and soft drinks also available for purchase. Sponsored by Seattle Balkan Dancers.

Get ready for an incredible Purim event featuring a catered dinner, a live performance from world-renowned Jewish a capella group, Pizmon, a mixology presentation, and adult beverages to help us bring in the Purim spirit! Costumes are encouraged!
Pizmon is the Jewish a cappella group of Columbia University, Barnard College, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. They spread their love of Jewish music, ritual, and culture to Jewish communities all around the world. Pizmon will be performing their Purim set, along with some of their other best-known songs.
Dinner, drinks, and schmoozing will begin at 7 pm. Pizmon concert/spiel will begin at 8 pm. Register Today!
The cost of the event is $25/per person (kids under 12 are free).
This event is generously sponsored by Maya Newman & Ben Mahdavi.

Get ready for an incredible Purim event featuring a catered dinner, a live performance from world-renowned Jewish a capella group, Pizmon, a mixology presentation, and adult beverages to help us bring in the Purim spirit! Costumes are encouraged!

Pizmon is the Jewish a cappella group of Columbia University, Barnard College, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. They spread their love of Jewish music, ritual, and culture to Jewish communities all around the world. Pizmon will be performing their Purim set, along with some of their other best-known songs.

Dinner, drinks, and schmoozing will begin at 7 pm. Pizmon concert/spiel will begin at 8 pm. Register Today!

The Current Reigning Queen (Toronto) is joined by a decade’s worth of stellar performers! We are delighted to present this epic evening of stars to dazzle the eyes and stir the loins. This vast array of victorious vixens each bring their crowns and sashes to fill the stage with just the dazzling glow you’ve been needing to bring sparkle and pleasure into your life.

Missing, by Métis playwright Marie Clements and Juno-winning composer Brian Current, gives voice, in English and Gitxsan, to the stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. A poetic expression of loss, hope and the spirit finding home. Although the action of Missing takes place in the stark reality of a current epidemic, “it also takes place in the realm of dreams, the land of myth and the caverns of the unconscious. At its core is something very real: how our culture stereotypes Indigenous women and puts them in constant danger of rape or worse” – The Straight, A. Varty. The USA premiere presentation of Missing by Anchorage Opera, Indigenous led and cast, speaks to the tragic situation in Alaska where high violence rates against Alaska Native women has created a culture in which they feel invisible and disposable.

Mukai Farm & Garden will host our fourth annual Haiku Festival in March, bringing the beauty of haiku, an ancient style of Japanese poetry, to Vashon Island residents once again. The festival has drawn hundreds of entries and fans annually from countries all over the world!

The Mukai Haiku Festival is a juried poetry competition for people of all ages. Contestants can submit up to three haikus. Each haiku will be divided into one of five categories: Nature, Social Justice, Heritage, Reflections, and Young Poets. Prizes will be awarded in each category, as well as for “People’s Choice.” Only original, unpublished haiku will be considered for awards.

Contest winners will be announced on Sunday, April 9th.

Mukai will print and display a selection of individually calligraphed haiku on the grounds of Mukai Farm & Garden throughout the month of April. We encourage visitors to Mukai Farm & Garden to vote for their favorite haikus, the People’s Choice award, online or at the kiosk.

No entry fee. Donations welcome.

A young woman, Yoko, travels with a small crew to Uzbekistan to shoot an episode of her reality TV travel show. In front of the camera her persona is carefree and happy-go-lucky, but behind the scenes she is cautious and introverted.  Despite her best efforts, all the shootings end unsuccessfully. Frustrated by the failed filming, she takes to the streets of this mysterious country on her own. Lost in the streets of Tashkent, she finds herself adrift and alone, confronting her deepest fears and hidden aspirations.

A brilliant mix of black comedy, travelogue, drama, and an adventure-imbued mockery of showbiz, TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH is a young woman’s journey from displacement to a place of self-discovery.

3 day rental • NR • 120 min. • Japanese with subtitles

Persepolis first garnered attention as a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, the story of her years growing up as an outspoken and precocious girl in the midst of the Iranian revolution. In this film adaptation, Satrapi’s incredible tale and beautiful animation come together to create something magnificent. The New York Times calls it “full of warmth and surprise, alive with humor and a fierce independence of spirit.”

The film traces Satrapi’s growth from child to rebellious, punk-music-loving teenager in Iran. In the background are the growing tensions of the political climate in Iran in the 70s and 80s, with members of her liberal-leaning family detained, and the background of the disastrous Iran/Iraq war.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 96 min.

This heartwarming and poignant winner of the Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard prize is the mesmerizing and witty story of strangers in a strange land. On an ordinary day, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event, only find there is no delegation to meet them, nor any arrangements to get to their destination of Petah Tiqva. When they find their own ride, they arrive instead at the remote town of Beit Hatikva. Stuck there until the next morning’s bus, the band, led by the repressed Tawfiq Zacharaya, gets help from the worldly lunch owner, Dina, who offers to put them up for the night. As the band settles in as best it can, each of the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them. Set against a breathtaking desert landscape, this cross-cultural comedy proves that getting lost is sometimes the best way to find yourself.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 87 mins. • Hebrew and Arabic with subtitles

Running is medicine. Running is tradition. Running is healing. Running is prayer. Running is community. Indigenous people are known for running – for the messages they carry – for the prayers they carry – for the tradition it brings. We run together as relatives, as a community, to recognize and celebrate Indigenous people and their history, their contributions and heart work! We run together as community to honor the lands, run with the lands, and learn who the caretakers still are. We all have an opportunity to learn and grow! To acknowledge the past and what Native people have had to experience to be here today. We celebrate the present existence of Indigenous people and all the good medicine we bring to our relatives. As we look ahead – we have the opportunity to dismantle current systems of oppression and racism and rebuild a better and visible future! Our relatives across Turtle Island (North America) are sharing so much of their heart work to support their communities and build a future for our next generations. This virtual race is to bring together and call people in – to support not just the survival of Indigenous Peoples, but honor and celebrate their strength, and their resilience – because we are still here and we are THRIVING! – Jordan Marie Daniel

Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe introduces new generations to one of the twentieth century’s most innovative Native American painters. Howe (1915–1983) committed his artistic career to the preservation, relevance, and ongoing expression of his Yanktonai Dakota culture. He proved that art could be simultaneously modern and embedded in customary Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux) culture and aesthetics—to him there was no contradiction.Howe challenged the art establishment’s preconceptions and definitions of Native American painting. In doing so, he catalyzed a movement among Native artists to express their individuality rather than conforming to an established style. This legacy of innovation and advocacy continues to inspire generations of Native artists to take pride in their heritage and resist stereotypes.

Dakota Modern traces more than forty years of the artist’s career and development from early conventional work created while in high school in the 1930s through the emergence in the 1950s and 1960s of his innovative and abstract approach to painting.

Across Mexico, mask-making is a vibrant and playful artform with roots in the celebration of religious holidays. Worn by dancers in rollicking performances known as danzas, the masks depict devils and holy men; celebrities from media and politics, and other known individuals who personify sinners and false idols.

In contextualizing masks and the expressive art forms through the life and work of contemporary Mexican mask artists, the exhibition dispels the common notion that masks and danzas are “archaic” Indigenous customs that are disappearing in the face of encroaching modernity. Instead, they are presented as expressions of contemporary living culture in which symbols and scripts from pop culture and religious narratives are combined to communicate about spiritual matters, political issues, and community life.

Showcasing abstract art featuring the works of Northwest artists: Vincent Keele, Shantell Jackson,Lo Mar Metoyer, and Yeggy Michael.

Black cowboys have long been an integral part of the American West. Thousands of Black cowboys, for instance, rode in the Western cattle drives of the 1860s. Their stories are largely untold in popular narratives, but modern-day Black rodeos keep their traditions alive. A new, original High Desert Museum exhibit celebrates this thriving culture.

In the Arena: Photographs from America’s Only Touring Black Rodeo running from November 19, 2022 – June 25, 2023. Through the lens of San Francisco Bay Area photographer Gabriela Hasbun, this exhibit documents the exhilarating atmosphere of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo—the only touring Black rodeo in the country—and the show stopping style and skill of the Black cowboys and cowgirls who compete in it year after year.

The exhibit features a wide range of stories including the Quinault Nation fighting climate change, water protectors resisting fossil fuel development, Duwamish River stewardship, rising seas threatening Pacific Islands and other coastal communities, Native Hawaiians opposing military installations via traditional ceremony, and local community groups fighting disproportionate airplane noise and pollution on Seattle’s Beacon Hill.

Anchorage, AK – NACF LIFT Artist Brian Walker II (King Island and Deg Hit’an Athabascan)
Supernal Enlivened at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Arc Gallery.
Feb 3rd – May 5th, 2023
For more info:
https://alaska.digication.com/kimura-gallery/arc-gallery

Across multiple geographies and a range of aesthetic approaches—from figurative clay sculpture to audio recordings of the swamp—these artists engage mud as a material or subject that shapes personal and collective histories, memory, and imagination. Each artist brings a distinct perspective to the theme, conjuring dynamics embedded in the landscape that include colonial and racialized forms of dispossession, cultural reclamation, narratives of self-actualization, and ecological loss and adaptation.
Mud moves through the exhibition as a metaphor as well as a tangible material. Both water and earth, mud exists in an in-between state. A medium that dissolves binaries, mud invites a blurring of past and present, personal and political, bodies and landscape, feeling and knowing. In various ways, the artworks in Thick as Mud move across these porous boundaries, disrupting linear narratives and dominant hierarchies that shape which places and stories matter.
Across the artworks, mud becomes an agent of time and transformation and a medium of decomposition and creation. As such, Thick as Mud tracks the afterlives of violence against people and the environment while also evoking the potential for regeneration. The exhibition is an invitation to ask what lives in the mud and to reconnect with the possibilities that this material holds.

This is the Future, by the film and new media artist Hito Steyerl, explores a vibrant, imagined garden through an immersive environment of video projection, sculpture, and architectural intervention. Steyerl is one of the foremost artists offering critical reflections on the complexities of the digital world, global capitalism, and the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for society, which is explored in this exhibition.

For many Native communities throughout the High Desert, what constitutes art spans beyond the walls of a gallery or a museum. Objects are alive, tied to purpose and intrinsic to thriving communities. Art is at once utilitarian and ceremonial, as well as part of the continuation of Native traditions.

Opening on January 28, 2023, Creations of Spirit will immerse High Desert Museum visitors in the Indigenous Plateau worldview, reflecting knowledge systems of tribes along the Columbia River and its tributaries.

Six Native artists commissioned for this new, original exhibition are creating artwork that will be used in Native communities before arriving at the Museum. A seventh artist is creating an interactive piece for the center of the gallery. Creations of Spirit will be a one-of-a-kind, celebratory experience featuring the stories of these living works of art. Videos, audio and large projections will immerse visitors in the landscapes and communities in which these objects are used, highlighting the theme of artwork as alive, full of stories and created for specific purposes and people. The original works will be supplemented with nine cultural items on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

The signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin Roosevelt and the resulting mass incarceration of Japanese American families living on the West Coast is among the single most traumatic events in the history of Asian America, but many history books present an incomplete view of the full story. The truth is that this event did not happen in a vacuum nor did the people who lived this event do so quietly.
The exhibit leads visitors through a historical narrative beginning with the experience of Japanese American incarcerees in the 1940s and the complicated feelings of shame, anger, fear, and varied faces of resistance from within the community. Through the following decades, the story illustrates the generational trauma and cultural aftershocks of incarceration, while highlighting the lingering sense of injustice and awakening to justice movements at home and abroad. Fast forward to 2001 and beyond, the exhibit draws parallels between the stigmatization of Japanese Americans and modern-day anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, anti-Indigenous, anti-Black, and anti-immigrant policies. Visitors leave with a final prompt to consider: In the pursuit of justice, how will you show solidarity for movements today and into the future?
Through art, first-person accounts, historical material, and artifacts, this exhibit connects Japanese American resistance movements during the WWII era to modern BIPOC justice movements and activism today.

The Higo 10 Cents Store, owned by the Murakami family and a social hub in Seattle’s Japantown, has a long and fascinating community and family history. Meet Me at Higo welcomes younger generations to connect with and explore what it means to be Japanese American. Impressive personal photos, journals and artifacts are included in this traveling exhibition. Today, Higo 10 Cents Store (or Higo Variety Store) is KOBO at Higo and is still located at 604 South Jackson Street in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.

From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers celebrates the enduring innovation and impact of Black architects across the United States. This traveling exhibit highlights individual architects and designers from the late 1800s to today who have broken barriers formed by racism and have created spaces and places that support communities and culture with projects ranging from public housing, to places of worship, museums and universities. Visitors will recognize iconic landmarks from across the country and experience stories of people who paved the way for future generations.

Visitors will also learn about historic and contemporary Black architects and designers from the Seattle-area who have had a local impact, such as Benjamin F. McAdoo Jr., the first Black architect registered in Washington.

Black architects continue to bring their designs to life as a creative response to ever-changing needs, and as a testimonial to a rich heritage. In this exhibit, learn about past and present influential Black architects, hear from Black leaders in the architecture and design fields in video interviews, and engage with tactile interactives. From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers encourages guests to discover how Black architects and designers respond to the ever-changing needs of humanity and not only make changes to their communities but the world.

A day-long showcase of films commemorating the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans in American concentration camps during World War II. Go to https://annual.filmsofremembrance.org/2023/ for full schedule.

Watch In-Person or Online
The 2023 Films of Remembrance returns to in-person screenings and discussions with filmmakers in both San Francisco and San Jose. For those who can’t attend the in-person programs, the films will be available for online viewing from February 25 through March 12, 2023. Film passes can be purchased for each program, or for those who plan to watch all the films, all-access ticket packs are available for the San Francisco and San Jose screenings as well as for on-demand viewing online.

The 28th Seattle Jewish Film Festival is “cinemanna” for film-lovers and our community: a cinematic feast for the eyes and, like manna from heaven, a surprise gift of sustenance for the soul.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers along with the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors, Catskill Mountainkeeper and the Apache Stronghold welcome you to join their unified effort to bring awareness and prayers for Oak Flat, an Apache holy site. It is through generous contributions that help provide these campaigns internationally, inter-tribally and intergenerationally.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers gratefully accept donations to help with fuel and food on their cross-country journey. They will join the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors to defend traditional Apache lands from Resolution Copper a division of British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto. According to Apache Stronghold founder Wendsler Nosie Sr., Resolution Copper’s mine will swallow the site in a massive crater and render “longstanding religious practices impossible.”

33 days , 41 stops, and 6497 miles. All stops and gatherings are free and open to the public.

Stereotypes of Native American peoples are ubiquitous and familiar. The exhibition Savages and Princess: The Persistence of Native American Stereotypes brings together twelve contemporary Native American visual artists who reclaim their right to represent their identities as Native Americans. Whether using humor, subtlety, or irony, the telling is always fiercely honest and dead-on. Images and styles are created from traditional, contemporary, and mass culture forms.

The exhibition intends to counteract the disappearance of Native portrayals. It embraces Native Americans’ power to replace stereotypical images that permeate the current pop culture landscape. Recognizing that stereotypes often occur without conscious awareness, the exhibition includes didactic information that explores common stereotypes about Native peoples that are falsehoods, followed by the truths behind them. The exhibition’s artists use the unexpected—humor, emotion, or shock—to encourage viewers to question and challenge stereotypes, even unspoken, unacknowledged ones.

Come support local, support art, and have a fun, caffeinated time while you discover a diverse selection of artists!

The Holocaust Center maintains an archive of over 8400 items, including more than 2700 photographs. These items come from Holocaust survivors, eyewitnesses, U.S. liberators and army personnel, all with a connection to Washington State. A selection of photographs from the archive is on display, highlighting the humanity of individuals and reshaping our narrative of the Holocaust.

Open every Sunday from March 12th – May 28th

Art and history come together to tell a multidimensional story about humanity. Art is a catalyst for healing cultural pain, both personal and collective. In this exhibition, four artists address stories of immigration where art is a sanctuary, resulting in regeneration and innovation. They speak through their works about histories and heritage, using non-traditional media and configuring materials in new ways. Through their practices, they unearth a life purpose and an empowered self.

When artist Victor Kai Wang arrived in the United States in 1980 from China, he felt alone and adrift, struggling to comprehend his new surroundings. Suchitra Mattai’s ancestors navigated a bewildering and dangerous journey across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Balancing between two cultures unsettled Tuan Nguyen and Jean Nagai. In childhood, they felt a need to adapt to survive. Each of these artists turned to creative innovation to change their focus and direction.

We have all felt a sense of disorientation since the COVID-19 pandemic began. We have had to adjust and find our way to a new reality. What does it take to reorient yourself to joy? Creating art, of any kind, is an active meditation. Creative innovation leads to joy, and joy brings healing.

China’s rich legacies in art, language, and culture are conceptualized by the artists in Beyond the Mountain: Contemporary Chinese Artists on the Classical Forms as visual, auditory, and kinetic experiences to tackle urgent and complex issues facing our globalized world. They allude to Chinese tradition—from the materials of ink, brush, and paper to the time-honored genre of landscape painting—to depict present-day events, such as street protests and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. New works by Yang Yongliang and Lam Tung Pang join those by Ai Weiwei and Zhang Huan from SAM’s collection in contemplating the societal tolls of modernity and globalization and the challenge that humans create for the natural world. Developed in collaboration with University of Washington students, Beyond the Mountain is the second special exhibition presented in the newly renovated Seattle Asian Art Museum.

Paradice Avenue Souf and the Wing Luke Museum join in collaboration to explore the intersection of Black and Brown communities in Seattle and across the globe, in the present day and through time immemorial.

This exhibition will feature the “Black and Brown Solidarity” mural by Paradice Avenue Souf along with new work and a video short documenting the story of Paradice Avenue Souf and their travels and connections throughout African and Southeast Asia.

Explore the second run of this past exhibit with stories sourced from the local Burmese / Myanmar community. With the original exhibit run cut short due to our closure during the pandemic, we’ve taken the opportunity to update the exhibit to include new content covering the military coup that happened in February 2021.

SAM presents American Art: The Stories We Carry, a transformation of its American art galleries, created through a wide-ranging collaboration among SAM curators and staff, artists, and advisors from the Seattle community. Funded primarily by a $1 million grant from The Mellon Foundation and a $75,000 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the project features work from SAM’s collection and new works and curation by contemporary artists, and it deepens the museum’s commitment to inclusive exhibition-planning practices with a shared-authorship model that reflects and responds to community knowledge.

Each new generation of artists responds to and builds on the art of earlier periods. Bringing together artworks that bridge decades, Reverberations seeks to spark a hum between historical works and those by artists working today. Organized in thematic groups, Reverberations introduces a different topic in each gallery, ranging from landscape and lyrical abstraction to the use of the body in addressing psychological, social, and political concerns. As you move through the modern and contemporary galleries, you will encounter harmonies and dissonance as younger artists stake their claim. In turn, works from earlier decades will acquire new meaning and new layers of relevance.

This installation draws from SAM’s growing collection and incorporates many works acquired in recent years, by artists including Margarita Cabrera, Dana Claxton, Senga Nengudi, Rashid Johnson, Woody De Othello, Jenny Saville, Sarah Sze, and Naama Tsabar. Many works are on view for the first time. Among the modern classics, viewers will find works by Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko, and David Smith on view. The museum’s ongoing commitment to building a collection with equity and diverse points of view can be seen when perusing the galleries.

Specializing in intricate natural and oil-dyed wooden and paper mosaics, artist Naoko Morisawa invites viewers to experience Happy Room — Mosaic Collage, a collection of over 50 small, mid, and large-scale works that evoke a sense of joy and draw from the Hygge lifestyle. The installation is divided into four rooms, Shoes/Closet, Kitchen/Living Room, Theater Japonism/Living Room, and Heart Room.

Each piece and room transforms everyday objects like a dependable pair of shoes or a pastry from a café into ornate, dynamic mosaics that invite viewers to find beauty in the details. Happy Room — Mosaic Collage features pieces from various bodies of work from the past 15 years including pieces from My Collection Shoes, Mosaic Café, Japanese Opera – Noh Mask, and newer abstract works.

A showcase of transgender and sacred gender indigenous artists working in digital media, transmedia, film, 360 video, glitch art, contemporary interpretations of traditional forms, and future mediums. digital indigiqueer: a showcase of trans transmedia includes 11 individual pieces exploring the diversity of contemporary indigenous creativity and touching their futures and pasts. Work from Raven TwoFeathers, Ty Defoe, Raven Kameʻenui-Becker, Communidad Catrileo+Carrion, Elijah Forbes, and organizer Hexe Fey.

The 18th annual DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon is a hybrid festival with an exceptional line-up of both live and virtual film screenings as well as in-person filmmaker Q&A’s. All live screenings will be at the Art House in Eugene.
We launch our 2023 season with a Preview Screening on Feb. 24 (live) and Feb. 25-26 (virtual)! In March, join us at the Art House theaters for March 10-12 and on our virtual platform on March 13-19. Don’t miss this 10 day celebration of AANHPI independent films!
Some films are only available at in-person screenings while other films may only be in the virtual film program. There are some films that will be available in both. Most films in the virtual program are open to audiences in OR, WA, CA, and HI unless otherwise indicated. Some films have additional geoblock restrictions. Some films have limited tickets and may sell out. Mature themes are found throughout the program. If this is of concern, you can peruse the film descriptions to assess age-appropriateness. Please rate the films that you watch as they are eligible for Audience Choice Awards, which will be posted during the week after the festival.

Please mark your calendar for March 11 & 12 and come support our Indigenous artisans. It is with great pride that we welcome all to come experience the beauty of our culture.

The Salmon People” is an interactive installation curated by Matika Wilbur at Climate Pledge Arena that immerses the audience in the world of the Salmon. For thousands of years the Coast Salish people of the Pacific Northwest have organized their lives around the management and return of the Salmon People, who are considered relatives. “The Salmon People” urges onlookers to consider the human impacts on Salmon habitat and climate change.

We are excited to celebrate our 4 year Anniversary Pachanga Saturday February 4th! Join us for free activities, comida, prizes and the opening of our February Art Exhibition.
This is our way of saying gracias to our beautiful community for their amazing support these past 4 years. Nepantla is a Nahuatl (Aztec language) term which describes being in the middle or the space in the middle. The term was popularized by Chicana writer/scholar Gloria Anzaldua. Most often the term references endangered communities, cultures or gender who due to colonialism/marginalization or historical trauma, that engage in resistance strategies of survival. Nepantla becomes the alternative space in which to live, heal, function and create.
So what does Nepantla mean to you? We can’t wait to see your art! Email submissions to nepantlaculturalarts@gmail.com

Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence showcases a new form of bead art, the ndwango, developed by a community of women living and working together in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The six artists featured in the exhibition call their paintings in beads ndwangos, which translates as “cloth” or “rag.” The black fabric on which the Ubuhle women work is reminiscent of the Xhosa headscarves and skirts which many of them grew up wearing. By stretching this textile like a canvas, the artists transform the flat cloth into a contemporary art form colored with Czech glass beads.

Using skills handed down through generations and working in their own unique style “directly from the soul,” according to artist Ntombephi Ntobela, the women create abstract as well as figurative subjects for their ndwangos.

The festival is produced by the Irish Heritage Club (IHC) and is a highlight of Irish Week. This year, literary accomplishments out of Ireland will be highlighted, such as the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Literature Prize awarded to W. B. Yeats. The festival will also celebrate its Irish roots with musical performances, step-dancing, genealogy workshops, history lectures, craft goods, and more.

Join NAAM for a storytime reading of “Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer”, written by Carole Boston Weatherford. This children’s book brings to life the story of one of the most important civil rights leaders Fannie Lou Hamer.

Join us at 2pm on the second Sunday of each month where AAWA hosts Writers Read. Hear special guests and AAWA members. Be an Open Mic star!

The first play by acclaimed intertribal sketch comedy troupe. The 1491s—best known for the hit television series “Reservation Dogs”—takes audiences on a searing and absurdly funny series of vignettes through American history centered on one family’s account of their experiences from the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 to the protests there in 1973.

Approximately Run Time is 2 hours with one 15-minute intermission

Missing, by Métis playwright Marie Clements and Juno-winning composer Brian Current, gives voice, in English and Gitxsan, to the stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. A poetic expression of loss, hope and the spirit finding home. Although the action of Missing takes place in the stark reality of a current epidemic, “it also takes place in the realm of dreams, the land of myth and the caverns of the unconscious. At its core is something very real: how our culture stereotypes Indigenous women and puts them in constant danger of rape or worse” – The Straight, A. Varty. The USA premiere presentation of Missing by Anchorage Opera, Indigenous led and cast, speaks to the tragic situation in Alaska where high violence rates against Alaska Native women has created a culture in which they feel invisible and disposable.

Mukai Farm & Garden will host our fourth annual Haiku Festival in March, bringing the beauty of haiku, an ancient style of Japanese poetry, to Vashon Island residents once again. The festival has drawn hundreds of entries and fans annually from countries all over the world!

The Mukai Haiku Festival is a juried poetry competition for people of all ages. Contestants can submit up to three haikus. Each haiku will be divided into one of five categories: Nature, Social Justice, Heritage, Reflections, and Young Poets. Prizes will be awarded in each category, as well as for “People’s Choice.” Only original, unpublished haiku will be considered for awards.

Contest winners will be announced on Sunday, April 9th.

Mukai will print and display a selection of individually calligraphed haiku on the grounds of Mukai Farm & Garden throughout the month of April. We encourage visitors to Mukai Farm & Garden to vote for their favorite haikus, the People’s Choice award, online or at the kiosk.

No entry fee. Donations welcome.

A young woman, Yoko, travels with a small crew to Uzbekistan to shoot an episode of her reality TV travel show. In front of the camera her persona is carefree and happy-go-lucky, but behind the scenes she is cautious and introverted.  Despite her best efforts, all the shootings end unsuccessfully. Frustrated by the failed filming, she takes to the streets of this mysterious country on her own. Lost in the streets of Tashkent, she finds herself adrift and alone, confronting her deepest fears and hidden aspirations.

A brilliant mix of black comedy, travelogue, drama, and an adventure-imbued mockery of showbiz, TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH is a young woman’s journey from displacement to a place of self-discovery.

3 day rental • NR • 120 min. • Japanese with subtitles

Persepolis first garnered attention as a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, the story of her years growing up as an outspoken and precocious girl in the midst of the Iranian revolution. In this film adaptation, Satrapi’s incredible tale and beautiful animation come together to create something magnificent. The New York Times calls it “full of warmth and surprise, alive with humor and a fierce independence of spirit.”

The film traces Satrapi’s growth from child to rebellious, punk-music-loving teenager in Iran. In the background are the growing tensions of the political climate in Iran in the 70s and 80s, with members of her liberal-leaning family detained, and the background of the disastrous Iran/Iraq war.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 96 min.

This heartwarming and poignant winner of the Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard prize is the mesmerizing and witty story of strangers in a strange land. On an ordinary day, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event, only find there is no delegation to meet them, nor any arrangements to get to their destination of Petah Tiqva. When they find their own ride, they arrive instead at the remote town of Beit Hatikva. Stuck there until the next morning’s bus, the band, led by the repressed Tawfiq Zacharaya, gets help from the worldly lunch owner, Dina, who offers to put them up for the night. As the band settles in as best it can, each of the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them. Set against a breathtaking desert landscape, this cross-cultural comedy proves that getting lost is sometimes the best way to find yourself.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 87 mins. • Hebrew and Arabic with subtitles

Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe introduces new generations to one of the twentieth century’s most innovative Native American painters. Howe (1915–1983) committed his artistic career to the preservation, relevance, and ongoing expression of his Yanktonai Dakota culture. He proved that art could be simultaneously modern and embedded in customary Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux) culture and aesthetics—to him there was no contradiction.Howe challenged the art establishment’s preconceptions and definitions of Native American painting. In doing so, he catalyzed a movement among Native artists to express their individuality rather than conforming to an established style. This legacy of innovation and advocacy continues to inspire generations of Native artists to take pride in their heritage and resist stereotypes.

Dakota Modern traces more than forty years of the artist’s career and development from early conventional work created while in high school in the 1930s through the emergence in the 1950s and 1960s of his innovative and abstract approach to painting.

Across Mexico, mask-making is a vibrant and playful artform with roots in the celebration of religious holidays. Worn by dancers in rollicking performances known as danzas, the masks depict devils and holy men; celebrities from media and politics, and other known individuals who personify sinners and false idols.

In contextualizing masks and the expressive art forms through the life and work of contemporary Mexican mask artists, the exhibition dispels the common notion that masks and danzas are “archaic” Indigenous customs that are disappearing in the face of encroaching modernity. Instead, they are presented as expressions of contemporary living culture in which symbols and scripts from pop culture and religious narratives are combined to communicate about spiritual matters, political issues, and community life.

Showcasing abstract art featuring the works of Northwest artists: Vincent Keele, Shantell Jackson,Lo Mar Metoyer, and Yeggy Michael.

Black cowboys have long been an integral part of the American West. Thousands of Black cowboys, for instance, rode in the Western cattle drives of the 1860s. Their stories are largely untold in popular narratives, but modern-day Black rodeos keep their traditions alive. A new, original High Desert Museum exhibit celebrates this thriving culture.

In the Arena: Photographs from America’s Only Touring Black Rodeo running from November 19, 2022 – June 25, 2023. Through the lens of San Francisco Bay Area photographer Gabriela Hasbun, this exhibit documents the exhilarating atmosphere of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo—the only touring Black rodeo in the country—and the show stopping style and skill of the Black cowboys and cowgirls who compete in it year after year.

The exhibit features a wide range of stories including the Quinault Nation fighting climate change, water protectors resisting fossil fuel development, Duwamish River stewardship, rising seas threatening Pacific Islands and other coastal communities, Native Hawaiians opposing military installations via traditional ceremony, and local community groups fighting disproportionate airplane noise and pollution on Seattle’s Beacon Hill.

Anchorage, AK – NACF LIFT Artist Brian Walker II (King Island and Deg Hit’an Athabascan)
Supernal Enlivened at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Arc Gallery.
Feb 3rd – May 5th, 2023
For more info:
https://alaska.digication.com/kimura-gallery/arc-gallery

Across multiple geographies and a range of aesthetic approaches—from figurative clay sculpture to audio recordings of the swamp—these artists engage mud as a material or subject that shapes personal and collective histories, memory, and imagination. Each artist brings a distinct perspective to the theme, conjuring dynamics embedded in the landscape that include colonial and racialized forms of dispossession, cultural reclamation, narratives of self-actualization, and ecological loss and adaptation.
Mud moves through the exhibition as a metaphor as well as a tangible material. Both water and earth, mud exists in an in-between state. A medium that dissolves binaries, mud invites a blurring of past and present, personal and political, bodies and landscape, feeling and knowing. In various ways, the artworks in Thick as Mud move across these porous boundaries, disrupting linear narratives and dominant hierarchies that shape which places and stories matter.
Across the artworks, mud becomes an agent of time and transformation and a medium of decomposition and creation. As such, Thick as Mud tracks the afterlives of violence against people and the environment while also evoking the potential for regeneration. The exhibition is an invitation to ask what lives in the mud and to reconnect with the possibilities that this material holds.

This is the Future, by the film and new media artist Hito Steyerl, explores a vibrant, imagined garden through an immersive environment of video projection, sculpture, and architectural intervention. Steyerl is one of the foremost artists offering critical reflections on the complexities of the digital world, global capitalism, and the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for society, which is explored in this exhibition.

For many Native communities throughout the High Desert, what constitutes art spans beyond the walls of a gallery or a museum. Objects are alive, tied to purpose and intrinsic to thriving communities. Art is at once utilitarian and ceremonial, as well as part of the continuation of Native traditions.

Opening on January 28, 2023, Creations of Spirit will immerse High Desert Museum visitors in the Indigenous Plateau worldview, reflecting knowledge systems of tribes along the Columbia River and its tributaries.

Six Native artists commissioned for this new, original exhibition are creating artwork that will be used in Native communities before arriving at the Museum. A seventh artist is creating an interactive piece for the center of the gallery. Creations of Spirit will be a one-of-a-kind, celebratory experience featuring the stories of these living works of art. Videos, audio and large projections will immerse visitors in the landscapes and communities in which these objects are used, highlighting the theme of artwork as alive, full of stories and created for specific purposes and people. The original works will be supplemented with nine cultural items on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

The signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin Roosevelt and the resulting mass incarceration of Japanese American families living on the West Coast is among the single most traumatic events in the history of Asian America, but many history books present an incomplete view of the full story. The truth is that this event did not happen in a vacuum nor did the people who lived this event do so quietly.
The exhibit leads visitors through a historical narrative beginning with the experience of Japanese American incarcerees in the 1940s and the complicated feelings of shame, anger, fear, and varied faces of resistance from within the community. Through the following decades, the story illustrates the generational trauma and cultural aftershocks of incarceration, while highlighting the lingering sense of injustice and awakening to justice movements at home and abroad. Fast forward to 2001 and beyond, the exhibit draws parallels between the stigmatization of Japanese Americans and modern-day anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, anti-Indigenous, anti-Black, and anti-immigrant policies. Visitors leave with a final prompt to consider: In the pursuit of justice, how will you show solidarity for movements today and into the future?
Through art, first-person accounts, historical material, and artifacts, this exhibit connects Japanese American resistance movements during the WWII era to modern BIPOC justice movements and activism today.

The Higo 10 Cents Store, owned by the Murakami family and a social hub in Seattle’s Japantown, has a long and fascinating community and family history. Meet Me at Higo welcomes younger generations to connect with and explore what it means to be Japanese American. Impressive personal photos, journals and artifacts are included in this traveling exhibition. Today, Higo 10 Cents Store (or Higo Variety Store) is KOBO at Higo and is still located at 604 South Jackson Street in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.

From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers celebrates the enduring innovation and impact of Black architects across the United States. This traveling exhibit highlights individual architects and designers from the late 1800s to today who have broken barriers formed by racism and have created spaces and places that support communities and culture with projects ranging from public housing, to places of worship, museums and universities. Visitors will recognize iconic landmarks from across the country and experience stories of people who paved the way for future generations.

Visitors will also learn about historic and contemporary Black architects and designers from the Seattle-area who have had a local impact, such as Benjamin F. McAdoo Jr., the first Black architect registered in Washington.

Black architects continue to bring their designs to life as a creative response to ever-changing needs, and as a testimonial to a rich heritage. In this exhibit, learn about past and present influential Black architects, hear from Black leaders in the architecture and design fields in video interviews, and engage with tactile interactives. From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers encourages guests to discover how Black architects and designers respond to the ever-changing needs of humanity and not only make changes to their communities but the world.

The 28th Seattle Jewish Film Festival is “cinemanna” for film-lovers and our community: a cinematic feast for the eyes and, like manna from heaven, a surprise gift of sustenance for the soul.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers along with the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors, Catskill Mountainkeeper and the Apache Stronghold welcome you to join their unified effort to bring awareness and prayers for Oak Flat, an Apache holy site. It is through generous contributions that help provide these campaigns internationally, inter-tribally and intergenerationally.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers gratefully accept donations to help with fuel and food on their cross-country journey. They will join the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors to defend traditional Apache lands from Resolution Copper a division of British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto. According to Apache Stronghold founder Wendsler Nosie Sr., Resolution Copper’s mine will swallow the site in a massive crater and render “longstanding religious practices impossible.”

33 days , 41 stops, and 6497 miles. All stops and gatherings are free and open to the public.

Stereotypes of Native American peoples are ubiquitous and familiar. The exhibition Savages and Princess: The Persistence of Native American Stereotypes brings together twelve contemporary Native American visual artists who reclaim their right to represent their identities as Native Americans. Whether using humor, subtlety, or irony, the telling is always fiercely honest and dead-on. Images and styles are created from traditional, contemporary, and mass culture forms.

The exhibition intends to counteract the disappearance of Native portrayals. It embraces Native Americans’ power to replace stereotypical images that permeate the current pop culture landscape. Recognizing that stereotypes often occur without conscious awareness, the exhibition includes didactic information that explores common stereotypes about Native peoples that are falsehoods, followed by the truths behind them. The exhibition’s artists use the unexpected—humor, emotion, or shock—to encourage viewers to question and challenge stereotypes, even unspoken, unacknowledged ones.

The Holocaust Center maintains an archive of over 8400 items, including more than 2700 photographs. These items come from Holocaust survivors, eyewitnesses, U.S. liberators and army personnel, all with a connection to Washington State. A selection of photographs from the archive is on display, highlighting the humanity of individuals and reshaping our narrative of the Holocaust.

Open every Sunday from March 12th – May 28th

Art and history come together to tell a multidimensional story about humanity. Art is a catalyst for healing cultural pain, both personal and collective. In this exhibition, four artists address stories of immigration where art is a sanctuary, resulting in regeneration and innovation. They speak through their works about histories and heritage, using non-traditional media and configuring materials in new ways. Through their practices, they unearth a life purpose and an empowered self.

When artist Victor Kai Wang arrived in the United States in 1980 from China, he felt alone and adrift, struggling to comprehend his new surroundings. Suchitra Mattai’s ancestors navigated a bewildering and dangerous journey across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Balancing between two cultures unsettled Tuan Nguyen and Jean Nagai. In childhood, they felt a need to adapt to survive. Each of these artists turned to creative innovation to change their focus and direction.

We have all felt a sense of disorientation since the COVID-19 pandemic began. We have had to adjust and find our way to a new reality. What does it take to reorient yourself to joy? Creating art, of any kind, is an active meditation. Creative innovation leads to joy, and joy brings healing.

China’s rich legacies in art, language, and culture are conceptualized by the artists in Beyond the Mountain: Contemporary Chinese Artists on the Classical Forms as visual, auditory, and kinetic experiences to tackle urgent and complex issues facing our globalized world. They allude to Chinese tradition—from the materials of ink, brush, and paper to the time-honored genre of landscape painting—to depict present-day events, such as street protests and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. New works by Yang Yongliang and Lam Tung Pang join those by Ai Weiwei and Zhang Huan from SAM’s collection in contemplating the societal tolls of modernity and globalization and the challenge that humans create for the natural world. Developed in collaboration with University of Washington students, Beyond the Mountain is the second special exhibition presented in the newly renovated Seattle Asian Art Museum.

Paradice Avenue Souf and the Wing Luke Museum join in collaboration to explore the intersection of Black and Brown communities in Seattle and across the globe, in the present day and through time immemorial.

This exhibition will feature the “Black and Brown Solidarity” mural by Paradice Avenue Souf along with new work and a video short documenting the story of Paradice Avenue Souf and their travels and connections throughout African and Southeast Asia.

Explore the second run of this past exhibit with stories sourced from the local Burmese / Myanmar community. With the original exhibit run cut short due to our closure during the pandemic, we’ve taken the opportunity to update the exhibit to include new content covering the military coup that happened in February 2021.

SAM presents American Art: The Stories We Carry, a transformation of its American art galleries, created through a wide-ranging collaboration among SAM curators and staff, artists, and advisors from the Seattle community. Funded primarily by a $1 million grant from The Mellon Foundation and a $75,000 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the project features work from SAM’s collection and new works and curation by contemporary artists, and it deepens the museum’s commitment to inclusive exhibition-planning practices with a shared-authorship model that reflects and responds to community knowledge.

Each new generation of artists responds to and builds on the art of earlier periods. Bringing together artworks that bridge decades, Reverberations seeks to spark a hum between historical works and those by artists working today. Organized in thematic groups, Reverberations introduces a different topic in each gallery, ranging from landscape and lyrical abstraction to the use of the body in addressing psychological, social, and political concerns. As you move through the modern and contemporary galleries, you will encounter harmonies and dissonance as younger artists stake their claim. In turn, works from earlier decades will acquire new meaning and new layers of relevance.

This installation draws from SAM’s growing collection and incorporates many works acquired in recent years, by artists including Margarita Cabrera, Dana Claxton, Senga Nengudi, Rashid Johnson, Woody De Othello, Jenny Saville, Sarah Sze, and Naama Tsabar. Many works are on view for the first time. Among the modern classics, viewers will find works by Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko, and David Smith on view. The museum’s ongoing commitment to building a collection with equity and diverse points of view can be seen when perusing the galleries.

Specializing in intricate natural and oil-dyed wooden and paper mosaics, artist Naoko Morisawa invites viewers to experience Happy Room — Mosaic Collage, a collection of over 50 small, mid, and large-scale works that evoke a sense of joy and draw from the Hygge lifestyle. The installation is divided into four rooms, Shoes/Closet, Kitchen/Living Room, Theater Japonism/Living Room, and Heart Room.

Each piece and room transforms everyday objects like a dependable pair of shoes or a pastry from a café into ornate, dynamic mosaics that invite viewers to find beauty in the details. Happy Room — Mosaic Collage features pieces from various bodies of work from the past 15 years including pieces from My Collection Shoes, Mosaic Café, Japanese Opera – Noh Mask, and newer abstract works.

A showcase of transgender and sacred gender indigenous artists working in digital media, transmedia, film, 360 video, glitch art, contemporary interpretations of traditional forms, and future mediums. digital indigiqueer: a showcase of trans transmedia includes 11 individual pieces exploring the diversity of contemporary indigenous creativity and touching their futures and pasts. Work from Raven TwoFeathers, Ty Defoe, Raven Kameʻenui-Becker, Communidad Catrileo+Carrion, Elijah Forbes, and organizer Hexe Fey.

The 18th annual DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon is a hybrid festival with an exceptional line-up of both live and virtual film screenings as well as in-person filmmaker Q&A’s. All live screenings will be at the Art House in Eugene.
We launch our 2023 season with a Preview Screening on Feb. 24 (live) and Feb. 25-26 (virtual)! In March, join us at the Art House theaters for March 10-12 and on our virtual platform on March 13-19. Don’t miss this 10 day celebration of AANHPI independent films!
Some films are only available at in-person screenings while other films may only be in the virtual film program. There are some films that will be available in both. Most films in the virtual program are open to audiences in OR, WA, CA, and HI unless otherwise indicated. Some films have additional geoblock restrictions. Some films have limited tickets and may sell out. Mature themes are found throughout the program. If this is of concern, you can peruse the film descriptions to assess age-appropriateness. Please rate the films that you watch as they are eligible for Audience Choice Awards, which will be posted during the week after the festival.

The Salmon People” is an interactive installation curated by Matika Wilbur at Climate Pledge Arena that immerses the audience in the world of the Salmon. For thousands of years the Coast Salish people of the Pacific Northwest have organized their lives around the management and return of the Salmon People, who are considered relatives. “The Salmon People” urges onlookers to consider the human impacts on Salmon habitat and climate change.

We are excited to celebrate our 4 year Anniversary Pachanga Saturday February 4th! Join us for free activities, comida, prizes and the opening of our February Art Exhibition.
This is our way of saying gracias to our beautiful community for their amazing support these past 4 years. Nepantla is a Nahuatl (Aztec language) term which describes being in the middle or the space in the middle. The term was popularized by Chicana writer/scholar Gloria Anzaldua. Most often the term references endangered communities, cultures or gender who due to colonialism/marginalization or historical trauma, that engage in resistance strategies of survival. Nepantla becomes the alternative space in which to live, heal, function and create.
So what does Nepantla mean to you? We can’t wait to see your art! Email submissions to nepantlaculturalarts@gmail.com

Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence showcases a new form of bead art, the ndwango, developed by a community of women living and working together in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The six artists featured in the exhibition call their paintings in beads ndwangos, which translates as “cloth” or “rag.” The black fabric on which the Ubuhle women work is reminiscent of the Xhosa headscarves and skirts which many of them grew up wearing. By stretching this textile like a canvas, the artists transform the flat cloth into a contemporary art form colored with Czech glass beads.

Using skills handed down through generations and working in their own unique style “directly from the soul,” according to artist Ntombephi Ntobela, the women create abstract as well as figurative subjects for their ndwangos.

The first play by acclaimed intertribal sketch comedy troupe. The 1491s—best known for the hit television series “Reservation Dogs”—takes audiences on a searing and absurdly funny series of vignettes through American history centered on one family’s account of their experiences from the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 to the protests there in 1973.

Approximately Run Time is 2 hours with one 15-minute intermission

Jason Reynolds, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen books for young readers.

His book, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, a collaboration with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, and his bestselling stories, such as Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks, All American Boys (with Brendan Kiely), Long Way Down, and Miles Morales-Spiderman make him “one of the most exciting, constantly surprising voices in children’s literature.”

Q&A with young adult author Martha Brockenbrough.

Mukai Farm & Garden will host our fourth annual Haiku Festival in March, bringing the beauty of haiku, an ancient style of Japanese poetry, to Vashon Island residents once again. The festival has drawn hundreds of entries and fans annually from countries all over the world!

The Mukai Haiku Festival is a juried poetry competition for people of all ages. Contestants can submit up to three haikus. Each haiku will be divided into one of five categories: Nature, Social Justice, Heritage, Reflections, and Young Poets. Prizes will be awarded in each category, as well as for “People’s Choice.” Only original, unpublished haiku will be considered for awards.

Contest winners will be announced on Sunday, April 9th.

Mukai will print and display a selection of individually calligraphed haiku on the grounds of Mukai Farm & Garden throughout the month of April. We encourage visitors to Mukai Farm & Garden to vote for their favorite haikus, the People’s Choice award, online or at the kiosk.

No entry fee. Donations welcome.

A young woman, Yoko, travels with a small crew to Uzbekistan to shoot an episode of her reality TV travel show. In front of the camera her persona is carefree and happy-go-lucky, but behind the scenes she is cautious and introverted.  Despite her best efforts, all the shootings end unsuccessfully. Frustrated by the failed filming, she takes to the streets of this mysterious country on her own. Lost in the streets of Tashkent, she finds herself adrift and alone, confronting her deepest fears and hidden aspirations.

A brilliant mix of black comedy, travelogue, drama, and an adventure-imbued mockery of showbiz, TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH is a young woman’s journey from displacement to a place of self-discovery.

3 day rental • NR • 120 min. • Japanese with subtitles

Persepolis first garnered attention as a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, the story of her years growing up as an outspoken and precocious girl in the midst of the Iranian revolution. In this film adaptation, Satrapi’s incredible tale and beautiful animation come together to create something magnificent. The New York Times calls it “full of warmth and surprise, alive with humor and a fierce independence of spirit.”

The film traces Satrapi’s growth from child to rebellious, punk-music-loving teenager in Iran. In the background are the growing tensions of the political climate in Iran in the 70s and 80s, with members of her liberal-leaning family detained, and the background of the disastrous Iran/Iraq war.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 96 min.

This heartwarming and poignant winner of the Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard prize is the mesmerizing and witty story of strangers in a strange land. On an ordinary day, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event, only find there is no delegation to meet them, nor any arrangements to get to their destination of Petah Tiqva. When they find their own ride, they arrive instead at the remote town of Beit Hatikva. Stuck there until the next morning’s bus, the band, led by the repressed Tawfiq Zacharaya, gets help from the worldly lunch owner, Dina, who offers to put them up for the night. As the band settles in as best it can, each of the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them. Set against a breathtaking desert landscape, this cross-cultural comedy proves that getting lost is sometimes the best way to find yourself.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 87 mins. • Hebrew and Arabic with subtitles

Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe introduces new generations to one of the twentieth century’s most innovative Native American painters. Howe (1915–1983) committed his artistic career to the preservation, relevance, and ongoing expression of his Yanktonai Dakota culture. He proved that art could be simultaneously modern and embedded in customary Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux) culture and aesthetics—to him there was no contradiction.Howe challenged the art establishment’s preconceptions and definitions of Native American painting. In doing so, he catalyzed a movement among Native artists to express their individuality rather than conforming to an established style. This legacy of innovation and advocacy continues to inspire generations of Native artists to take pride in their heritage and resist stereotypes.

Dakota Modern traces more than forty years of the artist’s career and development from early conventional work created while in high school in the 1930s through the emergence in the 1950s and 1960s of his innovative and abstract approach to painting.

Across Mexico, mask-making is a vibrant and playful artform with roots in the celebration of religious holidays. Worn by dancers in rollicking performances known as danzas, the masks depict devils and holy men; celebrities from media and politics, and other known individuals who personify sinners and false idols.

In contextualizing masks and the expressive art forms through the life and work of contemporary Mexican mask artists, the exhibition dispels the common notion that masks and danzas are “archaic” Indigenous customs that are disappearing in the face of encroaching modernity. Instead, they are presented as expressions of contemporary living culture in which symbols and scripts from pop culture and religious narratives are combined to communicate about spiritual matters, political issues, and community life.

Showcasing abstract art featuring the works of Northwest artists: Vincent Keele, Shantell Jackson,Lo Mar Metoyer, and Yeggy Michael.

Black cowboys have long been an integral part of the American West. Thousands of Black cowboys, for instance, rode in the Western cattle drives of the 1860s. Their stories are largely untold in popular narratives, but modern-day Black rodeos keep their traditions alive. A new, original High Desert Museum exhibit celebrates this thriving culture.

In the Arena: Photographs from America’s Only Touring Black Rodeo running from November 19, 2022 – June 25, 2023. Through the lens of San Francisco Bay Area photographer Gabriela Hasbun, this exhibit documents the exhilarating atmosphere of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo—the only touring Black rodeo in the country—and the show stopping style and skill of the Black cowboys and cowgirls who compete in it year after year.

The exhibit features a wide range of stories including the Quinault Nation fighting climate change, water protectors resisting fossil fuel development, Duwamish River stewardship, rising seas threatening Pacific Islands and other coastal communities, Native Hawaiians opposing military installations via traditional ceremony, and local community groups fighting disproportionate airplane noise and pollution on Seattle’s Beacon Hill.

Anchorage, AK – NACF LIFT Artist Brian Walker II (King Island and Deg Hit’an Athabascan)
Supernal Enlivened at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Arc Gallery.
Feb 3rd – May 5th, 2023
For more info:
https://alaska.digication.com/kimura-gallery/arc-gallery

Across multiple geographies and a range of aesthetic approaches—from figurative clay sculpture to audio recordings of the swamp—these artists engage mud as a material or subject that shapes personal and collective histories, memory, and imagination. Each artist brings a distinct perspective to the theme, conjuring dynamics embedded in the landscape that include colonial and racialized forms of dispossession, cultural reclamation, narratives of self-actualization, and ecological loss and adaptation.
Mud moves through the exhibition as a metaphor as well as a tangible material. Both water and earth, mud exists in an in-between state. A medium that dissolves binaries, mud invites a blurring of past and present, personal and political, bodies and landscape, feeling and knowing. In various ways, the artworks in Thick as Mud move across these porous boundaries, disrupting linear narratives and dominant hierarchies that shape which places and stories matter.
Across the artworks, mud becomes an agent of time and transformation and a medium of decomposition and creation. As such, Thick as Mud tracks the afterlives of violence against people and the environment while also evoking the potential for regeneration. The exhibition is an invitation to ask what lives in the mud and to reconnect with the possibilities that this material holds.

This is the Future, by the film and new media artist Hito Steyerl, explores a vibrant, imagined garden through an immersive environment of video projection, sculpture, and architectural intervention. Steyerl is one of the foremost artists offering critical reflections on the complexities of the digital world, global capitalism, and the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for society, which is explored in this exhibition.

For many Native communities throughout the High Desert, what constitutes art spans beyond the walls of a gallery or a museum. Objects are alive, tied to purpose and intrinsic to thriving communities. Art is at once utilitarian and ceremonial, as well as part of the continuation of Native traditions.

Opening on January 28, 2023, Creations of Spirit will immerse High Desert Museum visitors in the Indigenous Plateau worldview, reflecting knowledge systems of tribes along the Columbia River and its tributaries.

Six Native artists commissioned for this new, original exhibition are creating artwork that will be used in Native communities before arriving at the Museum. A seventh artist is creating an interactive piece for the center of the gallery. Creations of Spirit will be a one-of-a-kind, celebratory experience featuring the stories of these living works of art. Videos, audio and large projections will immerse visitors in the landscapes and communities in which these objects are used, highlighting the theme of artwork as alive, full of stories and created for specific purposes and people. The original works will be supplemented with nine cultural items on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

The signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin Roosevelt and the resulting mass incarceration of Japanese American families living on the West Coast is among the single most traumatic events in the history of Asian America, but many history books present an incomplete view of the full story. The truth is that this event did not happen in a vacuum nor did the people who lived this event do so quietly.
The exhibit leads visitors through a historical narrative beginning with the experience of Japanese American incarcerees in the 1940s and the complicated feelings of shame, anger, fear, and varied faces of resistance from within the community. Through the following decades, the story illustrates the generational trauma and cultural aftershocks of incarceration, while highlighting the lingering sense of injustice and awakening to justice movements at home and abroad. Fast forward to 2001 and beyond, the exhibit draws parallels between the stigmatization of Japanese Americans and modern-day anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, anti-Indigenous, anti-Black, and anti-immigrant policies. Visitors leave with a final prompt to consider: In the pursuit of justice, how will you show solidarity for movements today and into the future?
Through art, first-person accounts, historical material, and artifacts, this exhibit connects Japanese American resistance movements during the WWII era to modern BIPOC justice movements and activism today.

The Higo 10 Cents Store, owned by the Murakami family and a social hub in Seattle’s Japantown, has a long and fascinating community and family history. Meet Me at Higo welcomes younger generations to connect with and explore what it means to be Japanese American. Impressive personal photos, journals and artifacts are included in this traveling exhibition. Today, Higo 10 Cents Store (or Higo Variety Store) is KOBO at Higo and is still located at 604 South Jackson Street in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.

From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers celebrates the enduring innovation and impact of Black architects across the United States. This traveling exhibit highlights individual architects and designers from the late 1800s to today who have broken barriers formed by racism and have created spaces and places that support communities and culture with projects ranging from public housing, to places of worship, museums and universities. Visitors will recognize iconic landmarks from across the country and experience stories of people who paved the way for future generations.

Visitors will also learn about historic and contemporary Black architects and designers from the Seattle-area who have had a local impact, such as Benjamin F. McAdoo Jr., the first Black architect registered in Washington.

Black architects continue to bring their designs to life as a creative response to ever-changing needs, and as a testimonial to a rich heritage. In this exhibit, learn about past and present influential Black architects, hear from Black leaders in the architecture and design fields in video interviews, and engage with tactile interactives. From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers encourages guests to discover how Black architects and designers respond to the ever-changing needs of humanity and not only make changes to their communities but the world.

The 28th Seattle Jewish Film Festival is “cinemanna” for film-lovers and our community: a cinematic feast for the eyes and, like manna from heaven, a surprise gift of sustenance for the soul.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers along with the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors, Catskill Mountainkeeper and the Apache Stronghold welcome you to join their unified effort to bring awareness and prayers for Oak Flat, an Apache holy site. It is through generous contributions that help provide these campaigns internationally, inter-tribally and intergenerationally.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers gratefully accept donations to help with fuel and food on their cross-country journey. They will join the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors to defend traditional Apache lands from Resolution Copper a division of British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto. According to Apache Stronghold founder Wendsler Nosie Sr., Resolution Copper’s mine will swallow the site in a massive crater and render “longstanding religious practices impossible.”

33 days , 41 stops, and 6497 miles. All stops and gatherings are free and open to the public.

Stereotypes of Native American peoples are ubiquitous and familiar. The exhibition Savages and Princess: The Persistence of Native American Stereotypes brings together twelve contemporary Native American visual artists who reclaim their right to represent their identities as Native Americans. Whether using humor, subtlety, or irony, the telling is always fiercely honest and dead-on. Images and styles are created from traditional, contemporary, and mass culture forms.

The exhibition intends to counteract the disappearance of Native portrayals. It embraces Native Americans’ power to replace stereotypical images that permeate the current pop culture landscape. Recognizing that stereotypes often occur without conscious awareness, the exhibition includes didactic information that explores common stereotypes about Native peoples that are falsehoods, followed by the truths behind them. The exhibition’s artists use the unexpected—humor, emotion, or shock—to encourage viewers to question and challenge stereotypes, even unspoken, unacknowledged ones.

The Holocaust Center maintains an archive of over 8400 items, including more than 2700 photographs. These items come from Holocaust survivors, eyewitnesses, U.S. liberators and army personnel, all with a connection to Washington State. A selection of photographs from the archive is on display, highlighting the humanity of individuals and reshaping our narrative of the Holocaust.

Open every Sunday from March 12th – May 28th

Art and history come together to tell a multidimensional story about humanity. Art is a catalyst for healing cultural pain, both personal and collective. In this exhibition, four artists address stories of immigration where art is a sanctuary, resulting in regeneration and innovation. They speak through their works about histories and heritage, using non-traditional media and configuring materials in new ways. Through their practices, they unearth a life purpose and an empowered self.

When artist Victor Kai Wang arrived in the United States in 1980 from China, he felt alone and adrift, struggling to comprehend his new surroundings. Suchitra Mattai’s ancestors navigated a bewildering and dangerous journey across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Balancing between two cultures unsettled Tuan Nguyen and Jean Nagai. In childhood, they felt a need to adapt to survive. Each of these artists turned to creative innovation to change their focus and direction.

We have all felt a sense of disorientation since the COVID-19 pandemic began. We have had to adjust and find our way to a new reality. What does it take to reorient yourself to joy? Creating art, of any kind, is an active meditation. Creative innovation leads to joy, and joy brings healing.

China’s rich legacies in art, language, and culture are conceptualized by the artists in Beyond the Mountain: Contemporary Chinese Artists on the Classical Forms as visual, auditory, and kinetic experiences to tackle urgent and complex issues facing our globalized world. They allude to Chinese tradition—from the materials of ink, brush, and paper to the time-honored genre of landscape painting—to depict present-day events, such as street protests and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. New works by Yang Yongliang and Lam Tung Pang join those by Ai Weiwei and Zhang Huan from SAM’s collection in contemplating the societal tolls of modernity and globalization and the challenge that humans create for the natural world. Developed in collaboration with University of Washington students, Beyond the Mountain is the second special exhibition presented in the newly renovated Seattle Asian Art Museum.

Paradice Avenue Souf and the Wing Luke Museum join in collaboration to explore the intersection of Black and Brown communities in Seattle and across the globe, in the present day and through time immemorial.

This exhibition will feature the “Black and Brown Solidarity” mural by Paradice Avenue Souf along with new work and a video short documenting the story of Paradice Avenue Souf and their travels and connections throughout African and Southeast Asia.

Explore the second run of this past exhibit with stories sourced from the local Burmese / Myanmar community. With the original exhibit run cut short due to our closure during the pandemic, we’ve taken the opportunity to update the exhibit to include new content covering the military coup that happened in February 2021.

SAM presents American Art: The Stories We Carry, a transformation of its American art galleries, created through a wide-ranging collaboration among SAM curators and staff, artists, and advisors from the Seattle community. Funded primarily by a $1 million grant from The Mellon Foundation and a $75,000 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the project features work from SAM’s collection and new works and curation by contemporary artists, and it deepens the museum’s commitment to inclusive exhibition-planning practices with a shared-authorship model that reflects and responds to community knowledge.

Each new generation of artists responds to and builds on the art of earlier periods. Bringing together artworks that bridge decades, Reverberations seeks to spark a hum between historical works and those by artists working today. Organized in thematic groups, Reverberations introduces a different topic in each gallery, ranging from landscape and lyrical abstraction to the use of the body in addressing psychological, social, and political concerns. As you move through the modern and contemporary galleries, you will encounter harmonies and dissonance as younger artists stake their claim. In turn, works from earlier decades will acquire new meaning and new layers of relevance.

This installation draws from SAM’s growing collection and incorporates many works acquired in recent years, by artists including Margarita Cabrera, Dana Claxton, Senga Nengudi, Rashid Johnson, Woody De Othello, Jenny Saville, Sarah Sze, and Naama Tsabar. Many works are on view for the first time. Among the modern classics, viewers will find works by Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko, and David Smith on view. The museum’s ongoing commitment to building a collection with equity and diverse points of view can be seen when perusing the galleries.

Specializing in intricate natural and oil-dyed wooden and paper mosaics, artist Naoko Morisawa invites viewers to experience Happy Room — Mosaic Collage, a collection of over 50 small, mid, and large-scale works that evoke a sense of joy and draw from the Hygge lifestyle. The installation is divided into four rooms, Shoes/Closet, Kitchen/Living Room, Theater Japonism/Living Room, and Heart Room.

Each piece and room transforms everyday objects like a dependable pair of shoes or a pastry from a café into ornate, dynamic mosaics that invite viewers to find beauty in the details. Happy Room — Mosaic Collage features pieces from various bodies of work from the past 15 years including pieces from My Collection Shoes, Mosaic Café, Japanese Opera – Noh Mask, and newer abstract works.

A showcase of transgender and sacred gender indigenous artists working in digital media, transmedia, film, 360 video, glitch art, contemporary interpretations of traditional forms, and future mediums. digital indigiqueer: a showcase of trans transmedia includes 11 individual pieces exploring the diversity of contemporary indigenous creativity and touching their futures and pasts. Work from Raven TwoFeathers, Ty Defoe, Raven Kameʻenui-Becker, Communidad Catrileo+Carrion, Elijah Forbes, and organizer Hexe Fey.

The 18th annual DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon is a hybrid festival with an exceptional line-up of both live and virtual film screenings as well as in-person filmmaker Q&A’s. All live screenings will be at the Art House in Eugene.
We launch our 2023 season with a Preview Screening on Feb. 24 (live) and Feb. 25-26 (virtual)! In March, join us at the Art House theaters for March 10-12 and on our virtual platform on March 13-19. Don’t miss this 10 day celebration of AANHPI independent films!
Some films are only available at in-person screenings while other films may only be in the virtual film program. There are some films that will be available in both. Most films in the virtual program are open to audiences in OR, WA, CA, and HI unless otherwise indicated. Some films have additional geoblock restrictions. Some films have limited tickets and may sell out. Mature themes are found throughout the program. If this is of concern, you can peruse the film descriptions to assess age-appropriateness. Please rate the films that you watch as they are eligible for Audience Choice Awards, which will be posted during the week after the festival.

We are excited to celebrate our 4 year Anniversary Pachanga Saturday February 4th! Join us for free activities, comida, prizes and the opening of our February Art Exhibition.
This is our way of saying gracias to our beautiful community for their amazing support these past 4 years. Nepantla is a Nahuatl (Aztec language) term which describes being in the middle or the space in the middle. The term was popularized by Chicana writer/scholar Gloria Anzaldua. Most often the term references endangered communities, cultures or gender who due to colonialism/marginalization or historical trauma, that engage in resistance strategies of survival. Nepantla becomes the alternative space in which to live, heal, function and create.
So what does Nepantla mean to you? We can’t wait to see your art! Email submissions to nepantlaculturalarts@gmail.com

Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence showcases a new form of bead art, the ndwango, developed by a community of women living and working together in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The six artists featured in the exhibition call their paintings in beads ndwangos, which translates as “cloth” or “rag.” The black fabric on which the Ubuhle women work is reminiscent of the Xhosa headscarves and skirts which many of them grew up wearing. By stretching this textile like a canvas, the artists transform the flat cloth into a contemporary art form colored with Czech glass beads.

Using skills handed down through generations and working in their own unique style “directly from the soul,” according to artist Ntombephi Ntobela, the women create abstract as well as figurative subjects for their ndwangos.

The first play by acclaimed intertribal sketch comedy troupe. The 1491s—best known for the hit television series “Reservation Dogs”—takes audiences on a searing and absurdly funny series of vignettes through American history centered on one family’s account of their experiences from the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 to the protests there in 1973.

Approximately Run Time is 2 hours with one 15-minute intermission

Mukai Farm & Garden will host our fourth annual Haiku Festival in March, bringing the beauty of haiku, an ancient style of Japanese poetry, to Vashon Island residents once again. The festival has drawn hundreds of entries and fans annually from countries all over the world!

The Mukai Haiku Festival is a juried poetry competition for people of all ages. Contestants can submit up to three haikus. Each haiku will be divided into one of five categories: Nature, Social Justice, Heritage, Reflections, and Young Poets. Prizes will be awarded in each category, as well as for “People’s Choice.” Only original, unpublished haiku will be considered for awards.

Contest winners will be announced on Sunday, April 9th.

Mukai will print and display a selection of individually calligraphed haiku on the grounds of Mukai Farm & Garden throughout the month of April. We encourage visitors to Mukai Farm & Garden to vote for their favorite haikus, the People’s Choice award, online or at the kiosk.

No entry fee. Donations welcome.

A young woman, Yoko, travels with a small crew to Uzbekistan to shoot an episode of her reality TV travel show. In front of the camera her persona is carefree and happy-go-lucky, but behind the scenes she is cautious and introverted.  Despite her best efforts, all the shootings end unsuccessfully. Frustrated by the failed filming, she takes to the streets of this mysterious country on her own. Lost in the streets of Tashkent, she finds herself adrift and alone, confronting her deepest fears and hidden aspirations.

A brilliant mix of black comedy, travelogue, drama, and an adventure-imbued mockery of showbiz, TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH is a young woman’s journey from displacement to a place of self-discovery.

3 day rental • NR • 120 min. • Japanese with subtitles

Persepolis first garnered attention as a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, the story of her years growing up as an outspoken and precocious girl in the midst of the Iranian revolution. In this film adaptation, Satrapi’s incredible tale and beautiful animation come together to create something magnificent. The New York Times calls it “full of warmth and surprise, alive with humor and a fierce independence of spirit.”

The film traces Satrapi’s growth from child to rebellious, punk-music-loving teenager in Iran. In the background are the growing tensions of the political climate in Iran in the 70s and 80s, with members of her liberal-leaning family detained, and the background of the disastrous Iran/Iraq war.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 96 min.

This heartwarming and poignant winner of the Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard prize is the mesmerizing and witty story of strangers in a strange land. On an ordinary day, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event, only find there is no delegation to meet them, nor any arrangements to get to their destination of Petah Tiqva. When they find their own ride, they arrive instead at the remote town of Beit Hatikva. Stuck there until the next morning’s bus, the band, led by the repressed Tawfiq Zacharaya, gets help from the worldly lunch owner, Dina, who offers to put them up for the night. As the band settles in as best it can, each of the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them. Set against a breathtaking desert landscape, this cross-cultural comedy proves that getting lost is sometimes the best way to find yourself.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 87 mins. • Hebrew and Arabic with subtitles

The Alaska Native Heritage Center is hosting the inaugural Alaska Native Artist Market at the 2023 ASAA March Madness, and you’re invited! This event will take place on the 3rd floor of the Alaska Airlines Center during the 1A/2A and 3A/4A state basketball tournaments from March 15th to 18th and March 22nd to 25th, respectively.

The Alaska Native Artist Market is a multicultural market that showcases the diverse artistic talents of Alaska Native cultures from each region. of Alaska. We are excited to offer you an opportunity to discover and purchase beautiful jewelry, traditional crafts, visual arts, regalia, and more from incredible Alaska Native artist vendors.

As a cultural center dedicated to preserving and strengthening Alaska Native cultures, we are honored to host this event and bring together some of the finest Alaska Native artists under one roof. We invite you to immerse yourself in the creativity and talent of Alaska Native artists and score big at the first-ever Alaska Native Artist Market at the 2023 ASAA March Madness.

Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe introduces new generations to one of the twentieth century’s most innovative Native American painters. Howe (1915–1983) committed his artistic career to the preservation, relevance, and ongoing expression of his Yanktonai Dakota culture. He proved that art could be simultaneously modern and embedded in customary Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux) culture and aesthetics—to him there was no contradiction.Howe challenged the art establishment’s preconceptions and definitions of Native American painting. In doing so, he catalyzed a movement among Native artists to express their individuality rather than conforming to an established style. This legacy of innovation and advocacy continues to inspire generations of Native artists to take pride in their heritage and resist stereotypes.

Dakota Modern traces more than forty years of the artist’s career and development from early conventional work created while in high school in the 1930s through the emergence in the 1950s and 1960s of his innovative and abstract approach to painting.

Across Mexico, mask-making is a vibrant and playful artform with roots in the celebration of religious holidays. Worn by dancers in rollicking performances known as danzas, the masks depict devils and holy men; celebrities from media and politics, and other known individuals who personify sinners and false idols.

In contextualizing masks and the expressive art forms through the life and work of contemporary Mexican mask artists, the exhibition dispels the common notion that masks and danzas are “archaic” Indigenous customs that are disappearing in the face of encroaching modernity. Instead, they are presented as expressions of contemporary living culture in which symbols and scripts from pop culture and religious narratives are combined to communicate about spiritual matters, political issues, and community life.

Showcasing abstract art featuring the works of Northwest artists: Vincent Keele, Shantell Jackson,Lo Mar Metoyer, and Yeggy Michael.

Black cowboys have long been an integral part of the American West. Thousands of Black cowboys, for instance, rode in the Western cattle drives of the 1860s. Their stories are largely untold in popular narratives, but modern-day Black rodeos keep their traditions alive. A new, original High Desert Museum exhibit celebrates this thriving culture.

In the Arena: Photographs from America’s Only Touring Black Rodeo running from November 19, 2022 – June 25, 2023. Through the lens of San Francisco Bay Area photographer Gabriela Hasbun, this exhibit documents the exhilarating atmosphere of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo—the only touring Black rodeo in the country—and the show stopping style and skill of the Black cowboys and cowgirls who compete in it year after year.

The exhibit features a wide range of stories including the Quinault Nation fighting climate change, water protectors resisting fossil fuel development, Duwamish River stewardship, rising seas threatening Pacific Islands and other coastal communities, Native Hawaiians opposing military installations via traditional ceremony, and local community groups fighting disproportionate airplane noise and pollution on Seattle’s Beacon Hill.

Anchorage, AK – NACF LIFT Artist Brian Walker II (King Island and Deg Hit’an Athabascan)
Supernal Enlivened at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Arc Gallery.
Feb 3rd – May 5th, 2023
For more info:
https://alaska.digication.com/kimura-gallery/arc-gallery

Across multiple geographies and a range of aesthetic approaches—from figurative clay sculpture to audio recordings of the swamp—these artists engage mud as a material or subject that shapes personal and collective histories, memory, and imagination. Each artist brings a distinct perspective to the theme, conjuring dynamics embedded in the landscape that include colonial and racialized forms of dispossession, cultural reclamation, narratives of self-actualization, and ecological loss and adaptation.
Mud moves through the exhibition as a metaphor as well as a tangible material. Both water and earth, mud exists in an in-between state. A medium that dissolves binaries, mud invites a blurring of past and present, personal and political, bodies and landscape, feeling and knowing. In various ways, the artworks in Thick as Mud move across these porous boundaries, disrupting linear narratives and dominant hierarchies that shape which places and stories matter.
Across the artworks, mud becomes an agent of time and transformation and a medium of decomposition and creation. As such, Thick as Mud tracks the afterlives of violence against people and the environment while also evoking the potential for regeneration. The exhibition is an invitation to ask what lives in the mud and to reconnect with the possibilities that this material holds.

This is the Future, by the film and new media artist Hito Steyerl, explores a vibrant, imagined garden through an immersive environment of video projection, sculpture, and architectural intervention. Steyerl is one of the foremost artists offering critical reflections on the complexities of the digital world, global capitalism, and the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for society, which is explored in this exhibition.

For many Native communities throughout the High Desert, what constitutes art spans beyond the walls of a gallery or a museum. Objects are alive, tied to purpose and intrinsic to thriving communities. Art is at once utilitarian and ceremonial, as well as part of the continuation of Native traditions.

Opening on January 28, 2023, Creations of Spirit will immerse High Desert Museum visitors in the Indigenous Plateau worldview, reflecting knowledge systems of tribes along the Columbia River and its tributaries.

Six Native artists commissioned for this new, original exhibition are creating artwork that will be used in Native communities before arriving at the Museum. A seventh artist is creating an interactive piece for the center of the gallery. Creations of Spirit will be a one-of-a-kind, celebratory experience featuring the stories of these living works of art. Videos, audio and large projections will immerse visitors in the landscapes and communities in which these objects are used, highlighting the theme of artwork as alive, full of stories and created for specific purposes and people. The original works will be supplemented with nine cultural items on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

The signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin Roosevelt and the resulting mass incarceration of Japanese American families living on the West Coast is among the single most traumatic events in the history of Asian America, but many history books present an incomplete view of the full story. The truth is that this event did not happen in a vacuum nor did the people who lived this event do so quietly.
The exhibit leads visitors through a historical narrative beginning with the experience of Japanese American incarcerees in the 1940s and the complicated feelings of shame, anger, fear, and varied faces of resistance from within the community. Through the following decades, the story illustrates the generational trauma and cultural aftershocks of incarceration, while highlighting the lingering sense of injustice and awakening to justice movements at home and abroad. Fast forward to 2001 and beyond, the exhibit draws parallels between the stigmatization of Japanese Americans and modern-day anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, anti-Indigenous, anti-Black, and anti-immigrant policies. Visitors leave with a final prompt to consider: In the pursuit of justice, how will you show solidarity for movements today and into the future?
Through art, first-person accounts, historical material, and artifacts, this exhibit connects Japanese American resistance movements during the WWII era to modern BIPOC justice movements and activism today.

The Higo 10 Cents Store, owned by the Murakami family and a social hub in Seattle’s Japantown, has a long and fascinating community and family history. Meet Me at Higo welcomes younger generations to connect with and explore what it means to be Japanese American. Impressive personal photos, journals and artifacts are included in this traveling exhibition. Today, Higo 10 Cents Store (or Higo Variety Store) is KOBO at Higo and is still located at 604 South Jackson Street in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.

From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers celebrates the enduring innovation and impact of Black architects across the United States. This traveling exhibit highlights individual architects and designers from the late 1800s to today who have broken barriers formed by racism and have created spaces and places that support communities and culture with projects ranging from public housing, to places of worship, museums and universities. Visitors will recognize iconic landmarks from across the country and experience stories of people who paved the way for future generations.

Visitors will also learn about historic and contemporary Black architects and designers from the Seattle-area who have had a local impact, such as Benjamin F. McAdoo Jr., the first Black architect registered in Washington.

Black architects continue to bring their designs to life as a creative response to ever-changing needs, and as a testimonial to a rich heritage. In this exhibit, learn about past and present influential Black architects, hear from Black leaders in the architecture and design fields in video interviews, and engage with tactile interactives. From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers encourages guests to discover how Black architects and designers respond to the ever-changing needs of humanity and not only make changes to their communities but the world.

The 28th Seattle Jewish Film Festival is “cinemanna” for film-lovers and our community: a cinematic feast for the eyes and, like manna from heaven, a surprise gift of sustenance for the soul.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers along with the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors, Catskill Mountainkeeper and the Apache Stronghold welcome you to join their unified effort to bring awareness and prayers for Oak Flat, an Apache holy site. It is through generous contributions that help provide these campaigns internationally, inter-tribally and intergenerationally.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers gratefully accept donations to help with fuel and food on their cross-country journey. They will join the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors to defend traditional Apache lands from Resolution Copper a division of British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto. According to Apache Stronghold founder Wendsler Nosie Sr., Resolution Copper’s mine will swallow the site in a massive crater and render “longstanding religious practices impossible.”

33 days , 41 stops, and 6497 miles. All stops and gatherings are free and open to the public.

Stereotypes of Native American peoples are ubiquitous and familiar. The exhibition Savages and Princess: The Persistence of Native American Stereotypes brings together twelve contemporary Native American visual artists who reclaim their right to represent their identities as Native Americans. Whether using humor, subtlety, or irony, the telling is always fiercely honest and dead-on. Images and styles are created from traditional, contemporary, and mass culture forms.

The exhibition intends to counteract the disappearance of Native portrayals. It embraces Native Americans’ power to replace stereotypical images that permeate the current pop culture landscape. Recognizing that stereotypes often occur without conscious awareness, the exhibition includes didactic information that explores common stereotypes about Native peoples that are falsehoods, followed by the truths behind them. The exhibition’s artists use the unexpected—humor, emotion, or shock—to encourage viewers to question and challenge stereotypes, even unspoken, unacknowledged ones.

The Holocaust Center maintains an archive of over 8400 items, including more than 2700 photographs. These items come from Holocaust survivors, eyewitnesses, U.S. liberators and army personnel, all with a connection to Washington State. A selection of photographs from the archive is on display, highlighting the humanity of individuals and reshaping our narrative of the Holocaust.

Open every Sunday from March 12th – May 28th

Art and history come together to tell a multidimensional story about humanity. Art is a catalyst for healing cultural pain, both personal and collective. In this exhibition, four artists address stories of immigration where art is a sanctuary, resulting in regeneration and innovation. They speak through their works about histories and heritage, using non-traditional media and configuring materials in new ways. Through their practices, they unearth a life purpose and an empowered self.

When artist Victor Kai Wang arrived in the United States in 1980 from China, he felt alone and adrift, struggling to comprehend his new surroundings. Suchitra Mattai’s ancestors navigated a bewildering and dangerous journey across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Balancing between two cultures unsettled Tuan Nguyen and Jean Nagai. In childhood, they felt a need to adapt to survive. Each of these artists turned to creative innovation to change their focus and direction.

We have all felt a sense of disorientation since the COVID-19 pandemic began. We have had to adjust and find our way to a new reality. What does it take to reorient yourself to joy? Creating art, of any kind, is an active meditation. Creative innovation leads to joy, and joy brings healing.

China’s rich legacies in art, language, and culture are conceptualized by the artists in Beyond the Mountain: Contemporary Chinese Artists on the Classical Forms as visual, auditory, and kinetic experiences to tackle urgent and complex issues facing our globalized world. They allude to Chinese tradition—from the materials of ink, brush, and paper to the time-honored genre of landscape painting—to depict present-day events, such as street protests and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. New works by Yang Yongliang and Lam Tung Pang join those by Ai Weiwei and Zhang Huan from SAM’s collection in contemplating the societal tolls of modernity and globalization and the challenge that humans create for the natural world. Developed in collaboration with University of Washington students, Beyond the Mountain is the second special exhibition presented in the newly renovated Seattle Asian Art Museum.

Paradice Avenue Souf and the Wing Luke Museum join in collaboration to explore the intersection of Black and Brown communities in Seattle and across the globe, in the present day and through time immemorial.

This exhibition will feature the “Black and Brown Solidarity” mural by Paradice Avenue Souf along with new work and a video short documenting the story of Paradice Avenue Souf and their travels and connections throughout African and Southeast Asia.

Explore the second run of this past exhibit with stories sourced from the local Burmese / Myanmar community. With the original exhibit run cut short due to our closure during the pandemic, we’ve taken the opportunity to update the exhibit to include new content covering the military coup that happened in February 2021.

SAM presents American Art: The Stories We Carry, a transformation of its American art galleries, created through a wide-ranging collaboration among SAM curators and staff, artists, and advisors from the Seattle community. Funded primarily by a $1 million grant from The Mellon Foundation and a $75,000 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the project features work from SAM’s collection and new works and curation by contemporary artists, and it deepens the museum’s commitment to inclusive exhibition-planning practices with a shared-authorship model that reflects and responds to community knowledge.

Each new generation of artists responds to and builds on the art of earlier periods. Bringing together artworks that bridge decades, Reverberations seeks to spark a hum between historical works and those by artists working today. Organized in thematic groups, Reverberations introduces a different topic in each gallery, ranging from landscape and lyrical abstraction to the use of the body in addressing psychological, social, and political concerns. As you move through the modern and contemporary galleries, you will encounter harmonies and dissonance as younger artists stake their claim. In turn, works from earlier decades will acquire new meaning and new layers of relevance.

This installation draws from SAM’s growing collection and incorporates many works acquired in recent years, by artists including Margarita Cabrera, Dana Claxton, Senga Nengudi, Rashid Johnson, Woody De Othello, Jenny Saville, Sarah Sze, and Naama Tsabar. Many works are on view for the first time. Among the modern classics, viewers will find works by Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko, and David Smith on view. The museum’s ongoing commitment to building a collection with equity and diverse points of view can be seen when perusing the galleries.

Specializing in intricate natural and oil-dyed wooden and paper mosaics, artist Naoko Morisawa invites viewers to experience Happy Room — Mosaic Collage, a collection of over 50 small, mid, and large-scale works that evoke a sense of joy and draw from the Hygge lifestyle. The installation is divided into four rooms, Shoes/Closet, Kitchen/Living Room, Theater Japonism/Living Room, and Heart Room.

Each piece and room transforms everyday objects like a dependable pair of shoes or a pastry from a café into ornate, dynamic mosaics that invite viewers to find beauty in the details. Happy Room — Mosaic Collage features pieces from various bodies of work from the past 15 years including pieces from My Collection Shoes, Mosaic Café, Japanese Opera – Noh Mask, and newer abstract works.

A showcase of transgender and sacred gender indigenous artists working in digital media, transmedia, film, 360 video, glitch art, contemporary interpretations of traditional forms, and future mediums. digital indigiqueer: a showcase of trans transmedia includes 11 individual pieces exploring the diversity of contemporary indigenous creativity and touching their futures and pasts. Work from Raven TwoFeathers, Ty Defoe, Raven Kameʻenui-Becker, Communidad Catrileo+Carrion, Elijah Forbes, and organizer Hexe Fey.

The 18th annual DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon is a hybrid festival with an exceptional line-up of both live and virtual film screenings as well as in-person filmmaker Q&A’s. All live screenings will be at the Art House in Eugene.
We launch our 2023 season with a Preview Screening on Feb. 24 (live) and Feb. 25-26 (virtual)! In March, join us at the Art House theaters for March 10-12 and on our virtual platform on March 13-19. Don’t miss this 10 day celebration of AANHPI independent films!
Some films are only available at in-person screenings while other films may only be in the virtual film program. There are some films that will be available in both. Most films in the virtual program are open to audiences in OR, WA, CA, and HI unless otherwise indicated. Some films have additional geoblock restrictions. Some films have limited tickets and may sell out. Mature themes are found throughout the program. If this is of concern, you can peruse the film descriptions to assess age-appropriateness. Please rate the films that you watch as they are eligible for Audience Choice Awards, which will be posted during the week after the festival.

We are excited to celebrate our 4 year Anniversary Pachanga Saturday February 4th! Join us for free activities, comida, prizes and the opening of our February Art Exhibition.
This is our way of saying gracias to our beautiful community for their amazing support these past 4 years. Nepantla is a Nahuatl (Aztec language) term which describes being in the middle or the space in the middle. The term was popularized by Chicana writer/scholar Gloria Anzaldua. Most often the term references endangered communities, cultures or gender who due to colonialism/marginalization or historical trauma, that engage in resistance strategies of survival. Nepantla becomes the alternative space in which to live, heal, function and create.
So what does Nepantla mean to you? We can’t wait to see your art! Email submissions to nepantlaculturalarts@gmail.com

Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence showcases a new form of bead art, the ndwango, developed by a community of women living and working together in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The six artists featured in the exhibition call their paintings in beads ndwangos, which translates as “cloth” or “rag.” The black fabric on which the Ubuhle women work is reminiscent of the Xhosa headscarves and skirts which many of them grew up wearing. By stretching this textile like a canvas, the artists transform the flat cloth into a contemporary art form colored with Czech glass beads.

Using skills handed down through generations and working in their own unique style “directly from the soul,” according to artist Ntombephi Ntobela, the women create abstract as well as figurative subjects for their ndwangos.

During this webinar, there will discussions of the importance of Indigenous Women in Leadership in ending intimate partner violence (IPV) against our Indigenous relatives. They will take a glimpse into the host of roles Indigenous women fulfill in strengthening and protecting communities.

These accounts will extend to cultural teachings, knowledge keeping, and Indigenous advocacy, in addition to the perseverance, resilience, and strength that are needed to navigate Western colonial space. And lastly, they will discuss how all Indigenous women have the perspective to become agents of change in working to strengthen sovereignty, end gender-based violence, and revitalize and sustain a culture for our Indigenous futures.

Latinas/Latinos, the largest ethno-racial group in Washington State and in the nation, are grossly underrepresented in powerful segments of society, contributing to what some scholars refer to as a “demographic divide.”
While the United States is an increasingly diverse society, this diversity is not reflected in important spheres of influence and power. In just one example, Latinas/Latinos represent just two percent of full-time faculty at degree-granting institutions, yet Latina/Latino students are the fastest growing demographic on college campuses. What needs to be done to increase academic representation?
Drawing from interviews, policy analysis, and personal experience, Professor Maria Chávez investigates the obstacles contributing to this underrepresentation and explores ideas for how to move toward a more inclusive society and a healthier multiracial democracy.

This event is free and open to the public. Registration Required.

The first play by acclaimed intertribal sketch comedy troupe. The 1491s—best known for the hit television series “Reservation Dogs”—takes audiences on a searing and absurdly funny series of vignettes through American history centered on one family’s account of their experiences from the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 to the protests there in 1973.

Approximately Run Time is 2 hours with one 15-minute intermission

Join us March 15th for an evening to remember as we honor International Women’s Day and raise awareness about the powerful impact of land rights at Landesa’s signature event, Seed the Change!

Enjoy a selection of globally inspired drinks and small bites while chatting directly with program staff and engaging in activities that shed light on the most important global development issues of our time.

Dr. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai will talk with writer Karl Marlantes and the program will include performances by award-winning performer Susan Lieu and 2021 Washington State Poet Laureate Claudia Clastro Luna.

Mukai Farm & Garden will host our fourth annual Haiku Festival in March, bringing the beauty of haiku, an ancient style of Japanese poetry, to Vashon Island residents once again. The festival has drawn hundreds of entries and fans annually from countries all over the world!

The Mukai Haiku Festival is a juried poetry competition for people of all ages. Contestants can submit up to three haikus. Each haiku will be divided into one of five categories: Nature, Social Justice, Heritage, Reflections, and Young Poets. Prizes will be awarded in each category, as well as for “People’s Choice.” Only original, unpublished haiku will be considered for awards.

Contest winners will be announced on Sunday, April 9th.

Mukai will print and display a selection of individually calligraphed haiku on the grounds of Mukai Farm & Garden throughout the month of April. We encourage visitors to Mukai Farm & Garden to vote for their favorite haikus, the People’s Choice award, online or at the kiosk.

No entry fee. Donations welcome.

A young woman, Yoko, travels with a small crew to Uzbekistan to shoot an episode of her reality TV travel show. In front of the camera her persona is carefree and happy-go-lucky, but behind the scenes she is cautious and introverted.  Despite her best efforts, all the shootings end unsuccessfully. Frustrated by the failed filming, she takes to the streets of this mysterious country on her own. Lost in the streets of Tashkent, she finds herself adrift and alone, confronting her deepest fears and hidden aspirations.

A brilliant mix of black comedy, travelogue, drama, and an adventure-imbued mockery of showbiz, TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH is a young woman’s journey from displacement to a place of self-discovery.

3 day rental • NR • 120 min. • Japanese with subtitles

Persepolis first garnered attention as a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, the story of her years growing up as an outspoken and precocious girl in the midst of the Iranian revolution. In this film adaptation, Satrapi’s incredible tale and beautiful animation come together to create something magnificent. The New York Times calls it “full of warmth and surprise, alive with humor and a fierce independence of spirit.”

The film traces Satrapi’s growth from child to rebellious, punk-music-loving teenager in Iran. In the background are the growing tensions of the political climate in Iran in the 70s and 80s, with members of her liberal-leaning family detained, and the background of the disastrous Iran/Iraq war.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 96 min.

This heartwarming and poignant winner of the Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard prize is the mesmerizing and witty story of strangers in a strange land. On an ordinary day, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event, only find there is no delegation to meet them, nor any arrangements to get to their destination of Petah Tiqva. When they find their own ride, they arrive instead at the remote town of Beit Hatikva. Stuck there until the next morning’s bus, the band, led by the repressed Tawfiq Zacharaya, gets help from the worldly lunch owner, Dina, who offers to put them up for the night. As the band settles in as best it can, each of the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them. Set against a breathtaking desert landscape, this cross-cultural comedy proves that getting lost is sometimes the best way to find yourself.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 87 mins. • Hebrew and Arabic with subtitles

The Alaska Native Heritage Center is hosting the inaugural Alaska Native Artist Market at the 2023 ASAA March Madness, and you’re invited! This event will take place on the 3rd floor of the Alaska Airlines Center during the 1A/2A and 3A/4A state basketball tournaments from March 15th to 18th and March 22nd to 25th, respectively.

The Alaska Native Artist Market is a multicultural market that showcases the diverse artistic talents of Alaska Native cultures from each region. of Alaska. We are excited to offer you an opportunity to discover and purchase beautiful jewelry, traditional crafts, visual arts, regalia, and more from incredible Alaska Native artist vendors.

As a cultural center dedicated to preserving and strengthening Alaska Native cultures, we are honored to host this event and bring together some of the finest Alaska Native artists under one roof. We invite you to immerse yourself in the creativity and talent of Alaska Native artists and score big at the first-ever Alaska Native Artist Market at the 2023 ASAA March Madness.

Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe introduces new generations to one of the twentieth century’s most innovative Native American painters. Howe (1915–1983) committed his artistic career to the preservation, relevance, and ongoing expression of his Yanktonai Dakota culture. He proved that art could be simultaneously modern and embedded in customary Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux) culture and aesthetics—to him there was no contradiction.Howe challenged the art establishment’s preconceptions and definitions of Native American painting. In doing so, he catalyzed a movement among Native artists to express their individuality rather than conforming to an established style. This legacy of innovation and advocacy continues to inspire generations of Native artists to take pride in their heritage and resist stereotypes.

Dakota Modern traces more than forty years of the artist’s career and development from early conventional work created while in high school in the 1930s through the emergence in the 1950s and 1960s of his innovative and abstract approach to painting.

Across Mexico, mask-making is a vibrant and playful artform with roots in the celebration of religious holidays. Worn by dancers in rollicking performances known as danzas, the masks depict devils and holy men; celebrities from media and politics, and other known individuals who personify sinners and false idols.

In contextualizing masks and the expressive art forms through the life and work of contemporary Mexican mask artists, the exhibition dispels the common notion that masks and danzas are “archaic” Indigenous customs that are disappearing in the face of encroaching modernity. Instead, they are presented as expressions of contemporary living culture in which symbols and scripts from pop culture and religious narratives are combined to communicate about spiritual matters, political issues, and community life.

Showcasing abstract art featuring the works of Northwest artists: Vincent Keele, Shantell Jackson,Lo Mar Metoyer, and Yeggy Michael.

Black cowboys have long been an integral part of the American West. Thousands of Black cowboys, for instance, rode in the Western cattle drives of the 1860s. Their stories are largely untold in popular narratives, but modern-day Black rodeos keep their traditions alive. A new, original High Desert Museum exhibit celebrates this thriving culture.

In the Arena: Photographs from America’s Only Touring Black Rodeo running from November 19, 2022 – June 25, 2023. Through the lens of San Francisco Bay Area photographer Gabriela Hasbun, this exhibit documents the exhilarating atmosphere of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo—the only touring Black rodeo in the country—and the show stopping style and skill of the Black cowboys and cowgirls who compete in it year after year.

The exhibit features a wide range of stories including the Quinault Nation fighting climate change, water protectors resisting fossil fuel development, Duwamish River stewardship, rising seas threatening Pacific Islands and other coastal communities, Native Hawaiians opposing military installations via traditional ceremony, and local community groups fighting disproportionate airplane noise and pollution on Seattle’s Beacon Hill.

Anchorage, AK – NACF LIFT Artist Brian Walker II (King Island and Deg Hit’an Athabascan)
Supernal Enlivened at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Arc Gallery.
Feb 3rd – May 5th, 2023
For more info:
https://alaska.digication.com/kimura-gallery/arc-gallery

Across multiple geographies and a range of aesthetic approaches—from figurative clay sculpture to audio recordings of the swamp—these artists engage mud as a material or subject that shapes personal and collective histories, memory, and imagination. Each artist brings a distinct perspective to the theme, conjuring dynamics embedded in the landscape that include colonial and racialized forms of dispossession, cultural reclamation, narratives of self-actualization, and ecological loss and adaptation.
Mud moves through the exhibition as a metaphor as well as a tangible material. Both water and earth, mud exists in an in-between state. A medium that dissolves binaries, mud invites a blurring of past and present, personal and political, bodies and landscape, feeling and knowing. In various ways, the artworks in Thick as Mud move across these porous boundaries, disrupting linear narratives and dominant hierarchies that shape which places and stories matter.
Across the artworks, mud becomes an agent of time and transformation and a medium of decomposition and creation. As such, Thick as Mud tracks the afterlives of violence against people and the environment while also evoking the potential for regeneration. The exhibition is an invitation to ask what lives in the mud and to reconnect with the possibilities that this material holds.

This is the Future, by the film and new media artist Hito Steyerl, explores a vibrant, imagined garden through an immersive environment of video projection, sculpture, and architectural intervention. Steyerl is one of the foremost artists offering critical reflections on the complexities of the digital world, global capitalism, and the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for society, which is explored in this exhibition.

For many Native communities throughout the High Desert, what constitutes art spans beyond the walls of a gallery or a museum. Objects are alive, tied to purpose and intrinsic to thriving communities. Art is at once utilitarian and ceremonial, as well as part of the continuation of Native traditions.

Opening on January 28, 2023, Creations of Spirit will immerse High Desert Museum visitors in the Indigenous Plateau worldview, reflecting knowledge systems of tribes along the Columbia River and its tributaries.

Six Native artists commissioned for this new, original exhibition are creating artwork that will be used in Native communities before arriving at the Museum. A seventh artist is creating an interactive piece for the center of the gallery. Creations of Spirit will be a one-of-a-kind, celebratory experience featuring the stories of these living works of art. Videos, audio and large projections will immerse visitors in the landscapes and communities in which these objects are used, highlighting the theme of artwork as alive, full of stories and created for specific purposes and people. The original works will be supplemented with nine cultural items on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

The signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin Roosevelt and the resulting mass incarceration of Japanese American families living on the West Coast is among the single most traumatic events in the history of Asian America, but many history books present an incomplete view of the full story. The truth is that this event did not happen in a vacuum nor did the people who lived this event do so quietly.
The exhibit leads visitors through a historical narrative beginning with the experience of Japanese American incarcerees in the 1940s and the complicated feelings of shame, anger, fear, and varied faces of resistance from within the community. Through the following decades, the story illustrates the generational trauma and cultural aftershocks of incarceration, while highlighting the lingering sense of injustice and awakening to justice movements at home and abroad. Fast forward to 2001 and beyond, the exhibit draws parallels between the stigmatization of Japanese Americans and modern-day anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, anti-Indigenous, anti-Black, and anti-immigrant policies. Visitors leave with a final prompt to consider: In the pursuit of justice, how will you show solidarity for movements today and into the future?
Through art, first-person accounts, historical material, and artifacts, this exhibit connects Japanese American resistance movements during the WWII era to modern BIPOC justice movements and activism today.

The Higo 10 Cents Store, owned by the Murakami family and a social hub in Seattle’s Japantown, has a long and fascinating community and family history. Meet Me at Higo welcomes younger generations to connect with and explore what it means to be Japanese American. Impressive personal photos, journals and artifacts are included in this traveling exhibition. Today, Higo 10 Cents Store (or Higo Variety Store) is KOBO at Higo and is still located at 604 South Jackson Street in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.

From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers celebrates the enduring innovation and impact of Black architects across the United States. This traveling exhibit highlights individual architects and designers from the late 1800s to today who have broken barriers formed by racism and have created spaces and places that support communities and culture with projects ranging from public housing, to places of worship, museums and universities. Visitors will recognize iconic landmarks from across the country and experience stories of people who paved the way for future generations.

Visitors will also learn about historic and contemporary Black architects and designers from the Seattle-area who have had a local impact, such as Benjamin F. McAdoo Jr., the first Black architect registered in Washington.

Black architects continue to bring their designs to life as a creative response to ever-changing needs, and as a testimonial to a rich heritage. In this exhibit, learn about past and present influential Black architects, hear from Black leaders in the architecture and design fields in video interviews, and engage with tactile interactives. From the Ground Up: Black Architects and Designers encourages guests to discover how Black architects and designers respond to the ever-changing needs of humanity and not only make changes to their communities but the world.

The 28th Seattle Jewish Film Festival is “cinemanna” for film-lovers and our community: a cinematic feast for the eyes and, like manna from heaven, a surprise gift of sustenance for the soul.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers along with the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors, Catskill Mountainkeeper and the Apache Stronghold welcome you to join their unified effort to bring awareness and prayers for Oak Flat, an Apache holy site. It is through generous contributions that help provide these campaigns internationally, inter-tribally and intergenerationally.

The Lummi House of Tears Carvers gratefully accept donations to help with fuel and food on their cross-country journey. They will join the Alliance of Earth, Sky & Water Protectors to defend traditional Apache lands from Resolution Copper a division of British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto. According to Apache Stronghold founder Wendsler Nosie Sr., Resolution Copper’s mine will swallow the site in a massive crater and render “longstanding religious practices impossible.”

33 days , 41 stops, and 6497 miles. All stops and gatherings are free and open to the public.

Stereotypes of Native American peoples are ubiquitous and familiar. The exhibition Savages and Princess: The Persistence of Native American Stereotypes brings together twelve contemporary Native American visual artists who reclaim their right to represent their identities as Native Americans. Whether using humor, subtlety, or irony, the telling is always fiercely honest and dead-on. Images and styles are created from traditional, contemporary, and mass culture forms.

The exhibition intends to counteract the disappearance of Native portrayals. It embraces Native Americans’ power to replace stereotypical images that permeate the current pop culture landscape. Recognizing that stereotypes often occur without conscious awareness, the exhibition includes didactic information that explores common stereotypes about Native peoples that are falsehoods, followed by the truths behind them. The exhibition’s artists use the unexpected—humor, emotion, or shock—to encourage viewers to question and challenge stereotypes, even unspoken, unacknowledged ones.

The Holocaust Center maintains an archive of over 8400 items, including more than 2700 photographs. These items come from Holocaust survivors, eyewitnesses, U.S. liberators and army personnel, all with a connection to Washington State. A selection of photographs from the archive is on display, highlighting the humanity of individuals and reshaping our narrative of the Holocaust.

Open every Sunday from March 12th – May 28th

Art and history come together to tell a multidimensional story about humanity. Art is a catalyst for healing cultural pain, both personal and collective. In this exhibition, four artists address stories of immigration where art is a sanctuary, resulting in regeneration and innovation. They speak through their works about histories and heritage, using non-traditional media and configuring materials in new ways. Through their practices, they unearth a life purpose and an empowered self.

When artist Victor Kai Wang arrived in the United States in 1980 from China, he felt alone and adrift, struggling to comprehend his new surroundings. Suchitra Mattai’s ancestors navigated a bewildering and dangerous journey across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Balancing between two cultures unsettled Tuan Nguyen and Jean Nagai. In childhood, they felt a need to adapt to survive. Each of these artists turned to creative innovation to change their focus and direction.

We have all felt a sense of disorientation since the COVID-19 pandemic began. We have had to adjust and find our way to a new reality. What does it take to reorient yourself to joy? Creating art, of any kind, is an active meditation. Creative innovation leads to joy, and joy brings healing.

China’s rich legacies in art, language, and culture are conceptualized by the artists in Beyond the Mountain: Contemporary Chinese Artists on the Classical Forms as visual, auditory, and kinetic experiences to tackle urgent and complex issues facing our globalized world. They allude to Chinese tradition—from the materials of ink, brush, and paper to the time-honored genre of landscape painting—to depict present-day events, such as street protests and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. New works by Yang Yongliang and Lam Tung Pang join those by Ai Weiwei and Zhang Huan from SAM’s collection in contemplating the societal tolls of modernity and globalization and the challenge that humans create for the natural world. Developed in collaboration with University of Washington students, Beyond the Mountain is the second special exhibition presented in the newly renovated Seattle Asian Art Museum.

Paradice Avenue Souf and the Wing Luke Museum join in collaboration to explore the intersection of Black and Brown communities in Seattle and across the globe, in the present day and through time immemorial.

This exhibition will feature the “Black and Brown Solidarity” mural by Paradice Avenue Souf along with new work and a video short documenting the story of Paradice Avenue Souf and their travels and connections throughout African and Southeast Asia.

Explore the second run of this past exhibit with stories sourced from the local Burmese / Myanmar community. With the original exhibit run cut short due to our closure during the pandemic, we’ve taken the opportunity to update the exhibit to include new content covering the military coup that happened in February 2021.

SAM presents American Art: The Stories We Carry, a transformation of its American art galleries, created through a wide-ranging collaboration among SAM curators and staff, artists, and advisors from the Seattle community. Funded primarily by a $1 million grant from The Mellon Foundation and a $75,000 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the project features work from SAM’s collection and new works and curation by contemporary artists, and it deepens the museum’s commitment to inclusive exhibition-planning practices with a shared-authorship model that reflects and responds to community knowledge.

Each new generation of artists responds to and builds on the art of earlier periods. Bringing together artworks that bridge decades, Reverberations seeks to spark a hum between historical works and those by artists working today. Organized in thematic groups, Reverberations introduces a different topic in each gallery, ranging from landscape and lyrical abstraction to the use of the body in addressing psychological, social, and political concerns. As you move through the modern and contemporary galleries, you will encounter harmonies and dissonance as younger artists stake their claim. In turn, works from earlier decades will acquire new meaning and new layers of relevance.

This installation draws from SAM’s growing collection and incorporates many works acquired in recent years, by artists including Margarita Cabrera, Dana Claxton, Senga Nengudi, Rashid Johnson, Woody De Othello, Jenny Saville, Sarah Sze, and Naama Tsabar. Many works are on view for the first time. Among the modern classics, viewers will find works by Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko, and David Smith on view. The museum’s ongoing commitment to building a collection with equity and diverse points of view can be seen when perusing the galleries.

Specializing in intricate natural and oil-dyed wooden and paper mosaics, artist Naoko Morisawa invites viewers to experience Happy Room — Mosaic Collage, a collection of over 50 small, mid, and large-scale works that evoke a sense of joy and draw from the Hygge lifestyle. The installation is divided into four rooms, Shoes/Closet, Kitchen/Living Room, Theater Japonism/Living Room, and Heart Room.

Each piece and room transforms everyday objects like a dependable pair of shoes or a pastry from a café into ornate, dynamic mosaics that invite viewers to find beauty in the details. Happy Room — Mosaic Collage features pieces from various bodies of work from the past 15 years including pieces from My Collection Shoes, Mosaic Café, Japanese Opera – Noh Mask, and newer abstract works.

A showcase of transgender and sacred gender indigenous artists working in digital media, transmedia, film, 360 video, glitch art, contemporary interpretations of traditional forms, and future mediums. digital indigiqueer: a showcase of trans transmedia includes 11 individual pieces exploring the diversity of contemporary indigenous creativity and touching their futures and pasts. Work from Raven TwoFeathers, Ty Defoe, Raven Kameʻenui-Becker, Communidad Catrileo+Carrion, Elijah Forbes, and organizer Hexe Fey.

The 18th annual DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon is a hybrid festival with an exceptional line-up of both live and virtual film screenings as well as in-person filmmaker Q&A’s. All live screenings will be at the Art House in Eugene.
We launch our 2023 season with a Preview Screening on Feb. 24 (live) and Feb. 25-26 (virtual)! In March, join us at the Art House theaters for March 10-12 and on our virtual platform on March 13-19. Don’t miss this 10 day celebration of AANHPI independent films!
Some films are only available at in-person screenings while other films may only be in the virtual film program. There are some films that will be available in both. Most films in the virtual program are open to audiences in OR, WA, CA, and HI unless otherwise indicated. Some films have additional geoblock restrictions. Some films have limited tickets and may sell out. Mature themes are found throughout the program. If this is of concern, you can peruse the film descriptions to assess age-appropriateness. Please rate the films that you watch as they are eligible for Audience Choice Awards, which will be posted during the week after the festival.

We are excited to celebrate our 4 year Anniversary Pachanga Saturday February 4th! Join us for free activities, comida, prizes and the opening of our February Art Exhibition.
This is our way of saying gracias to our beautiful community for their amazing support these past 4 years. Nepantla is a Nahuatl (Aztec language) term which describes being in the middle or the space in the middle. The term was popularized by Chicana writer/scholar Gloria Anzaldua. Most often the term references endangered communities, cultures or gender who due to colonialism/marginalization or historical trauma, that engage in resistance strategies of survival. Nepantla becomes the alternative space in which to live, heal, function and create.
So what does Nepantla mean to you? We can’t wait to see your art! Email submissions to nepantlaculturalarts@gmail.com

Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence showcases a new form of bead art, the ndwango, developed by a community of women living and working together in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The six artists featured in the exhibition call their paintings in beads ndwangos, which translates as “cloth” or “rag.” The black fabric on which the Ubuhle women work is reminiscent of the Xhosa headscarves and skirts which many of them grew up wearing. By stretching this textile like a canvas, the artists transform the flat cloth into a contemporary art form colored with Czech glass beads.

Using skills handed down through generations and working in their own unique style “directly from the soul,” according to artist Ntombephi Ntobela, the women create abstract as well as figurative subjects for their ndwangos.

The first play by acclaimed intertribal sketch comedy troupe. The 1491s—best known for the hit television series “Reservation Dogs”—takes audiences on a searing and absurdly funny series of vignettes through American history centered on one family’s account of their experiences from the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 to the protests there in 1973.

Approximately Run Time is 2 hours with one 15-minute intermission

Come learn to make Native American Regalia while listening to story telling.

* Bead or loom
* Make a ribbon skirt or shirt
* Make a pair of moccasins
* The variety is open if we have the materials!

Everyone is welcome!!

Join the Northwest African American Museum on March 16th for our next Descendants Series featuring Jacqueline Hamer Flakes, the daughter of Fannie Lou Hamer, moderated by Erica Williams of the Poor People’s Campaign.

Join us at Lupine Leather & Beads in the Mendenhall Mall for a 2-DAY class with Tlingit Artist, Fran Andrews. Fran grew up between Southeast Alaska and the Oregon Coast. She learned to bead from her paternal great-grandmother, Frances Cropley (Akagi). In 2016, after years of gathering beads, leathers and other regalia supplies, Fran opened Regalia Arts & Bead Company, now known as Lupine Leather & Beads. Fran is mother to three beautiful children (Amanda, Shaun & Artemis) and is the oldest daughter of Lupine’s co-owner, Michelle Clark of Juneau. Fran’s father is David Dowd of Anchorage. In her free-time Fran enjoys beading, spending time outdoors and playing recreational sports. She LOVES to share her beading and regalia making knowledge with her community.

There will be two separate 2-day sessions offered, each session only has room for 8 students each.

Session 1: March 16th & 17th – 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Session 2: March 18th & 19th – 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM

LINK TO REGISTER: https://forms.gle/2Bssd9bT4t2smxNP6

AFROFUSIO AFRICAN DANCE CLASS IS BACK! And BPI would like to invite our families and those within our village to participate.

The class will take place every Thursday from 6-7 pm for six weeks. BPI’s outstanding Executive Director, Ms. Bahia will be instructing the class. You won’t want to miss this!

Childcare will be provided.

Mukai Farm & Garden will host our fourth annual Haiku Festival in March, bringing the beauty of haiku, an ancient style of Japanese poetry, to Vashon Island residents once again. The festival has drawn hundreds of entries and fans annually from countries all over the world!

The Mukai Haiku Festival is a juried poetry competition for people of all ages. Contestants can submit up to three haikus. Each haiku will be divided into one of five categories: Nature, Social Justice, Heritage, Reflections, and Young Poets. Prizes will be awarded in each category, as well as for “People’s Choice.” Only original, unpublished haiku will be considered for awards.

Contest winners will be announced on Sunday, April 9th.

Mukai will print and display a selection of individually calligraphed haiku on the grounds of Mukai Farm & Garden throughout the month of April. We encourage visitors to Mukai Farm & Garden to vote for their favorite haikus, the People’s Choice award, online or at the kiosk.

No entry fee. Donations welcome.

A young woman, Yoko, travels with a small crew to Uzbekistan to shoot an episode of her reality TV travel show. In front of the camera her persona is carefree and happy-go-lucky, but behind the scenes she is cautious and introverted.  Despite her best efforts, all the shootings end unsuccessfully. Frustrated by the failed filming, she takes to the streets of this mysterious country on her own. Lost in the streets of Tashkent, she finds herself adrift and alone, confronting her deepest fears and hidden aspirations.

A brilliant mix of black comedy, travelogue, drama, and an adventure-imbued mockery of showbiz, TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH is a young woman’s journey from displacement to a place of self-discovery.

3 day rental • NR • 120 min. • Japanese with subtitles

Persepolis first garnered attention as a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, the story of her years growing up as an outspoken and precocious girl in the midst of the Iranian revolution. In this film adaptation, Satrapi’s incredible tale and beautiful animation come together to create something magnificent. The New York Times calls it “full of warmth and surprise, alive with humor and a fierce independence of spirit.”

The film traces Satrapi’s growth from child to rebellious, punk-music-loving teenager in Iran. In the background are the growing tensions of the political climate in Iran in the 70s and 80s, with members of her liberal-leaning family detained, and the background of the disastrous Iran/Iraq war.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 96 min.

This heartwarming and poignant winner of the Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard prize is the mesmerizing and witty story of strangers in a strange land. On an ordinary day, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event, only find there is no delegation to meet them, nor any arrangements to get to their destination of Petah Tiqva. When they find their own ride, they arrive instead at the remote town of Beit Hatikva. Stuck there until the next morning’s bus, the band, led by the repressed Tawfiq Zacharaya, gets help from the worldly lunch owner, Dina, who offers to put them up for the night. As the band settles in as best it can, each of the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them. Set against a breathtaking desert landscape, this cross-cultural comedy proves that getting lost is sometimes the best way to find yourself.

3 day rental • PG-13 • 87 mins. • Hebrew and Arabic with subtitles

The Alaska Native Heritage Center is hosting the inaugural Alaska Native Artist Market at the 2023 ASAA March Madness, and you’re invited! This event will take place on the 3rd floor of the Alaska Airlines Center during the 1A/2A and 3A/4A state basketball tournaments from March 15th to 18th and March 22nd to 25th, respectively.

The Alaska Native Artist Market is a multicultural market that showcases the diverse artistic talents of Alaska Native cultures from each region. of Alaska. We are excited to offer you an opportunity to discover and purchase beautiful jewelry, traditional crafts, visual arts, regalia, and more from incredible Alaska Native artist vendors.

As a cultural center dedicated to preserving and strengthening Alaska Native cultures, we are honored to host this event and bring together some of the finest Alaska Native artists under one roof. We invite you to immerse yourself in the creativity and talent of Alaska Native artists and score big at the first-ever Alaska Native Artist Market at the 2023 ASAA March Madness.

Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe introduces new generations to one of the twentieth century’s most innovative Native American painters. Howe (1915–1983) committed his artistic career to the preservation, relevance, and ongoing expression of his Yanktonai Dakota culture. He proved that art could be simultaneously modern and embedded in customary Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux) culture and aesthetics—to him there was no contradiction.Howe challenged the art establishment’s preconceptions and definitions of Native American painting. In doing so, he catalyzed a movement among Native artists to express their individuality rather than conforming to an established style. This legacy of innovation and advocacy continues to inspire generations of Native artists to take pride in their heritage and resist stereotypes.

Dakota Modern traces more than forty years of the artist’s career and development from early conventional work created while in high school in the 1930s through the emergence in the 1950s and 1960s of his innovative and abstract approach to painting.

Across Mexico, mask-making is a vibrant and playful artform with roots in the celebration of religious holidays. Worn by dancers in rollicking performances known as danzas, the masks depict devils and holy men; celebrities from media and politics, and other known individuals who personify sinners and false idols.

In contextualizing masks and the expressive art forms through the life and work of contemporary Mexican mask artists, the exhibition dispels the common notion that masks and danzas are “archaic” Indigenous customs that are disappearing in the face of encroaching modernity. Instead, they are presented as expressions of contemporary living culture in which symbols and scripts from pop culture and religious narratives are combined to communicate about spiritual matters, political issues, and community life.

Showcasing abstract art featuring the works of Northwest artists: Vincent Keele, Shantell Jackson,Lo Mar Metoyer, and Yeggy Michael.

Black cowboys have long been an integral part of the American West. Thousands of Black cowboys, for instance, rode in the Western cattle drives of the 1860s. Their stories are largely untold in popular narratives, but modern-day Black rodeos keep their traditions alive. A new, original High Desert Museum exhibit celebrates this thriving culture.

In the Arena: Photographs from America’s Only Touring Black Rodeo running from November 19, 2022 – June 25, 2023. Through the lens of San Francisco Bay Area photographer Gabriela Hasbun, this exhibit documents the exhilarating atmosphere of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo—the only touring Black rodeo in the country—and the show stopping style and skill of the Black cowboys and cowgirls who compete in it year after year.

The exhibit features a wide range of stories including the Quinault Nation fighting climate change, water protectors resisting fossil fuel development, Duwamish River stewardship, rising seas threatening Pacific Islands and other coastal communities, Native Hawaiians opposing military installations via traditional ceremony, and local community groups fighting disproportionate airplane noise and pollution on Seattle’s Beacon Hill.

Anchorage, AK – NACF LIFT Artist Brian Walker II (King Island and Deg Hit’an Athabascan)
Supernal Enlivened at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Arc Gallery.
Feb 3rd – May 5th, 2023
For more info:
https://alaska.digication.com/kimura-gallery/arc-gallery