People of the Sea and Cedar Gallery, Phase Two: additions and upgrades to an exhibit of Indigenous culture, art, and history

FAIN: ZPA-283508-22

Whatcom Museum Foundation (Bellingham, WA 98225-4401)
Victoria Blackwell (Project Director: May 2021 to September 2024)

Three staff positions and consultants to deepen scholarship and enhance a core exhibit about Coastal Native people, as well as the production of an educational video and establishment of an apprenticeship program related to historic totem poles to be exhibited and preserved.

“People of the Sea and Cedar: A Journey Through the History and Culture of the Tribes of the Northwest Coast" is a permanent gallery at the Whatcom Museum, designed to evolve with changing cultural stories and provide a space for rotation of artwork, artifacts, narratives, and initiatives. Now, four years after its initial creation, the gallery is ready for phase two. Consulting directly with local Indigenous tribes, the project will incorporate new stories of sustainability, provide for new narrative panels that feature Native voices, upgrade technology, and allow for the preservation, display, and interpretation of two 50-year-old Native-carved totem poles. These objectives, which have been developed through new and closer relationships with local tribes, are important to ensuring that the gallery reflects the tribes as they want to be represented and provides additional opportunities for the rest of our community to learn and become educated about Native culture, history, and art.