Sensing a bit of Husky pride...

Posted by: Julia Swan

The sun is shining (for now), cherry blossoms are blooming, and Washington Huskies, past and present, are flooding the UW campus. This weekend is the biggest showcase of University of Washington achievements of the entire year—Washington Weekend. Just about every campus department has something exciting going on! Check out the schedule for a full listing of events.

Of course, the Burke Museum is eager to get in on the fun. We’ve decided to offer free admission to all UW alumni and their families for the whole weekend (Friday-Sunday). So for all those UW alum out there who miss the perks of being a student, this is the perfect time to come visit the museum for free! All you need to do is bring your Alumni Association membership to the front desk.

We’ve also got a major event happening Saturday here at the museum. The Plateau Native Arts Celebration is going on from 10 am – 4 pm. We are bringing nine distinguished artists from the Yakama, Cayuse, and Nez Perce nations to demonstrate their crafts. If you liked what you saw in Peoples of the Plateau or This Place Called Home , then this is the perfect opportunity to witness the living arts of the Plateau region. And if you haven’t yet seen these two wonderful exhibits, why not come when you can meet practicing artists in person?

I’ve got my fingers crossed that the nice weather persists and that we have lots of sun for Washington Weekend. Come see the UW campus in all its glory, and while you’re at it, check out the Plateau Native Arts Celebration.

- Julia

Photo by Storms Photographic.

Mmm...donuts

Posted by: Julia Swan

What’s better than a buffet of delicious snacks with everything from finger sandwiches to donuts? A FREE buffet of delicious snacks, of course!

And what’s even better than snacking on a rich, delicious buffet? Snacking on that buffet at the Burke Museum where you can also peruse beautiful handcrafted clothing from the Columbia River Plateau, contemplate the intriguing photographs of Plateau Native Americans that U.S. Major Lee Moorhouse took at the end of the nineteenth century, and watch documentary films from the UW Native Voices program.

UW students can do it all tonight at the Burke Museum Student Open House from 7-9 pm.

See you there!
Julia

Let us feed your stomachs and minds

Posted by: Julia Swan

UW Students: Come to the Burke for free food, films, and new exhibits!

Calling all UW students! Have you been to the Burke this quarter to see Peoples of the Plateau and This Place Called Home—two new exhibits about the arts and culture of the Columbia River Plateau region? If the answer is yes, then you’ll definitely want to come back to meet the curator (coincidently, he’s a UW student!) and talk to him about his experiences putting together the exhibit. If the answer is no, then you really need to come see the beautiful, hand-crafted objects we have on display, like rawhide saddle bags, intricately beaded cradle boards, elkskin clothing, and a lot more.

I bet you are wondering, “when might I do all this?” Of course as a student, you can come to the Burke for free any day, but why not come on Wednesday, March 5, from 7 -9 pm, when the museum will be open late just for students? On top of that, we will be serving a delicious buffet of rich hor d’oeuvres with Mighty-O Donuts and coffee for dessert.

Finally, when you’re done checking out the exhibits and munching on yummy treats, you should stay for two screenings of films from the UW’s own Native Voices documentary film program. White Shamans and Plastic Medicine Men and American Red and Black: Stories of Afro-Native Identity (pictured left) will be playing at the Burke with special appearances by filmmaker Alicia Woods and Native Voices rep Jonathan Tomhave.

So take a break from studying and mosey on up to the Burke Museum to meet new people, indulge in tasty (free!) food, and learn something new about the Native cultures of Eastern Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

See you there!

- Julia

New podcast with Plateau curator

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin



You'd never guess how high energy a person Burke Blog staffer Karyn Gregory really is based on her perfectly soothing radio voice on the Burke Museum Podcasts!

Check out her latest interview with This Place Called Home guest curator Miles R. Miller (Yakama/Nez Perce). For the museum-lovers out there, Miller talks about his past industry experiences and what you can next expect from him in this field.

(Want more? Follow the interview link to learn how to subscribe to Burke Museum Podcasts.)

Enjoy!
Rebecca

Photo by Storms PhotoGraphic.

Better Late than Never

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin

Here are the photos from opening day of Peoples of the Plateau and This Place Called Home. They give you a great sense of what's on display now at the Burke.

- Rebecca

Photos by Storms PhotoGraphic.

The Maker's Story

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin

If you missed the interview on KUOW yesterday, follow that link to hear This Place Called Home co-curator Miles R. Miller (Yakama/Nez Perce) talking with Sound Focus host Megan Sukys about the stories of the Plateau and the cultural differences across the Cascades. (The interview starts at around the 14 minute mark into the program from 1/29.)

The Plateau exhibits opened this weekend with a wonderful members’ reception on Friday night:

I'll be back soon with photos from the public opening this past Saturday.

- Rebecca

"In Progress"

Posted by: Karyn Gregory

One of my colleagues (and friends) in the Museology department has a show opening up this weekend at the Burke: This Place Called Home (along with the traveling exhibit Peoples of the Plateau). He's been working on curating this show nonstop since last Fall. The exhibit installation is finally finished and I managed to sneak in earlier this week and take some photos of the process to give readers a taste of what to expect. It looks...stunning. Hard to believe this is the same space the Y2Y and Giant Squid exhibits were in.

I'm so proud of Miles!

- Karyn

Who gets to tell the story?

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin

I was cautious when I first heard that with our upcoming Peoples of the Plateau exhibit, we were going to display the turn of the century photographs of Native American subjects taken by a white man who felt he was documenting a “vanishing” race. In this Sunday’s thoughtful Pacific Northwest Magazine cover story found in the Seattle Times, art critic Sheila Farr mines this same apprehension, and with insight from Roberta Conner (director of the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute, Pendleton, OR) and Steven Grafe (curator of the traveling exhibit), comes to some very helpful conclusions for anyone who plans to see the exhibit and decide for themselves what is the significance of these images to our understanding of history.

Acknowledging the colonialist overtones in his practice, Farr and Grafe still give credit to Moorhouse for his progressive habit of recording the names of people and places in his photographs, an effort not often seen in the work of his contemporaries. Not only do these identifications make the photographs more useful as a historic document, but they also imply that the subjects are real people and places, not just stereotypes and romanticized landscapes.

At the Burke, we’re balancing the Moorhouse presentation with an exhibit of Plateau objects from our own collection. Titled This Place Called Home, the companion exhibit presents the story of the same Native American subjects, but in their own voices, as told through their cultural materials and taped interviews.

I’m excited to see the shows open this weekend and compare the stories the two shows are telling. Will This Place Called Home serve as a test of sorts for the authenticity of the images in Peoples of the Plateau? And how will the historic photos in Peoples of the Plateau inform the context with which we look at the cultural materials in This Place Called Home?

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts. The exhibit opens to the public this Sat., Jan. 26.

- Rebecca

Photo: Dr. Whirlwind, Cayuse Tribe, circa 1905, photograph by Lee Moorhouse. From Division of Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Library System. On view in Peoples of the Plateau, Burke Museum, Seattle, Jan. 26 – June 8, 2008.

Plateau News

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin

University Week is out now with a wonderful piece on our upcoming Plateau exhibits (opening Jan. 26). Co-curators Miles R. Miller and Jim Nason talk about the significance of these exhibits in promoting cultural awareness across broad audiences. They offer great insight into the work of the museum: telling the real stories of real people using their real voices and authentic materials. It’s no easy job, but it is one they are both passionate about.

- Rebecca.

Photo: Baby moccasins and adult moccasins (Yakama), photo by Mary Levin. On view in This Place Called Home, Jan. 26 – June 8, 2008.

Plateau Close-up

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin

Last week I joined the curatorial team for an object photo shoot behind-the-scenes in our Ethnology collections lab. We’re gearing up for the January opening of two shows that look at Plateau Arts & Culture: Peoples of the Plateau (historic photography) and This Place Called Home (cultural materials from the Burke’s Plateau collections).

This Place Called Home guest curator Miles R. Miller (Yakama) is a beadwork artist inspired by the traditional motifs of the Plateau region. He’s pictured here along with a selection of objects from the exhibit, including a stunning buckskin coat (capote) with beaded details, a cradle board, and two hats that showcase two approaches to a similar motif.

These will be the first exhibits to celebrate Eastern Washington Plateau culture at the Burke in over 20 years. Many of the objects will be on exhibit for the first time ever thanks to Miles’ hard work and collaboration with Burke staff. Exciting times.

- Rebecca

Photos by Mary Levin