Arts and Entertainment

Sealaska offers sales outlet for Native artists

The Sealaska Heritage Store in Juneau has received the art collection of the Alaska Native Arts Foundation, which closed its Anchorage store in February. In addition to the art items, estimated to have a value of $150,000, the Sealaska Heritage Institute also received intellectual property, including ANAF's list of Alaska Native artists. The foundation has represented more than 1,300 artists over the past 15 years.

Those artists will now be able to sell their work through the Sealaska gallery, said store manager Lee Kadinger.

ANAF and SHI were both interested in working "to ensure that artists have a place to go," said Veronica Slajer, founding board member of ANAF, "maintaining opportunities for Native artists statewide."

ANAF closed its Anchorage store in February.

Related: Alaska Native Arts Foundation to close

A press release from ANAF said the foundation would "continue to contribute to raising awareness about Alaska Native art." Founding board members, a group that includes Alaska Dispatch News publisher Alice Rogoff, will "revisit the foundation's future later this year," the press release said.

Kadinger stressed that the Juneau store carries work by artists from around Alaska, not just Southeast. The ANAF inventory had been received as of April 15 and was being prepared for display.

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The Juneau store in Sealaska's cultural center should offer the advantage of higher traffic than was possible in Anchorage. The store is open year-round, but is especially active during the cruise season; upwards of 1 million tourists walk by the center each summer.

"It gets to be quite busy here," Kadinger said.

Alaska Native artists wishing to sell their work either on consignment or with wholesale agreements should contact Tammie Hanson at tammie.hanson@sealaska.com. They should be ready to provide photos of their work, details regarding the price, medium and personal information. Artists can also call for information, 907-463-4844.

Mike Dunham

Mike Dunham has been a reporter and editor at the ADN since 1994, mainly writing about culture, arts and Alaska history. He worked in radio for 20 years before switching to print.

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