Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts at 25

HALLIE FORD MUSEUM OF ART, SALEM OR – Sep 16-Dec 22, 2017  
By Allyn Cantor
This retrospective exhibition chronicles the history of Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts (CSIA) and its artistic growth over the past 25 years from a regional organization to a world-class printmaking atelier of national scope. Founded in 1992 on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation near Pendleton, Oregon, by local artists James Lavadour (Walla Walla) and Phillip Cash Cash (Cayuse and Nez Perce), the nonprofit fosters the work of Indigenous contemporary artists from across North America.
CSIA’s mission is to be a conduit for educational, social and economic opportunities for Native Americans through artistic development. The institute’s print studio hosts several annual artists’ residencies, where artists have worked under the guidance of master printmaker Frank Janzen to produce hand-pulled, limited-edition fine art prints, many of which have become part of CSIA’s permanent collection. The arts center also holds a multitude of workshops on both traditional Indigenous arts such as basket weaving, beading and contemporary printmaking.
This exhibit includes roughly 80 prints drawn from the Crow’s Shadow Print Archive, focusing on themes of abstraction, landscape, media and process, portraiture, word and image, with works by 50 Native and non-Native artists who have worked at CSIA, including Rick Bartow, Pat Boas, Joe Feddersen, Edgar Heap of Birds, Lillian Pitt, Wendy Red Star, Storm Tharp, Marie Watt and others. 
willamette.edu/arts/hfma
Gala Opening reception: Sep 22, 6:30-8:30PM