Native Arts
by Da-ka-xeen Mehner, Native Arts MFA student
The Native Art Program offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in Native Art studio practice. UAF is the only school in Alaska to offer a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Native Art and is only one of a few universities in the country to offer a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Native Arts. The studio is equipped with indigenous and contemporary carving tools. Areas of study include wood, ivory, stone and bone carving, woodblock printing, skin sewing, beadwork, basketry and mixed media. Courses offered include beginning, intermediate and advanced Native Art Studio classes each semester to approximately sixty students, many of which are Alaska Native.
Native Art Center
In addition to studio course offerings, the Native Art Center serves as a clearinghouse for information and services on and about Alaska Native art, reaching both the University and Native community of Fairbanks and Alaska.
History
The Native Art Center has been in existence for over 40 years offering art studio courses, workshops with Native Artists and elders, and artists-in-residence programs including outstanding Yupik, Inupiaq, Athabascan, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Alutiiq and Aleut artists from throughout Alaska.
The Native Art Center was established in the 1966 under the direction of Ron Senungetuk who brought together Alaska Native artists from rural communities to study Alaska Native art at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Over the past forty years, the Center has evolved to become an academic-based program including courses in studio art and Native art history and special workshops and symposia on topics including mask making, bentwood traditions, basketry, sculpture and carving. For the past fourteen years, the Native Art Center has been directed by Alvin Amason, continuing the tradition of providing workshops and residencies in the studio, with Native elders and artists from throughout Alaska. The Native Art Center is staffed by the Director and the Native Arts Liaison who work with students, artists, UAF Native Studies and related programs, community-based organizations, village based-elders and statewide and local arts and cultural programs.Mission
Each semester the Center strives to expose students to the diversity of Alaska Native arts by providing lectures, demonstrations, workshops and residencies by visiting Alaska Native artists. The Native Art Center also presents workshops off-site in coordination with statewide art and village-based programs. Faculty and staff also assist in coordination and development of special projects including exhibitions and conferences.
Degrees
Degrees offered through the Native Art Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks include Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) and Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Native Arts. UAF is the only institution in Alaska offering such degrees. MFA Candidates are provided teaching opportunities and work alongside BFA and other students in the studio serving as mentors sharing their knowledge of their respective culture and place of origin.
Faculty
Alvin Amason
Associate Professor, MFA
Alvin Amason, (MFA Arizona State University, MA Central Washington University), Director of Native Art Center, Assistant Professor of Art, has been with UAF’s Art Department and Native Art Center since 1992. Amason’s work is included in the National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution; the Heard Museum; the Alutiiq Museum; Anchorage Museum of History and Art; Alaska State Museum; the University of Alaska Museum of the North; Alaska State Council on the Arts Contemporary Art Bank and in numerous Per Cent For Art and private and corporate collections.
Jean Carlo
Native Arts Liaison, BFA
Jean Flanagan Carlo, (BFA Suny Stony Brook) term professor of Art/Native Arts of Alaska, has been with UAF since 2001. Carlo formerly served as Coordinator of Crossroads Alaka for the Smithsonian and served as Executive Director of the Institute of Alaska Native Arts.