Page 18 - Anchorage & Kenai Peninsula Bearfoot

ALASKAN ART
NATIVE
Bearfoot Tip: The Silver Hand logo on a piece of artwork shows that it has been made by an Alaska Native.
ALASKAN ART
Anchorage is a gateway to the appreciation of Alaska Native art, both contemporary and traditional.
FUR RONDY
spring craft show.
Accessible Artwork
Visitors can buy Native Alaskan art from around the state while in An- chorage. Native artists regularly come to the city to display and sell their art at fairs and special local events. In An- chorage, museum-quality artwork is available at reasonable prices.
Traditional Art
Alaska Native artwork has its roots in tool-making. Items for everyday use were created from wood, ivory, stone, grass- es, bark, roots, bone, fur, cop- per and animal hide. Although some things might have been purely decorative, most served a practical function as well. Stone was carved and baskets were made to hold water, food and oil. Clothes and blankets were fashioned from fur. Tents were made from hides. Boats were from hide or bark.
Although useful, all of these items were made with an eye to beauty. When Russian fur trad- ers arrived on the coast, they introduced the use of manu- factured beads as decoration for mukluks, ceremonial robes and utilitarian objects, such as baby cradles and gun cases. In
basketwork you can still see the use of contrasting shades, nat- ural dyes and porcupine quills that were the basis of pre-bead embellishments to handcrafted utilitarian objects.
BEADED slippers.
TRADITIONAL
Native clothing.
ALASKAN ART
is often portable.
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