Wabanaki Winter Market returns with one-of-a-kind artwork – UMaine News
The Wabanaki Winter Market, an annual celebration of art created by Wabanaki artists, will return with one-of-a-kind artwork for sale from 9 a.m.–3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 10 at the University of Maine Collins Center for the Arts.
This 28-year anniversary holiday event is being hosted by the UMaine Hudson Museum (MIBA) and the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, and partially supported in part by The Onion Foundation. The market will feature over 30 Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Maliseet and Mi’kmaq artists who create brown ash and sweetgrass baskets, birchbark containers, and jewelry, among other art forms. MIBA participants are new, nationally-awarded basket weavers.
The Wabanaki Winter Market also includes a performance of Penobscot songs by Kelly Demmons, a brown ash pounding exhibition by Mi’kmaq artist Eldon Hanning, a children’s brown ash bookmark workshop by Penobscot weaver Pam Cunningham and drumming by the Burnurwurbskek Singers. Additionally, there will be book signings for “Still They Remember Me” by authors Carol Dana, Penobscot language master, and Margo Lukens, UMaine English professor, and for “Night of the Living Rez” by Morgan Talty, UMaine assistant English professor.
“The Hudson Museum is excited to host the full-scale return of this in-person opportunity to celebrate Wabanaki artists and their extraordinary art,” says museum Director Gretchen Faulkner. “In addition to one-of-a-kind art, visitors can learn about Wabanaki history and culture through demonstrations, music, a children’s workshop, drumming and dancing, and exhibits in the Hudson Museum.”
You can access the event schedule online. For reasonable accommodations, call the museum at 207.581.1904.
Visitors to the show will also be interested in the Minsky Gallery and Merritt Galleries, which feature Wabanaki art. In the Merritt Gallery, a collection including sweetgrass baskets made from Wabanaki brown Ash and sweetgrass baskets as well as basket-making tools from Leo and Florence Shay Collections will be on display.
The Minsky Gallery is showcasing works by Indian Island School students in grades 5–8, with artists from each grade using different printmaking techniques. Fifth graders made hand-printed and colored Plexiglass etchings depicting shamans, medicine men and other people. Sixth graders created watercolor paintings from hand-printed portraits. Seventh graders made self-portraits using linoleum block prints. Eighth graders made self-portraits by using Andy Warhol’s techniques. These were screened with watercolor paint.
Contact: Marcus Wolf, 207.581.3721; [email protected]