For Immediate Release
June 4, 2021
Tsirku River Robe by Saantaas’ Lani Hotch, 2006 Gift of the Rasmuson Foundation Art Acquisition Initiative ASM 2006-19-1 JUNEAU – The Alaska State Museum will launch a virtual lecture on Tlingit weaving for June First Friday. The presentation will be available on The Spirit Wraps Around You exhibit page (https://lam.alaska.gov/sway) beginning Friday, June 4.
Saantaas’ Lani Hotch (Tlingit), weaver and Director of Klukwan’s Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center, serves as a co-curator for the Alaska State Museum’s new exhibit The Spirit Wraps Around You: Northern Northwest Coast Native Textiles, on the history of ceremonial robes. Her online lecture covers the history of weaving and her own career as a weaver. Lani was born in the small Tlingit village of Klukwan (Eternal Village in Tlingit) in the mid 1950s. She is a descendant of a family of weavers that spans four generations, since her two daughters are now learning to weave. Lani is committed to keeping the tradition alive in her community and has worked hard, participating and teaching others through group projects and apprenticeships since 1992. She has instigated three group weaving projects, serving as lead weaver on two of those projects. She has worked with up to eight weavers, but usually only two or three at a time.
Lani has woven, or helped to weave, over ten dance robes or wall hangings and has woven four cedar bark hats and numerous other small projects. Her work is featured in several museums and private collections. Lani's weavings have also been featured in international art shows in Vancouver: the Manawa Pacific Heartbeat show at the Spirit Wrestler Gallery in 2005 and the Time Warp show at the Bill Reid Gallery in 2010-2011. Lani placed second in Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Juried Art Show in 2006, in the Contemporary Arts Division. She is the recipient of various awards including a Community Spirit Award from the First Peoples Fund in 2011, the Alaska Governor’s Award for the Arts in 2017 for Arts Business Leadership, the Native Arts and Culture Foundation Mentor Artist Apprentice Fellowship in 2017, and United States Artist Fellow in 2020. One of Lani’s highest honors was being named a “Culture Bearer” by her tribe, the Chilkat Indian Village, in April 2017. She is the first and only person (thus far) to be given that honor in her community.
The Spirit Wraps Around You exhibit traces the history of the sacred textiles known today as “Raven’s Tail” and “Chilkat” robes. Two dozen robes carry the story of Native weaving among the Tsimshian, Haida, and Tlingit of Alaska and British Columbia, representing both ancient and modern ceremonial robes made by Alaska Natives and First Nations weavers. The exhibit is open to the public now through October 9, 2021, at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau.
A person experiencing a disability who needs accommodation for events hosted by the Alaska State Library, Archives, and Museum can contact the Division's ADA coordinator at (907) 465-1300 to make any necessary arrangements.
Media Contact:
Patience Frederiksen
Director, Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums
907.465.2911
patience.frederiksen@alaska.gov
lam.alaska.gov
0 Comments.