For Immediate Release
June 14, 2022
As part of the Alaska Native Artist Residency Program, artist Percy Avugiak (Inupiaq/Yup’ik) will offer a landscape painting class at the Sheldon Jackson Museum to teach students to paint the northern lights. The painting class will take place over two 4-hour sessions on Friday, August 26 and Saturday, August 27, 9 am-1 pm both days (plan to attend both sessions). If time permits, students will also stain wooden frames for their finished northern lights paintings using a traditional dye-making method involving blueberries and crowberries.
The class is free, but students need to sign up and pay a materials fee by July 15. Call (907) 747-8981 or stop by the museum to sign up and get the materials list and instructor’s contact information. Students who sign up to attend online will receive a zoom link. The materials will include an 11" x 14" or 15" x 20" canvas, unfinished frame, and specific acrylic paint colors. If attending via zoom, you can obtain materials on your own or order the kit directly from the instructor (and pay for shipping if needed).
Percy Avugiak is an Inupiaq and Yup’ik artist who was raised in the Yup’ik village of Cherfornak and has Inupiaq roots tracing to White Mountain. Avugiak is primarily a painter and traditional Yup’ik-style mask maker who also carves wood and ivory and makes jewelry out of ivory and baleen. Avugiak primarily paints acrylic landscapes and portraits. The subject matter of his early paintings are whimsical Alaskan animals. He is best known for, and considers his best painted works to be, his abstract Alaskan Native dancing and singing paintings.
Avugiak obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Native Arts and Painting from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions and taught art classes throughout Alaska since 2006. He currently lives in Eagle River with his Inupiaq wife who originally hails from Shishmaref. He will be the second artist in the Sheldon Jackson Museum and Friends of Sheldon Jackson Museum Alaska Native Artist Residency Program of 2022. Avugiak will be working most days at the museum August 19-September 10.
Summer hours at the Sheldon Jackson Museum are Monday–Saturday, 9 am–4:30 pm, except holidays. Summer admission is $9 for adults and $8 for seniors. Visitors 18 and under are admitted free of charge. Assistance is available for visitors with special needs. For more information on operations or events, contact the museum by calling (907) 747-8981.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
museums.alaska.gov/sheldon_jackson/
907.747.8981
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