SHI TO SPONSOR WEAVER, APPRENTICE, AS ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE
Team to work on transition tunic, an endangered art practice
Nov. 22, 2019
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will sponsor Tlingit weaver Anastasia (Shaawaat Ku Gei) Hobson-George and her apprentice, Sara Aceveda, as artists-in-residence this winter to work on an endangered form of weaving.
The artists will weave a piece called a “transition tunic,” which incorporates sleeves and both Chilkat and Ravenstail weaving techniques. Only four living weavers know how to make transition tunics, and they are in their 70s.
At age 21, Hobson-George was among the youngest to ever win a Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Award. She used that prize, in part, to study transition tunics in Canada.
Hobson-George has studied under a number of noted weavers, including the late Clarissa Rizal, Kay Parker and Dorica Jackson. From 2017-2019 she apprenticed under Lily Hope, who learned from her mother, Rizal.
The artists will be in residence at the Delores Churchill Artist-in-Residence Studio off of the lobby from Nov. 25-Dec. 27, at SHI, 105 S. Seward St. in Juneau. The public is welcome to stop by and visit.
SHI sponsors its artists-in-residence program to encourage study of Northwest Coast art practices. The program provides artists with dedicated work areas and access to the institute's archives, library and ethnographic and art collections for study. Artists must apply for the residency and commit to a minimum of two weeks.
Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private nonprofit founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. Its goal is to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events. SHI also conducts social scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee and a Southeast Regional Language Committee.
CONTACT: Amy Fletcher, SHI Media and Publications Director, 907.586.9116, amy.fletcher@sealaska.com.
Caption: Weaver Anastasia Hobson-George (right) with teacher Lily Hope at a SHI event in June where they unveiled a pair of Chilkat leggings they made as a mentor-apprentice team as artists-in-residence at the institute. Photo by Nobu Koch, courtesy of Sealaska Heritage Institute. For a high res version, contact kathy.dye@sealaska.com.
