Latest News and Events
Check back periodically to read new discoveries, stories and upcoming exhibitions. Check the Exhibition page for more details.
A People and a Place
“Our terms were very simple, we wished to be able to continue to hunt and fish, and to live and be buried with our ancestors”
Remembering the Dome
One year ago today, I met the man who built Eugene's geodesic dome studio, and wrote a blog post about it. To commemorate this anniversary I am reposting it here, on Gene's official website. I hope you enjoy it~Judith MAKING CONTACT Last week I got a phone call in...
Portrait of Gene-the Catalog!
A lost art collection leads to the rediscovery of a Native American artist. A compelling, mid-century portrait of a small tribe, and of an artist who created despite his physical disability. The 52 pages are filled with interviews, photos, and art. Produced with funding from a Humanities Washington 2019 Storytellers Grant. Priced at cost.
An Unexpected Gift
Last November, 82-year-old Sara Nelson sent me an email. She had heard about my search for Eugene Landry's art and sent two photos of paintings she owned, offering to show them to me after the holidays. In the meantime, we messaged back and forth. Sara wrote "I am...
Black History Month
When Eugene Landry painted this portrait of a young African-American schoolboy in 1962, the fight to desegregate the public education system was in full swing. Seven years after Brown v Board of Education, the battle raged on. While news headlines shouted of riotous...
Museum Memory
In 1976, the Landry Family opened their Smoke Signal Museum to the public. Admission was free. A labor of love, Fred Landry built the lodge-style building from logs salvaged in nearby woods. He painted a Kwakiutl style (British Columbia) sea serpent across the...
“Storytelling was our Netflix, our Hulu, our YouTube, for long winter nights.”
Last fall, Harvest Moon, Quinault Indian Nation Ambassador, came to the library at Shoalwater Bay to tell stories. She began by setting an assortment of baskets, rattles, and rocks on a table. To this she added a book, Where Bigfoot Walks, by Robert Michael Pyle. She...
Portrait of Gene: An Artist, a Time, and a Tribe
The project consists of a curated exhibit of Landry’s art, creating an online gallery, and documenting his art and life with a catalog of images, interviews with tribal elders, and biography.Eugene Landry (1937-1988) was an artist from the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe...
