{"id":5868,"date":"2015-09-21T22:52:29","date_gmt":"2015-09-21T22:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blogblog\/?p=5868"},"modified":"2015-10-02T13:14:31","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T13:14:31","slug":"site-visit-of-islandwood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/site-visit-of-islandwood\/","title":{"rendered":"Site Visit For Tlingit Artists Gathering"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mentor_Campfire\"<\/a>

One of the most up-town covered, outdoor fire pit shelter seats approximately 150 people in a cozy, intimate setting<\/p><\/div>\n

A little over 10 years ago, when Preston and I had been talking about putting together the first gathering of Northwest Coast Artists to be held during Celebration 2006 in Juneau, Alaska, he had mentioned Islandwood retreat learning center on Bainbridge Island, Washington State as a possible location.\u00a0 He felt that the location of this beautiful retreat in a heavily wooded forest would\u00a0 foster a networking of\u00a0 life-long friendships, kindle collaborations, and create a very tight group of artists where we could truly focus on any art and cultural issues in a very real way.\u00a0 10 years and 2 Northwest Coast Native artists gatherings later, we finally made it a point to visit IslandWood yesterday; it was obvious to me during this site visit why Preston insisted on IslandWood as the place for conducting next year’s gathering of Tlingit artists – the location of this retreat is astounding!<\/p>\n

The purpose of this gathering of Tlingit artists is to establish a loose coalition of mentors to consciously create a mentorship “guide” for our younger generations so we continue to endorse our future artists in whatever field they work.<\/p>\n

\"Mentor_Diningroom\"<\/a>

The warmth of solid oak and maple dining room<\/p><\/div>\n

There are five, dedicated, professional Tlingit artists who are at the helm of helping to organize this retreat.\u00a0 They include:\u00a0 Sue and Israel Shotridge, Donna Beaver Pizzarelli, Preston Singletary and myself.<\/p>\n

At this time, Artstream Alaska and the Evergreen Longhouse are two organizations who will help sponsor this gathering.<\/p>\n

We will be re-vamping the Artstream Alaska website where we will have information on the gathering.\u00a0 The goal for website completion is by November this year.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, although all of us work together on all aspects of organizing this gathering, we each have organically “fallen into our main roles.” \u00a0 Sue and Israel works on cultural values and the administration, Preston works on fundraising, Donna gathers materials to eventually design and create the website, and during my travels, I have been networking and collecting names of Tlingit artists.<\/p>\n

\"Mentor_IslandwoodEntry\"<\/a>

Standing at the entry to Islandwood’s main hall, program coordinators L to R: Clarissa Rizal, Preston Singletary, Swil Kanim, Sue Shotridge (missing: Donna Beaver Pizzarelli)<\/p><\/div>\n

At first we were going to invite any and all Northwest Coast artists from any background and tribe.\u00a0 Then we got to thinking about the differences in some of the values and we thought the gathering will already be challenging enough with the variety of egos, that we would like to keep it simple.\u00a0 We will be inviting only Tlingit artists for this gathering.\u00a0 We envision other tribes will be inspired to create their own mentorship program for their next generations.<\/p>\n

\"Mentor_MainLobby\"<\/a>

The main lobby before the “Great Hall…”<\/p><\/div>\n

IslandWood’s Story:<\/p>\n

IslandWood is a nationally recognized outdoor learning center located across Puget Sound from Seattle’s urban center.\u00a0 IslandWood’s mission is to provide exceptional learning experiences and to inspire lifelong environmental and community stewardship.\u00a0 Each year, more than 25,000 people participate in IslandWood’s programs on the 225-acre campus and in communities throughout the region.\u00a0 In addition to our school programs, IslandWood offers a graduate program in partnership with the University of Washington, summer camps, and community programs for children and adults.\u00a0 Revenue from conferences and retreats and contributions from the community enable IslandWood to underwrite our outdoor education programs for children from low-income communities.<\/p>\n

For more information on IslandWood, you may visit their website at:\u00a0 www.islandwood.org<\/p>\n

\"Mentor_Meeting\"<\/a>

Islandwood Program Director Christine welcomes the four of us to tour the small portion of the 250-acre landscape<\/p><\/div>\n

As I mentioned earlier, Artstream Alaska will be our main sponsor for this project.\u00a0 When the re-vamped website is launched by November 1st, we will be inviting selected Tlingit artists to check out all the information to see if they would like to participate.\u00a0 We are inviting Tlingit artists based on their artistic merit, their involvement in the arts and culture and their obvious concern for the health and well-being of our people.<\/p>\n

\"Mentor_SuePreston\"<\/a>

Sue Shotridge and Preston Singletary walk one of the many paths through the woods on the Islandwood Retreat<\/p><\/div>\n

Currently, the dates for this 3-day\u00a0 Tlingit Mentorship Retreat is set for next year, September 16 through the 18th, 2016.\u00a0 This will be a retreat.\u00a0 We ask that each artist make a clear commitment all 3 days and nights.\u00a0 We encourage artists to book any outside activities (i.e. visit family and friends in the Seattle area, shopping, sightseeing, etc.)\u00a0 before or after the 3 days.<\/p>\n

\"Mentor_NameTrees\"<\/a>

Just outside Islandwood’s “Great Room”<\/p><\/div>\n

Once the Artstream website is re-vamped and we’ve got our ducks in order (goal is November 1st), we will send out our invites to our Tlingit artists pointing them to read about our mission statement, the confirmed dates and times, the agenda of the mentorship project, the cultural leaders who will be helping to guide this 3-day event, and the list of artists who will be committing to attend this historical event.<\/p>\n

\"Mentor_Plaque\"<\/a>

Islandwood’s Welcome plaque just before the shed of many hand carts<\/p><\/div>\n

Our space has a capacity limit of up to 50 artists. \u00a0 The room and board is covered for each artist attending all 3 days. \u00a0 At this time, we are seeking funds to help pay up to $250 (or less) for each artist’s travel expenses.\u00a0 This will be invitation only, though we are open right now to receive names and contact info of anyone who you may know who fits the bill for a Tlingit mentor.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned!<\/p>\n

\"Mentor_SwilPreston\"<\/a>

Swil Kanim and Preston Singletary discuss the meaning of being a mentor<\/p><\/div>\n

\"MentorGroup\"<\/a>

Mentorship project coordinators L to R: Swil Kanim, Sue Shotridge, Preston Singletary, Clarissa Rizal<\/p><\/div>\n

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A little over 10 years ago, when Preston and I had been talking about putting together the first gathering of Northwest Coast Artists to be held during Celebration 2006 in Juneau, Alaska, he had mentioned Islandwood retreat learning center on Bainbridge Island, Washington State as a possible location.\u00a0 He felt that the location of this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,13,19,50,150],"tags":[90,62,253,384,98,16,357],"class_list":["post-5868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travels-adventures","category-classes-retreats-apprentices","category-honoring-others","category-tlingit-cultural-events","category-tools-of-the-trade","tag-alaska-native-art","tag-alaskan-artists","tag-donna-beaver-pizzarelli","tag-islandwood","tag-northwest-coast-tlingit-native-art","tag-preston-singletary","tag-sue-and-israel-shotridge"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5868"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5896,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5868\/revisions\/5896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}