Celebrating our Matriarchs
This virtual exhibition is part of our collaborative Community Photo Project tied to Matika Wilbur’s exhibition Seeds of Culture: The Portraits and Stories of Native American Women.
We all know women who have inspired and influenced us, taught us, raised and cared for us, mentored and encouraged us to become better people. From the past to our shared present, matriarchal figures have an enduring importance.
As part of the project, we invited community members to share a photo of a matriarch important to them. Submissions were accepted during March and are now displayed below. We’re excited to share these photographs with you, along with words from the photographers.
Do you see your photo and would like to add more information? Contact us at info@whatcommuseum.org.
Seeds of Culture: The Portraits and Stories of Native American Women
March 13 – June 13, 2021; Lightcatcher building
Exhibition by Matika Wilbur In 2012, critically acclaimed photographer and social documentarian Matika Wilbur (Tulalip & Swinomish) sold her belongings and set out on the road to launch Project 562, a crowd-funded initiative to visit, engage, and photograph people from 562+ sovereign Tribal Nations in the United States. Seeds of Culture: The Portraits and Stories of […]
Fluid Formations: The Legacy of Glass in the Pacific Northwest
April 10 – October 10, 2021; Lightcatcher building
Organized by Amy Chaloupka, Whatcom Museum Curator of Art Celebrating a rich legacy unique to our region, Fluid Formations features the art of fifty-seven contemporary artists working in glass. The Pacific Northwest is the epicenter of glass, spurred by the establishment of Pilchuck Glass School on a remote tree farm in Stanwood, Washington in 1971. […]
partners
Oiva Toikka; Pileated woodpecker. Museum of Glass collection.
As part of this series, the Whatcom Museum is also featuring a collection of glass birds in the John M. Edson Hall of Birds at Old City Hall. Birds by Toikka, made by renowned Finnish artist and designer Oiva Toikka (1931 – 2019) for the design company, Iittala, are on loan from Museum of Glass Archives and the Paul Kangas Collection, which is a promised gift to Museum of Glass. The glass birds are interspersed among our mounted bird display cases. Image credit: Oiva Toikka; Pileated Woodpecker; 2011; Blown glass; 10 × 4.5 in. Collection of Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington.
Jac Trautman: The Specter of the Young and Indigenous
January 28 - June 13, 2021; Lightcatcher Courtyard
Jac Trautman is a photographer and artist from Seattle and a member of the Duwamish tribe. With this series of seven photographs that incorporate splitting and projection techniques in their single-exposure frames, Trautman presents the various ways in which people project their idea of landscape onto the world. The photographs are installed as window vinyls […]
1968: The Year That Rocked Washington
Through May 16, 2021; Old City Hall
The year was 1968. Change was in the air. Everywhere. From Saigon to Seattle, Paris to Pasco. On college campuses, the campaign trail and evergreen peaks, Washingtonians were spurred to action. Legacy Washington looks back at 1968 and its impact on Washington state through the stories of some remarkable people who lived through it. On […]
Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence
January 1 – July 3, 2021; Old City Hall
The story of women’s suffrage is a story of voting rights, of inclusion in and exclusion from the franchise, and of our civic development as a nation. In 2020, the Smithsonian celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment with Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence. This dynamic poster exhibition explores the complexity of […]
Geometry and Color: Sonia Delaunay and Bellingham Public School Students
Virtual Exhibit; Ongoing
As part of their distance learning materials, local students were asked to make artwork in the style of influential, Paris-based artists Robert and Sonia Delaunay. While the Delaunays’ works have been displayed in exhibitions at museums around the world, it turns out that Sonia Delaunay’s work can be found closer to home. The Whatcom Museum […]
Vintage Vaudevillians
September 19, 2020 - May 16, 2021; Old City Hall
Curated by Jeff Jewell, Historian and Archivist
Vintage Vaudevillians is a photographic exhibition that highlights a dozen vaudeville acts that performed in Bellingham in the early 20th century. Originally used to promote the acts, these publicity photos were saved by James Warwick, stage manager at downtown theaters during vaudeville’s heyday.
James “Jim” Warwick had a 54-year career in Bellingham theaters, starting as a stagehand at the Lighthouse Theatre in 1897. He was stage manager at both Beck’s Opera House and The Grand during the heyday of vaudeville in the early 20th century when Bellingham was on the competing Pantages and Sullivan-Considine circuits. Warwick worked directly with performers, catering to their needs and whims, and had a longstanding reputation as a dependable, gracious host.
Vaudevillians, once scheduled by a venue, commonly forwarded photographs of themselves to the theater for use in advance publicity. After their week-long gig, the promotional portraits were returned to the act or, more typically, thrown away. But Warwick kept them as souvenirs of the personalities and performances he witnessed on the Bellingham stage.
With the rise of motion pictures and subsequent disappearance of vaudeville, Warwick worked as a film projectionist for more than 30 years at the American Theater on Cornwall Avenue. After his death in 1967, his daughter Mary donated his collection — more than 750 photographs from the vaudeville era — to the Whatcom Museum.
The Whatcom Museum acknowledges that we gather on the traditional territory of the Lhaq’temish – Lummi People – and the Nuxwsá7aq – Nooksack People – who have lived in the Coast Salish region from time immemorial. The Museum honors our relationship with all of our Coast Salish neighbors and our shared responsibilities to their homeland where we all reside today.
People of the Sea and Cedar: A Journey Through the Tribal Cultures and History of the Northwest Coast
Ongoing, Lightcatcher People of the Sea and Cedar, in the second floor gallery of the Lightcatcher building, shares the history and art of the Northwest Coast people, blending both historical and contemporary perspectives. This exhibit features artifacts from the Museum’s collection, such as Coast Salish artwork and carvings, woven blankets, hand-made tools, cedar hats, clothing, […]
The Whatcom Museum acknowledges that we gather on the traditional territory of the Lhaq’temish – Lummi People – and the Nuxwsá7aq – Nooksack People – who have lived in the Coast Salish region from time immemorial. The Museum honors our relationship with all of our Coast Salish neighbors and our shared responsibilities to their homeland where we all reside today.
John M. Edson Hall of Birds
Opened March 16, 2017; Ongoing; Old City Hall This exhibit in Old City Hall provides a glimpse into the local history and culture of the Victorian Era, when taxidermy flourished and mounted animals often decorated interior spaces. For the Museum, this collection of birds is also important to the building’s history. If it hadn’t been […]
partners
Join volunteers from the North Cascades Audubon Society in the John M. Edson Hall of Birds on the fourth Sundays of each month. Drop-in between 1:30-3:30pm to learn more about birds of the Pacific Northwest, as well as about migration, conservation, birds in peril, and the importance of studying bird specimens today.
