Skagway’s sculpture garden has a new owner and a new mission. The local tribe plans to use the space to share its culture with visitors.
The Skagway Traditional Council is on its way to opening a cultural center. They purchased the Skagway Sculpture and Flower Garden and started advertising in July for someone to run the property.
Jaime Bricker is council president. She says buying the garden, which includes museum space, was a complicated two-year process.
“There was so much thought and discussion that went into deciding whether or not to do this,” Bricker says. “Because, especially in a place like Skagway, where we’ve got a long, hard history of of colonization, and with the history of the boarding school and seeing the removal of a lot of traditional language, culture, place names – it was hard for the council to fully embrace doing something that would be forward facing to visitors. But ultimately, this is our opportunity to resurrect a lot of language, culture, art, that really has not been as visible in Skagway as we want it to be.”
While the mission statement for the newly named Skagway Cultural Garden has not yet been written, some uses of the space will likely include artifact display, indigenous art demonstrations, marketing of indigenous art, and food and beverage sales.
The sculpture garden was originally started by Diane and Robert White. They traveled Southeast Alaska throughout the 80s and 90s by boat, bringing along various artists. Those artists left behind paintings and sculptures that the couple eventually moved to the Skagway property.
“We’re really fortunate that the White family approached Skagway Traditional Council and gave us the opportunity to find resources and to really wrap our head around what we wanted to see out of this endeavor,” Bricker says. “To allow us the time to do that and to really help us through some of that process. I just feel really, really lucky.”
Beau Dennis is a Tlingit/Haida artist whose family has lived in Skagway for several generations. He specializes in Northwest Coast formline and is excited by the opportunity the culture center could bring to creators like himself.
“I think it means a lot,” Dennis says. “It’ll be great to have a space dedicated to artists, where guests of the town can come and not only view and purchase work, but learn more about the culture, heritage and history that is outside of the gold rush. So just learning more about who we are as a people and discovering our artwork, and then having the possibility of purchasing it as well.”
Skagway Traditional Council is currently reviewing applicants for the garden operations manager. Fortunately for the new hire, the position comes with housing.
