Nez Perce: Renewal and Return

The Josephy Center received a grant from the Oregon State Capitol Foundation to build an exhibit around this important and tragic history, and encouraging return.

The Nez Perce today are descendants of tribal peoples living in the intermountain west for millenia. Recent archeological findings at Coopers Ferry on the Salmon River put human habitations back to 16,000 years ago. The Nez Perce, Lewis and Clark, then had their lands taken by treaty and by homesteader encroachment–and finally by war. The people–nimiipuu–were then subjected to boarding schools, allotment, and other assimilationist efforts. But the People are resilient, and expanding their presence in Oregon and the Wallowas today,

This is a “soft” unveiling of the major exhibit we are preparing for the State Capitol in Salem; Nez Perce in Oregon; Removal and Return. The small, colorful, and very dense exhibit will go to the Capitol September, 2025.

Exhibit designed by Kolle Kahle Riggs.

The Wild Landscape: Expanding Views of Eastern Oregon

The Josephy Center for Arts and Culture invites the public to view the sixth annual  Wild Landscapes exhibit: The Wild Landscape: Expanding Views of Eastern Oregon, beginning Friday, July 31, 2020. There will be no opening reception due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but we will host a zoom Brown Bag event on Tuesday, August 11 at noon. Individual pieces can be purchased, and there will again be a paperback exhibit catalogue. 

To view the virtual exhibit, click here

This year’s theme is expanding views of Eastern Oregon – from the canyon views to the mountain tops and wide prairies. The exhibit and theme continue our celebration of wild landscapes. Our visual definition of wild is landscape relatively unaltered by human development. Our goal is the continued appreciation of the diverse landscapes and unique places of Eastern Oregon. Nineteen artists are participating, and over forty-three paintings, photographs and mixed media images  will be on display.  Artists include local favorites David Jensen, Rick Bombaci, Leslie LeViner, David Martin, Jennifer Klimsza and many more. 

This year photographer Ellen Bishop and artist Mike Koloski will jury the exhibit. 

Prize Winners

1st place:  “Mountain Meadow” by Maja Shaw
2nd place:  “Mountains in Spring” by Jennifer Klimzsa
3rd place:  “Chesnimnus Vista” by David Jensen

Honorable Mention:
“Sunset, Imnaha Canyon” by MC Reardon
“Rimrock to River” by David Martin
“Hells Canyon Colors” by Laura Gable

Mike Koloski- Judges Choice:  “Dancing Clouds” by Eric Valentine
Ellen Bishop- Judges Choice:  “Passages” by Leslie Anne Hauer

Pamela Beach designed The Wild Landscape: Expanding Views of Eastern Oregon’s catalog. You can purchase this catalogue today on our website.  The exhibit will run until September 9, 2020. This exhibit has been made possible by the wonderful support of Ann Werner, the Kinsman Foundation and the Collins Foundation.

Three Creative Journeys

The Josephy Center for Arts and Culture is honored to present an upcoming virtual exhibit and catalog -“Three Creative Journeys: Mike Koloski, Leslie LeViner and Mary Edwards”.  The exhibit will begin on Friday, June 12 and end July 28 via a virtual online exhibit and a small catalog, with a virtual zoom celebration Friday, June 19th at 5 p.m. 

Artist Preface

Last January when I received the invitation to participate in an art show with renowned local painters Mike Koloski and Leslie LeViner, I knew it would be a rare and special opportunity.  Covid 19 wasn’t a part of our daily lexicon then, and the prospects for a creative collaboration with these two artists was just the spark of light I needed in the dark of winter. However once the pandemic turned life upsidedown for our entire planet I began to seriously question the point of having an art show when so many were suffering and dying. It seemed a fruitless endeavor, fraught with ethical and spiritual considerations. How could we go forward safely? What might that look like? After our first conference call and upon hearing the many creative ideas for the show from Leslie and Mike, the motivation to move forward became clear, even though the details of how to manifest it were still a bit sketchy. Even in our darkest moments, to engage in the creative process is a salve to the soul and it lays the foundation from which hope may find root. So take a virtual tour, bathe yourself in LeViner light and listen for the song of the river in the quiet calm of a Koloski painting. Can you hear it? I can.

-Mary Edwards

While putting this exhibit together, with COVID-19 shelter-in-place and the effect it has had on businesses, Mary thought we could offer prints in an online silent auction to support the Wallowa County Business Fund. Each artist has selected a specific piece for the online auction and is featured below.  Click on the image to be taken to the bidding page.

Bidding begins on May 18 and ends on June 19 at the Zoom Exhibit Reception. Final bid will be at 6 p.m.  Leslie Leviner is offering “Spring Below Mount Joseph”, Mike Koloski is featuring “Rock Art” and Mary has selected a panorama print “The Hurricane.” The auction is live now! Starting bid is $25 and can be raised in $5 increments. Happy bidding!

The Hurricane
Mary Edwards

In addition to the above silent auction, Mike Koloski is offering archival reproductions of his painting “Lostine River – The View from Pole Bridge” to donors who contribute their stimulus checks of $1200 to the business fund.  The deadline for this offer is June 12. This painting is a local treasure and was featured in the Lostine River Exhibition last summer where it generated considerable interest and inquiries for purchase. Mike the “artist” and Mary the “owner” both wanted to raise the incentive to donate by offering this unique piece. The archival print reproduction size will be 14.75” x 19”.  Print doesn’t include matte and framing.

Early Social Media in Wallowa County

Turn-of-the-century Post Card Images and Messages from The Edsel White Collection

Virtual Exhibit Live Here
Post Cards with Accompanying Audio Live Here

Curator: David Weaver
Exhibit Catalogue: Available here

“Hello Old Sacks. How is the boy. Well Mick I am doin git again. I am in the 14 Cavalry here and it is lots better than the old place. I have an easy job and I don’t haft to drill. Well Mick write soon.
Your old friend,
[Illegible]”

About the Exhibit

Before Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, there were photo post cards, America’s first great social media crush. Wallowa County, like the rest of the country, eagerly embraced the new technologies that made it easy for ordinary people to take a “snapshot” and have it printed on photographic paper with a pre-printed post card back.  They could then send their own personalized images along with a short note to anyone, anywhere in the world with an address. And a town name and state was all that was needed in the rural U.S.

This social media revolution was driven by the Eastman Kodak Company.  In 1888, Kodak developed the first camera pre-loaded with flexible film.  After the photographer had taken the pictures, he or she would send the entire camera back to the company for developing, and a few weeks later would receive the photographs in the mail.  While this made it easier for non-professionals to take pictures, the price of the cameras put it out of reach for many.

In 1900, Kodak introduced the Brownie camera.  It was lightweight, portable, inexpensive and easy to use, making photography available to amateurs (Kodak’s Brownie was a popular little cartoon sprite of the time intended to appeal to children).  In 1902, the company introduced Velox post card paper, and in 1904, the Kodak Brownie 3A, which was designed specifically for taking post card pictures.

The final development that drove this turn-of-the-century social media format was the divided post card back.  Prior to 1907, the back of the photo post card was strictly reserved for the address of the recipient.  The new 1907 regulations allowed for a message on one side of the card back and the address on the other side.  It was the ability to send a photograph with a personal note that really popularized this early social media phenomenon.

With these developments, regular folks (especially young people) began to “post” and take selfies in astounding numbers.  Bundles of photo post cards were often sent in one envelope to save on postage. The total number of post cards sent in the mail will never be known; the U.S. Postal Service estimated that nearly 1 billion were sent through the mail in 1913 alone—ten times the population at the time.

In Wallowa County, photo post cards before 1906 are rare, and still scarce in 1907.  It’s not until 1908 that the local boom for photo post cards really takes off.  Most of the pictures on post cards before that time are lithographic prints of photographs.

The ability of amateurs to produce their own photographs tended to cut into the already thin margins of professional photographers, many of whom supplemented their photo business with second jobs.  This was true of local professional photographers like Joseph Henry Romig, a Joseph photographer, and Hugh Davis of Enterprise.  Romig ran a combination barbershop and photo gallery, and Davis worked variously as the editor of the Flora Journal, as a carpenter and at farming and ranching.

During the “Golden Age” of the post card between 1907-1915, the distinction between professional and amateur photographers becomes blurrier.  Local photographers like Hiram Merry, a farmer who lived in the little community of Grouse near Troy, and Roy Edgmand, a school teacher who taught in many one-room schools in the county, seemed to identify themselves first as “farmer” and “teacher.”  The distinction may rest in whether a particular photographer advertised services or had an established studio.  And then there were those who were took photographs as a hobby, offering none of their output for sale, but whose work constitutes an important part of our historical record.  Frank Reavis of Enterprise is perhaps the premier local example of this.

In any case, the greatest portion of the historic photographic record we have of Wallowa County comes from photo post cards produced by professionals and amateurs during this time period. Many of the photographers remain unknown and un-credited.

In addition to the historic importance of the photographic images themselves, the notes written on the backs provide an interesting look into the lives of the people of the time.  By turns tragic, comic and mundane—the universal human need to stay connected and share lives with distant family members, friends and loved ones was as important then as it is now.

The images and words presented in this exhibit come from the important collection of Edsel White, whose love for Wallowa County, its people and its history has led to his amassing hundreds of photographs and documents that add immensely to what we know of our own story.  And, thanks to his generosity and willingness to share his passion with others, we’re enriched by being able to see something of our own lives through those who have gone before us.

Edsel White Biography

Edsel White’s relationship to the Wallowa Country began when he came to Wallowa Lake in a bassinet with his parents in 1939. Through his youth, he spent every summer camping with his parents at the Wallowa Lake Methodist Camp. His parents purchased the Reverend Wallis cabin at the Lake in 1955, and in 1957, his father, Reverend Floyd White, was appointed pastor of the Joseph United Methodist Church and Camp manager.

Edsel graduated from La Grande High School in 1956, and with his parents living in the county, spent summers in the Wallowas, working on a ranch, pulling green chain at the Boise Cascade mill—the job, Edsel remembers years later, that taught him the most, and helping at the Methodist Camp as he attended Eastern Oregon College in La Grande. He also helped with the Joseph Methodist Church, where he preached his “first and worst sermons.”

Edsel met Patricia “Pat” Blackburne in 1959, when she came to La Grande to attend EOC, and they were married at the La Grande First United Methodist Church in August of 1962, shortly after Pat graduated. A week later they were on their way to Atlanta, Georgia, where Pat taught school while Edsel studied for his Masters degree at the Chandler School of Theology at Emory University.

They returned to the West, and eventually Edsel received his Doctor of Ministry Degree from San Francisco Theological Seminary, and Pat received her MA degree from Washington State University. For the next 45 years, Edsel served in seven churches, retiring from the Vancouver First United Methodist Church in 2008. The people of that church built the Whites a new retirement cabin on the bank of the Wallowa River above Wallowa Lake, next to the Wallis cabin they had purchased from his parents. They have called it home from early spring to late fall from that time forward, and their children, Brian and Cindy, and their families have all spent parts of their summers with them at the family cabin.

On retirement, Edsel began to devote more time to his lifelong interest in the history of Wallowa County. He has assembled a vast collection of pictures and historical memorabilia, including the postcards in this collection. Edsel shares his pictures and stories with other history buffs, and supports groups working to keep the history of the Wallowa Country alive. He has shared pictures with the Wallowa History Center, the museum in Joseph, and many others, and often trades those images and stories with his good friend, David Weaver, who curated this collection and wrote the brief essays that accompany the images.

Nez Perce Artists: Traditional and Contemporary

January 5 – February 23
Exhibit Opening: Sunday, January 5 at 2 PM

Stacia Morfin, a young artist and entrepreneur, is the curator of this exhibit, which features traditional as well as contemporary art.  War clubs, beading work, baskets, hats, paintings — all the work of tribal artists.  Both seasoned and emerging artists will be featured throughout the exhibit.  The Josephy Center welcomes this opportunity to work with Indian artists–and to help further their careers in art and in the communication of Nez Perce culture to the broader world.

Determined to Rise: The Valiant Women of the Vote – 100 years

Determined to Rise:  The Valiant Women of the Vote – 100 years

 

Exhibit opening Friday, February 28 at 7 p.m. – Featuring People’s Choice & Curator’s Choice Awards

 

Click here to view our virtual exhibit, and to purchase a piece.

 

 

 

In its seventh year, the Women’s Exhibit is hosted in conjunction with National Women’s History Month – March 2020.  This year marks a special century of history with the celebration of the 100th anniversary of women’s right vote. The curator is Jenny Klimsza.

This exhibit features local and regional women artist working in a wide variety of media.

On March 7 at 7 p.m. join us and the Wallowa Valley Music alliance for the “Women, Words & Music” concert.  This is our annual showcase of women musicians and writers. The Women’s Exhibit is sponsored by the Wallowa County Soroptomist , the Autzen Foundation and the Oregon Arts Commission.

Other events during the exhibit include Fireside Fireside readings in partnership with Fishtrap, hosting brown bag lunches, and solo plays about Abigail Scott Duniway and Eleanor Roosevelt.

 

Painting of Woman’s Face: Jennifer Klimsza

Print: Progress by René Fleming

 

Click on the image to expand to full view of the schedule

 

Gift of Art Exhibit

Saturday, Nov. 23 from 10 AM – 6 PM
A Fundraiser for Youth Art Programs
Gift of Art Exhibit Runs through Dec. 20

2019 Fundraiser to Benefit Youth Programming

 

Saturday, November 23rd marks the 6th annual Gift of Art Fundraiser to support the Josephy Center’s Youth Art Programs. This year we’ve added a fun family day where kids can get their faces painted, try the cupcake walk, bid at a kids’ auction table, play games, sip hot chocolate and create personalized art to give away as holiday gifts.  As part of the fundraiser, you can purchase participation tickets for one or all of the creative “art stations” including– clay ornaments, jewelry making, painting, printmaking and more.  Tickets are $1 each and most stations cost 1-5 tickets, depending on the craft.  In the spirit of giving the gift of art, there will be a place to drop off new art supplies, which will be distributed to needy families just before Christmas.  This fun-filled family event starts at 10:00 and ends at 4:00 with the announcement of the youth art auction winners.

Just after 4:00, we’ll put away the crafts and bring out the appetizers and wine to kick off the Silent Art Auction, where adults can bid on art from their favorite local artists including Leslie LeViner, Mike Koloski, Ted Juve, Pam Beach, Nancy Clarke, and more.  Bidding is open all day and winners will be announced at 6pm. (Winners do not need to be in attendance to win.)  If you happen to miss the event but still want to give the gift of art to someone you love, visit our Art Shop, open 12-4, Monday–Saturday or purchase the art on display until December 20th.

Youth programs depend heavily on fundraising dollars to be able to keep class fees low and pay for things like quality art instruction, art supplies, scholarships and student internships.  Funds raised during this event will pay for Friday Youth Art classes, a new “Mommy and Me” class, Building Healthy Families’ After-School Programming at three schools and Alternative Education Classes. New programs for families and youth will be offered after the New Year.

Whether your child makes a holiday card to give to grandma or you go home with a one of a kind ceramic mug to give to your sister, participating in this fundraiser is a wonderful way to support local artists and youth programing while also getting some amazing gifts for the holidays. If you are an artist or have art work that you would like to contribute, please contact Megan Wolfe at coordinator@josephy.orgor call (541) 432-0505.

print by Nancy Clarke

Function of Medium: New Works

Function of Medium:

New Works by Auburn Isaak and Kevin Boylan

 

Exhibit opening Friday, October 4 at 7 p.m. and will run until November 16.

About the Exhibit
Working in different mediums, using techniques specific to their own style; Kevin and Auburn have created a unique collection that displays their most recent expirations of materials while referencing the environments that surround them.

function [fuhngk-shuh n] noun
the purpose for which something is designed or exists; role

medium [mee-dee-uhm] noun
instrument by which something is conveyed or accomplished

 

About Artist Kevin Boylan:  “Through the years, my work has evolved from my beginnings as a potter to my current stage as a mixed media sculptor and glassblower.  Exploring new mediums, learning new techniques, and examining my  most immediate surrounds; my process almost always results with a non-objective, abstract form.  

The common thread is that my work is a personal journal.  While my hands are creating an object that I’ve overthrough without sketching; my mind is contemplating ideas, relationships, past experiences, or daily occurrences in my life.

Because I use internal reflection of sorts to create my work, I consider it to be self-portrait work, and my latest body of work has become more figurative.”

About Artist Auburn Isaak: “I draw my color palette from nature in its most elusive form; notes defined realism in its physical form, but as I interpret an depict it in my mind. This allows me to use abstract as a function to create the landscape that surrounds me. I choose to incorporate my movement, discoveries, and intuition during my painting process. The paint becomes the medium that inter-operates the human experience and a record of that occurrence.”

Nez Perce Music- A Historical Sketch

June 22 – July 30

Virtual Gallery – Click here!

The Josephy Center for Arts and Culture will host an exhibit of historic photos beginning June 22 and running through Tamkaliks and Chief Josephy Days, ending on July 30. The exhibit will open on the same day as the installation of Doug Hyde’s sculpture, ‘etweyéwise– or “The Return” –in the Center’s front yard, on Main Street in Joseph.

The Plateau People listened to the world around them, and made music with voice, flute, and drum. Young people were sent to boarding schools and put in marching bands with trumpets and saxophones. They came home and played jazz. Today there are Nez Perce rockers and rappers– and still drummers and powwow singers. It is a rich musical tradition. We’ll have various Nez Perce events featured throughout July as well.

During the exhibit, the Josephy Center invites Plateau Indian artists to display and sell art work. One big wall is being reserved. The work will not stay on the wall, but be replaces as it is sold. There is also a raffle for a limited edition bronze by Doug Hyde, called Sweetwater Girl, whose brilliant sculpture, ‘etweyé·wise, was erected in front of the Josephy Center after a two-year grant and bronze creation period. Tickets are available online here!