Tour:

I chose to tour The Burke Museum, which is located on the UW campus and has free

admission for UW students, for this portfolio assignment. I found the first exhibit depicting

the lifestyles of Native American tribes of Seattle to be the most intriguing and educational

for me.

The first exhibit’s artifacts and displays left me in awe, for they must have had

hundreds of baskets, canoes, art pieces, masks, totem poles, weapons, etc. on display and in

their archives. There was a quote from an artist in the description of their work that stuck

out to me that I wrote down, which said “No artist today is self-taught. We learn that the

generations of knowledge left in old pieces in collections, from our ancestors. We must

honor their teaching and respectfully share their knowledge for future generations.” I

found this interesting because I’ve heard many artists my age saying that they were self-

taught, but even if they weren’t directly taught by a teacher, they still started learning and

continue to learn by studying the previous work and techniques of other artists.

The canoes were the most stunning, which I learned have been carved to represent

a people’s past, present, and future. I also appreciated learning about the historic use of

‘uli-uli’ bird (which are now extinct) feathers in art and dance. While exploring the exhibit, I

also learned that garments were an extension of ancestors’ tattooed skin and connected the

inner spirit to the outer universe of spirits.

The museum’s other exhibits on animals and dinosaurs were interesting as well but

didn’t connect to the course material as much as the Native American exhibit did. I greatly

enjoyed exploring and learning from my trip to The Burke Museum and I hope to visit

again.
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