PICUUN, I AM WATER
Dennis Dehart, Robbie McClaran, Palouse Prairie Charter School Canoe Project, Nimiipuu traditional fishing tools
June 3 - September 10, 2022
Rivers have sculpted the landscapes and imaginations of the people living in the Northwest. Rivers connect the life, livelihood, and spiritual basis for millions. This exhibit honors and questions the evolving relationship to our rivers from multiple perspectives.
Exhibition sponsors include: Bennett Lumber Products Inc., Rootforest LLC., Jaki Wright, Skinner Family Foundation, NRS, Priscilla Wegars, Nimiipuu 54, and the generosity of our donors.
Dennis DeHart
Dennis DeHart is a photographic artist whose interdisciplinary projects are informed by the connections, conflicts, and intersections of the natural and cultural worlds. Dennis has exhibited broadly, including dozens of solo exhibitions, numerous on-line media and art contexts, and over 100 group shows nationally and internationally. He has received grants and awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the Idaho Commission on the Arts. Dennis photographs are included in private and public collections including the J. Paul Getty, George Eastman House, The City of Phoenix, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Dennis received his MFA in photography from the University of New Mexico in 2002. He previously served as an Assistant Professor of Photography with the State University of New York College at Buffalo and is currently an Associate Professor of Art with Washington State University in Pullman, Washington.
Robbie McClaran
Robbie McClaran is an award winning photographer, based in Portland, Oregon whose work focuses on the American people and landscape. He shoots editorial, corporate and advertising photography for clients based worldwide.
In the U.S. his work has appears in diverse publications, such as The New York Times Magazine, Time, Smithsonian, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Runner's World, Bloomberg, and Fortune.
Robbie’s documentary and fine art work is held in several private and public collections such as the University of Oregon, Portland Art Museum, New Orleans Museum of Art and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.
His work has been featured in The Oxford American, Lenscratch, Plazm, Photo District News, The Photo Review, ID Design, and has been recognized by the American Institute of Graphic Arts, American Photography, The New York Art Director’s Club, Graphis and Communication Arts. Robbie is a 2015 Critical Mass finalist.
Robbie is a grateful recipient of a 2014 grant from the Oregon Arts Commission and the Ford Family Foundation and a 2018 Grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council. He lives, works and teaches in Portland Oregon with his wife, Designer / Illustrator Lydia Hess and their two daughters.
Palouse Prairie Charter School
http://palouseprairieschool.org/
Each spring, the fourth-grade crew at Palouse Prairie Charter School (PPCS) engages in a semester-long learning expedition called The Confluence of Cultures. They study the five federally recognized tribes of Idaho, westward exploration (i.e., the stories of Lewis and Clark and David Thompson), subsequent expansion of the U.S.A. (i.e., coloniza tion), the impact of colonization on indigenous peoples (i.e., Indian Treaties, The 1877 Flight of the Nez Perce, The Navajo Long Walk, and the Cherokee Trail of Tears), the meaning of culture, how stories reveal culture, and how sharing stories can promote deeper understanding and compassion for ourselves and others.
