Grand Opening Ceremony
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WALTER SOBOLEFF BUILDING GRAND OPENING CEREMONY MAY 15, 2015 JUNEAU, ALASKA WWW.SEALASKAHERITAGE.ORG #SOBOLEFFBUILDING WALTER SOBOLEFF BUILDING This commemorative program is dedicated to past Chairs of Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Board of Trustees and Council of Traditional Scholars who have Walked Into The Forest. We are grateful for their vision and leadership in guiding Sealaska Heritage from the institute’s inception to the present day: Judson Brown Former Chair, Board of Trustees Walter Soboleff Former Chair, Board of Trustees and Council of Traditional Scholars Clarence Jackson Former Chair, Council of Traditional Scholars WATCH GRAND OPENING LIVE @ WWW.SEALASKAHERITAGE.ORG | #SOBOLEFFBUILDING MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT he construction of The building has surpassed the Walter Soboleff my dreams. It is more than TBuilding—our Box of a building. It is itself a work Knowledge—has been a of art and testimony to our dream of ours for a very long cultural survival. It has the time. We began raising funds state’s largest installation for this project in earnest of Tlingit, Haida, and a few years ago and broke Tsimshian pieces made by ground in late 2013. By the some of the most important end of 2014, our staff at Native artists of our time. Sealaska Heritage Institute It has a hand-adzed cedar had moved into the second clan house modeled after story while work on the rest traditional clan houses, of the floors continued. complete with a “fire pit” and diminutive entry. It has I am profoundly grateful a public exhibits space where to the many donors and Native people will tell the old friends who helped Native story. It has space for us on this journey and to artists, researchers, scholars, the new friends we made collections, workshops, along the way. Our project lectures, and a Native art caught the attention of large store. From the basketry foundations in Alaska and SHI PRESIDENT ROSITA KAA.HÁNI WORL. patterns in the tile work Judson Brown across the country and they to the copper accents and Former Chair, Board of Trustees came through in a big way. The curved wall that echoes an ovoid, you see pieces of U.S. Congress, the State of Alaska and the City and Native culture rippling through. The architectural Borough of Juneau appropriated millions of dollars design of the building reflects our ancient culture Walter Soboleff for this facility. Sealaska and other businesses and and art, yet it demonstrates our movement into the Former Chair, Board of Trustees and Council of Traditional Scholars organizations came forward to build with us. And future but fully grounded in our cultural values. I will never forget the artists and art collectors who Clarence Jackson made our first Tináa Art Auction such a success last And here we are, at long last, unveiling the Walter Former Chair, Council of Traditional Scholars year. Because of their generosity, we raised more than Soboleff Building. A place where the Tlingit, Haida $300,000 for the building. and Tsimshian cultures will come alive. A place for Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people. It underscores So many individuals made donations, and we have our initial effort in making Juneau and Southeast been humbled by their support. One of the most Alaska the Northwest Coast art capital of the world. moving donations came from a destitute man who approached me, pulled a dollar from his pocket, and It’s also a place for the public. We welcome you. We said he wanted to donate it for the new building. He want you here. And we thank you. We are forever was the first individual to donate—what may have grateful to you for supporting the Walter Soboleff been his only dollar—to the facility. I can’t tell that Building and for taking this journey with us. story without tearing up. —Rosita Kaa.háni Worl WATCH GRAND OPENING LIVE @ WWW.SEALASKAHERITAGE.ORG | #SOBOLEFFBUILDING THE ROAD TO THE WALTER SOBOLEFF BUILDING he idea to build a Tlingit, culture. We began to grow by institute for the new building. THaida, and Tsimshian leaps and bounds, sometimes Sealaska first enhanced it with cultural and research center was having two people to a desk, and landscaping so it wouldn’t be an conceived in the 1990s. Staff at we recognized that we needed a eyesore in the community during Sealaska Heritage Institute spent new home to do our work. The the fundraising drive. years developing the concept only question left was where to and talking to policy makers and build. Shortly after, the institute set a potential funders about the best fundraising goal of $20 million to approach to moving forward. Then in 2004, the Skinner building the facility and launched Building in downtown Juneau a fundraising campaign. A study Prior to raising funds, we knew burned to the ground. Situated by the McDowell Group found we had to demonstrate publicly directly across from Sealaska strong support in Juneau for that our cultural programs were Plaza and in the heart of the Sealaska Heritage Institute and for sound and that we had a solid tourist district, the site offered an a new cultural center. reputation in the field. In the optimal location for the building. late 1990s, the Board of Trustees The lot sat idle for several years. In 2010, SHI embarked on a moved to transform the institute Overgrown with weeds and three-tiered process to select an from a focus on “preservation” of surrounded by an unsightly fence, architect that involved Sealaska, our language and culture to one it was infamously known in the Central Council of the of “restoration and enhancement.” Juneau as “The Pit.” Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes The objective was to integrate of Alaska, the Tlingit and Haida our language and culture into SHI began speaking publicly Regional Housing Authority, institutions serving Native about its intentions to build the Alaska Native Brotherhood Peoples and to further promote a cultural center in 2005. In and Alaska Native Sisterhood, cross cultural understanding— 2010, Sealaska, which founded and SHI trustees and staff. The recognizing that our cultural the nonprofit Sealaska Heritage, winning designer was MRV survival was also dependent on purchased the lot with the Architects, which was tasked with people’s attitudes towards Native intention of donating it to the designing the building based on 2010: LOT PURCHASED AND 2013: STAFF AND ANS GRAND PRESIDENT AT CITY GARDEN INSTALLED. 2010: SHI HIRED MRV ARCHITECTS OF JUNEAU. HALL TO TESTIFY AGAINST VICTORIAN PROPOSAL. WALTER SOBOLEFF BUILDING | GRAND OPENING CEREMONY | SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE WATCH GRAND OPENING LIVE @ WWW.SEALASKAHERITAGE.ORG | #SOBOLEFFBUILDING the objective of recognizing our past and our path into the future. The Juneau firm had done restorative work on clan houses in the past and had even donated historical photos of clan house restorations to our archives years before. In May 2011, SHI’s longtime Board of Trustees Chair, Dr. Walter Soboleff, Walked into the Forest at the age of 102. During his EARLY SCHEMATIC OF THE WALTER SOBOLEFF BUILDING BY MRV ARCHITECTS. memorial, the institute announced the new building was located in Juneau’s historic project site from the historic would be named for him. (See district, which requires property district, thereby allowing the “The Legacy of Dr. Walter owners to adhere to a Victorian- building to retain the look called Soboleff”) era design. SHI had to challenge a for in the design. proposal put forth by a historical Also in 2011, MRV Architects commission that would have By 2013, the institute had raised unveiled the design for the required the institute to use most of the $20 million needed building, which was to be clad in Victorian-era materials, such as to construct the Walter Soboleff yellow cedar and modeled after a beadboard, on the building in lieu Building. SHI hired Dawson traditional clan house. The design of yellow cedar. Construction, and in August of even included a clan house inside that year we broke ground. the building complete with cedar Ironically, the oldest architectural walls, tiers and a “fire pit” in the style in the region was not The construction phase lasted center—much as you would have acceptable under the rules from late 2013 to Spring of 2015, seen in old cedar clan houses governing the aesthetics of the and the institute’s staff moved into many years ago. historic district! the second story in December of 2014 while work on the rest of But the design led to some hitches Juneau’s assembly fixed this the floors continued. along the way. The project site conundrum by removing the 2013: STAFF AND ANS GRAND PRESIDENT AT CITY HALL TO TESTIFY AGAINST VICTORIAN PROPOSAL. 2013: GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY. 2013: STAFF ONSITE WITH DAWSON CONSTRUCTION. 2014: STAFF MOVING IN. WALTER SOBOLEFF BUILDING | GRAND OPENING CEREMONY | SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE WATCH GRAND OPENING LIVE @ WWW.SEALASKAHERITAGE.ORG | #SOBOLEFFBUILDING THE LEGACY OF DR. WALTER SOBOLEFF he building is named for traditional Native values, especially TKaajaakwti (Dr. Walter A. Haa Shuká—honoring our past Soboleff), a Tlingit of the Yéil while preparing a better future for (Raven) moiety, L’eeneidí (Dog our children’s children. Salmon) clan. He was born in the Tlingit village of Killisnoo in 1908. He cherished his non-Native In May 2011, Dr. Soboleff “Walked friends as well and belonged to Into The Forest” at age 102, but his many civic organizations. He was accomplishments and people whose the first pastor in Juneau to open lives he touched live on. his church to all people—Natives and non Natives—at a time when He was a wise man who was dear segregation was the norm.