Submitted by SJIMA

From tatoos to tennis shows, adornment has always communicated deep history and contemporary affiliations. Katie Bunn-Marcuse will present “Wearing Identity – Art and Adornment on the Northwest Coast,” at 2 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 20 at the San Juan Island Grange in Friday Harbor. It is sponsored by San Juan Islands Museum of Art.

The talk will explore the many ways identity has been expressed through adornment in the Pacific NW Coast for 200 years.

Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse, Ph.D., is the curator of NW Native art and director of the Bill Holm Center for the Study of NW Native Art Burke Museum, and assistant professor of art history at the University of Washington. She focuses on how artists are informed by the artistry of previous generations. She will more fully explain sentiments such as “For our people, what we wear is who we are. Our jewelry and our clothing represent where we come from. We wear our history,” by Jim Hart, Chief (Haida).

SJIMA has quality interpretive and educational programs accompanying its exhibitions, in this case, “Emergence Legendary & Emerging First Nation Artists,” is here until after Labor Day weekend.

Tickets are available at 540 Spring St. Thur.-Mon. 11-6, at www.sjima.org or at the door. Tickets are $18 for general admission, $15 for members and $10 students. Contact 370-5050 for questions.

Bunn-Marcuse’s publications focus on the indigenization of European-American imagery, 19th-century Northwest Coast jewelry and other body adornment, and the filmic history of the Kwakwaka’wakw. As well, she tracks the practices of contemporary artists and how they are informed by the artistry of previous generations. In her role as curator, she collaborates with First Nations communities and artists to identify research priorities and to activate the Burke Museum’s holdings in ways that are responsive to cultural revitalization efforts.