Wayne Price was named the 2020 Distinguished Artist by the Rasmuson Foundation.
Wayne Price was honored Wednesday at the Rasmuson Foundations Distinguished Artist for 2020.
The annual award recognizes one Alaskan artist each year “for a lifetime of creative excellence and outstanding contribution to the state’s arts and culture.” Price was nominated last fall and a panel of Alaska artists and experts chose Price this spring. The award comes with a $40,000 prize.
“It was a big surprise when I did find out,” Price said when he found out several weeks ago. “I received a phone call and got knocked off my chair. It’s a great honor and I’m very humbled. What a wonderful surprise a person could have.”
Price’s dugout canoes, totems, masks and other carvings are displayed not only in Haines but across Southeast Alaska and the Yukon. For the past two years he’s taught Northwest Coast formline design classes along with beginning, intermediate and advanced carving at the University of Alaska Southeast.
“Wayne Price represents the best of Alaska art and artist. He’s preserved and replicated traditional Tlingit art with remarkable attention to detail,” Rasmuson Foundation president and CEO Diane Kaplan said. “He creates his own designs in mediums from cedar to silver. And he is a mentor to the young, teaching ways to sobriety and good health.”
Price grew up in Haines and learned how to carve at the Alaska Indian Arts in his teens. He worked alongside other Haines notables including John Hagen, Jenny Lyn Smith and Clifford Thomas. “I now own the home I learned to carve in,” Price said. “Talk about completing a circle.”
Price has carved 12 dugout canoes, two of which are at his home in Fort Seward. He restored 26 totem poles in Saxman, a village near Ketchikan, and a totem in Auke Bay that was carved with support of the old Civilian Conservation Corps. He also duplicated the Chief Shakes House posts in Wrangell.
Price has focused on reviving and continuing Northwest Coast art and traditional ocean-going canoes and treats the process of making traditional Tlingit art as a form of healing and spiritual sustenance.
Price has mentored whoever has expressed interest including locals Ted and James Hart, Zach James, Steven Price and others. James Hart said he took a paddle-making class six years ago, which helped propel Hart’s goal of making art for a living. After working with Price on other projects, he eventually traveled to Hoonah, along with James, to carve two 40-foot dugout canoes.
“He’s been a really good mentor,” Hart said. “He’s had an open-door policy and he’s willing to lend a hand with anyone with an interest in the art form, which is a special opportunity.”
The Rasmuson Foundation organized a virtual celebration on Wednesday.
“There’s a lot of healing medicine that can happen from doing art, learning the formline and putting a piece of artwork together,” Price said. “Art is one of those things that’s always been there for us. It’s always been there for me and it’s never let me down.”
Price is the first Distinguished Artist from Haines. He created the totem pole for the Sobeloff-McRae Veterans Village in 2017 and also orchestrated the canoe journey, a canoe which he carved for Celebration, a gathering of Southeast Alaska Native peoples in Juneau. He has multiple pieces on display in the Haines Sheldon Museum.