The Haines Sheldon Museum last week received a donated collection staff say is the largest addition to the museum in decades.
The 24 art pieces and artifacts came from the late Donna Willard-Jones of Anchorage, many of them returning to their original home in the Chilkat Valley, including a totem by master carver Edwin Kasko and a blanket designed by Nathan Jackson and worn by Willard-Jones on a Chilkat Dancers’ international tour – two items museum staff said are highlights of the new collection. No formal assessment has been done on the value of the donation, but museum director Brandon Wilks estimated that based on valuations of existing pieces in the museum collection, the new intake could be worth up to $100,000.
The price tag speaks to the quality and quantity of the new art, but Wilks said that as a research and education-focused nonprofit, the value to the museum lies in its ability to fill gaps in the story of the region’s history. Wilks specifically pointed to the museum’s Alaska Indian Arts section, which currently includes a number of temporarily borrowed items.
“This new collection allows us to have a robust record of that time period, where the art of the Chilkat Valley almost disappeared, but these artists were able to bring it back for future generations,” said Wilks.
Though some of the pieces were purchased by Willard-Jones later in life during a career as an accomplished lawyer, others came from her time in the Chilkat Valley, where she spent her young adulthood. Willard-Jones was a Chilkat Dancer, and the museum’s archival photographs show Willard-Jones, and then-husband Wes Willard, in the Chilkat Valley, wearing regalia now in the collection.
Willard-Jones’ longtime friend and executor Mildred Link said that regional connection was the reason she decided to send the art to the Sheldon Museum. “These were all things that had begun their lives in [the Chilkat Valley],” Link said, adding that private collectors were coming to view the items right when she got in touch with Wilks. “Looking back on it, I’m so glad they ended up where they did.”
Wilks said he was proud to receive the donation, considering interest from other museums like the Anchorage Museum.
“Those museums would’ve taken great care of [the collection], but they are overflowing with art and artifacts already,” Wilks said. “These are artists that were really integral [to the Chilkat Valley]. Luckily, everyone was really cooperative.”
Wilks said one of his hopes was that the new collection would inspire artists, and future generations of artists in the area. Haines artist James G̱ooch Éesh Hart said he hadn’t heard of the new donation, but said in general, displaying work in a museum can be beneficial in opening up access to the work. Hart, however, also encouraged museums and donors responsible for Lingít art to reach out to tribes and tribal citizens.
“When reaching out to the tribe you’re connecting with people who have direct relationships or are family members and can help facilitate what the intended purpose is from the donor,” Hart said. “We can provide avenues to reconnect folks with lost relatives’ pieces, or help house pieces so future generations can reconnect with loved ones from the past.”
The public will start seeing new pieces in the museum’s main gallery over the course of the next year. Before that happens, pieces have to be unpackaged, photographed, numbered, entered into a database, and then stored properly. That’s the domain of museum archivist and collections manager Makayla Meyers, who is currently working full-time on the intake.
“We want to store them in a way that many generations can be inspired by them,” said Meyers. “My goal is to make them last forever.”
Meyers and Wilks both emphasized that the full museum collection is available to the public, even the items not on display in the main gallery. With an appointment, anyone can go to the museum’s basement storage and archives to do research or learn history, as they would in the upstairs gallery.
“We get lots of research requests, year round,” Wilks said. “We get people looking for old friends from the ‘60s, people trying to find an old sweetheart, people looking for information saying, ‘my family was from the area, I live in Vermont.’ Anytime you want to come in here, it’s open.”