Future and present curators

Nespelem Elementary students examine printed portraits of Chief Willie Red Star Andrews, Mary Owhi Moses, and other tribal ancestors who sat for paintings in Nespelem in the late 1930s. The artist, Clyfford Still, was a painter and art professor at Washington State University (then Washington State College) who co-founded the "Nespelem Art Colony" for visiting artists from 1937-1940. Staff from the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver visited the Colville Reservation last week to engage 3rd, 5th and 6th graders as co-curators of an upcoming museum exhibit set to open in 2025. Nespelem students were invited to write and reflect on Still's sketches of local people and scenery, as well as his abstract expressionist paintings. – Clyfford Still Museum photo