Department of Art
Explore Art in the North
Degrees offered through the Native Art program include:
The Native Art Program offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in Native Art studio practice. 51ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø is the only school in Alaska to offer a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Native Art and is only one of a few universities in the country to offer a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Native Arts. The studio is equipped with indigenous and contemporary carving tools. Areas of study include wood, ivory, stone and bone carving, woodblock printing, skin sewing, beadwork, basketry and mixed media. Courses offered include beginning, intermediate and advanced Native Art Studio classes each semester to approximately sixty students, many of which are Alaska Native.
In addition to studio course offerings, the Native Art Center serves as a clearinghouse for information and services on and about Alaska Native art, reaching both the University and Native community of Fairbanks and Alaska.
Each semester the Center strives to expose students to the diversity of Alaska Native arts by providing lectures, demonstrations, workshops and residencies by visiting Alaska Native artists. The Native Art Center also presents workshops off-site in coordination with statewide art and village-based programs. Faculty and staff also assist in coordination and development of special projects including exhibitions and conferences.
The Native Art Center has been in existence for over 50 years offering art studio courses, workshops with Native Artists and elders, and artists-in-residence programs including outstanding Yupik, Inupiaq, Athabascan, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Alutiiq and Aleut artists from throughout Alaska.
The Native Art Center was established in the 1965 under the direction of Ron Senungetuk who brought together Alaska Native artists from rural communities to study Alaska Native art at the 51ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø. Over the past forty years, the Center has evolved to become an academic-based program including courses in studio art and Native art history and special workshops and symposia on topics including mask making, bentwood traditions, basketry, sculpture and carving. For the past fourteen years, the Native Art Center has been directed by Alvin Amason, continuing the tradition of providing workshops and residencies in the studio, with Native elders and artists from throughout Alaska. Mr Amason retired in 2008.
Da-ka-xeen The Thlinget Artist by Da-ka-xeen Mehner, Assistant professor in Native Arts
Your generous donations give the Native Art Center the opportunity to do some amazing things! Support art at 51ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø by donating below.
Bracelet
Mask
Bird
Figure 1
Jewelry
Figure
Carving
Embroidered shoes
Fine Arts Archive
Browse previous MFA and BFA thesis exhibitions at 51ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø
The studio is equipped with indigenous and contemporary carving tools.
Da-ka-xeen Mehner
Professor of Native Art, Current Department Chair
FINE ART 308
Da-ka-xeen Mehner (b. 1970) is a transdisciplinary artist whose work explores Indigenous identity, and equity and examines power structures through a lens of personal narrative. His work has been exhibited internationally and can be found in numerous public and private collections.
Da-ka-xeen received his A.A. from the Institute of American Indian Arts, and his B.F.A. from the University of New Mexico. From 1994-2000 Mehner served as the founder and director of Site 21/21, a contemporary art gallery in Albuquerque, NM, and was a founding member/owner of the (Fort) 105 Art Studios in downtown Albuquerque in 1998. Da-ka-xeen
