General Info:
In May 2015, Sealaska Heritage Institute opened the Walter Soboleff Building—our Box of Knowledge. This cultural and research center is dedicated to the sharing and study of the ancient Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. It is owned and operated by Sealaska Heritage Institute, a Native American nonprofit conceived by clan leaders, traditional scholars, and elders and founded in 1980. Its mission is to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures. The institute has been on the forefront of documenting and revitalizing endangered languages and cultural traditions and pioneering programs that promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding. The facility is a special place for Southeast Alaskan Natives, and a place where everyone--Native and non-Native alike--can feel welcome and learn something about their heritage. The Soboleff building is like a traditional bentwood box in that it holds our at.oowu--our treasures. In addition to housing our administrative offices, the building contains our climate-controlled archives, our classrooms, the Sealaska Store and our public exhibit, which we call out True Southeast experience. A work of art in its own right, the building contains space for art demonstrations and exhibits, as well as a traditional clan house clad in hand-adzed cedar. It features large-scale work by some of the best artists of our time. Each tribe is represented in monumental art, which includes the installation “Greatest Echo,” huge formline panels on the exterior by the Haida master artist Robert Davidson; an enormous painted-and-carved house front in the entry by Tsimshian master artist David A. Boxley; and—in the clan house inside the building--the largest glass house screen in the world by Tlingit master artist Preston Singletary. The exterior awnings feature formline designs by Steve Brown, and the interior is clad in cedar that was hand adzed by the Tlingit master artist Wayne Price.