FISHSKINLAB - Palomino, E. (2020) Fashion workshop in Anchorage. Smithsonian Institution National Museum of natural History. Arctic Studies Center Newsletter. May 2020. N.27.pp. 57-58

Palomino, E. (2020) Fashion workshop in Anchorage. Smithsonian Institution National Museum of natural History. Arctic Studies Center Newsletter. May 2020. N.27.pp. 57-58

The Fashion Workshop at the ASC Anchorage Museum on 17–18 July 2019, was part of my Fulbright UK-US scholar’s award to develop a research and educational project on indigenous Arctic fish skin clothing. The project explored cultural and ecological impacts on fashion, higher education, and the learning strategies for best promoting these skills. CIRI Foundation provided food and art materials for the participants, and the Arctic Studies Center provided matching funds from the First National Bank of Alaska to bring artist Coral Chernoff from Kodiak to attend the workshop. I am the Fashion Print pathway leader at Central Saint Martin’s University of the Arts in London and an experienced educator with visiting academic appointments at several international universities, museums, and galleries. Five Alaska Native artists took part in the workshop as well as two members of the staff from the Anchorage Museum. During the two-day fashion sketchbook workshop, students were taken through the process of collecting personal research from diverse and inspiring sources. They documented their responses through drawing, photography, and collage in order to create a unique sketchbook to help them with their personal creative practice. The workshop took place adjacent to the Arctic Studies Center exhibit Living our Cultures, Sharing our Heritage: The First Peoples of Alaska. Students had the unique chance to use imagery from the Smithsonian collections as part of their content research for their sketchbook, encouraging them to do further research on their own Alaskan Native culture.

https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/105306