Sunday, October 14, 2018

Murals and Public Art in Alert Bay


As we walked from the dock where the Sea Bird was moored to the U’mista Cultural Centre and then to the "Big House" for a dance performance, we enjoyed a wide variety of outdoor artwork in the small town of Alert Bay, B.C. We saw totem poles, wall paintings on the sides of houses and shops, wood carvings, and other decorations, including murals that were more like graffiti in modern cities than like tribal art.
















The "Big House" where over 1000 people can watch ceremonies such as 21st century potlatches. We were here for
a dance performance presented to the Sea Bird passengers and a group of school children. (Blogged HERE). A few days
after our visit. the Big House was to host a very large potlatch for tribal residents of the entire area.

13 comments:

Debbie at Travel with Intent said...

Quite a variety of colourful art!

Tom said...

...I love the totems and the First Nation art, beautiful.

Sami said...

Great wood carvings and variety of murals too.
Thanks for participating Mae.

Jackie McGuinness said...

B.C. had some great murals when we were there last year. YOu caught some good ones.

Iris Flavia said...

I have again troubles deciding a favorite - glad I don´t have to :-)

Tina said...

Another place to put on my travel wish, I like seeing where you travel. Great art.

Thank you very much for the kind thoughts about us and the evacuation and all of it. We finally got home. Lots of limbs, trees and debris but our house is fine. Still no electricity. Hoping to do a blog post before going home to a dark house.

Small City Scenes said...

I love the art of the Coastal natives. Always the story tellers
MB

kwarkito said...


all these photos of totem poles and wood carved with Indian murals are fascinating, and it's beautiful to see how tradition continues in modernity, and proves that these cultures are still alive despite everything they have been through

Pam said...

Interesting, but this sort of stuff kind of freaks me out for some reason. They really put a variety of colors to use though.

RedPat said...

The place looks full of art! Wonderful!

Sherry's Pickings said...

i'm such a huge fan of public art - installations, sculptures and murals. we are lucky to have a lot of in south east queensland and other parts of australia. these look fabulous Mae. cheers sherry

Pam said...

Interesting thought on saying no to farm raised salmon. Lovely First nation art!

Linda said...

So interesting to see the art. It is different from the native people’s art in Virginia.