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Web site serves up truly authentic Alaska art

by Maria Downey, KTUU-TV

Oct. 22 - Is it authentic or something whipped up in a factory in China? It's a question asked by locals and tourists alike when buying Native art. Now there's a way to protect both the consumer and the artist and it can be found right at your fingertips.
    "We have different parkas and paintings, metal work, wood carvings, just a lot of different Native arts," says Loren Anderson, the public programs supervisor at the Alaska Native Heritage Center.
    And when you buy right from the artist, like at this exhibit at the Alaska Native Heritage Center, you have a pretty good idea it is, in fact, the real deal -- maybe not traditional but it is Native made.
    "With the contemporary pieces, you'll see that different mediums were used for our art. So it's not just ivory, bone, wood, furs, but it's other types as well," Anderson says.
    But not all consumers can buy right from the artist. So AlaskaNativeArtists.com was created to help both the consumer and the artist. The Web site is a way for the nonprofit Sealaska Heritage Institute to promote authentic Native art and a way to protect both the artist and the consumer.
    "I feel really badly about the consumer because when they go out shopping. They more often don't know anything about the art, and so when they see something that looks like it might be Native made, they buy it," says Rosita Worl, the president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute.
    And Worl says it's not only a disservice to the consumer, it's one to the true Native artists when cheaper imposters are sold in their place.
    "I actually have examples of that in my office," Worl says. "And some of them are actually pretty good. Except when you look at it you can see material wasn't made here, and then if they don't know all of the design rules, then they make mistakes. But to the uneducated eye it may look good, it may look authentic, but it's not Native art."
    And Worl says everything on the Web site is authentic Native art, from traditional masks to totem poles. So far 13 artists are on display and they've endured a thorough process where their heritage and their art has been authenticated. It's a way to weed out the frauds along with the costly middleman at high-priced tourist shops.
    "The price is going to be lower," Worl says. "Most of the money will go to the artist. We take a 20 percent overhead and that's just to cover the administrative costs of the Web site itself."
    A way to help the consumer own an authentic piece of Alaska culture while promoting that culture and its artwork across the globe -- the closest way to actually meeting a true Native artist face to face.