Native art exhibitions foster healing, land urgency, and community support
In observance of Native American Heritage Month, Eugene galleries and markets showcased Indigenous art on November 12, 2025, bringing together interactive installations, textile sculpture, and land focused work that addressed cultural continuity and environmental concerns. The displays matter to Lane County residents because they create spaces for community healing, elevate local Native artists, and highlight the social and public health connections between culture, land, and well being.
On November 12, 2025, several Eugene venues presented a range of Indigenous art that blended tradition, contemporary practice, and community engagement. Crescent Village’s Don Dexter Gallery, owned by Modoc leader Don Dexter, ran two concurrent shows that invited public participation and intimate reflection. The Wishing Tree Collection by Keith Atchepohl encouraged visitors to write intentions or blessings on prayer ties made from discarded canvas and fasten them to a line in the parking lot, a communal practice that foregrounded collective hope and reuse. In an adjacent gallery space, local psychotherapist Robin Grace exhibited unusual wall sculptures created by hand stitching silk thread into felted wool and melding the pieces with fine gauge wire, abstract forms shaped by a life lived in Southeast Alaska.
Don Dexter also served as curator for the Contemporary Indigenous Art Gallery at the Hult Center, which hosted G'EE'LA: Land and Creation by Ka'ila Farrell Smith. Farrell Smith’s works including Ghost in the Machine 019 combine traditional Klamath basket designs with contemporary elements such as graffiti and text, and use wild harvested Northern Paiute lithium topsoil to underscore the urgency of land issues. Those themes of ecological concern and cultural survival were echoed at the Karin Clarke Gallery where the Rick Bartow exhibit offered powerful reminders of regional ties. Bartow, a Wiyot artist born and raised near Newport, earned international recognition for vivid depictions of internal spirit animals like bears and coyotes that confront viewers with layered personal and communal histories.
For Lane County residents the exhibitions offer more than aesthetic experience. Art spaces functioning as sites of cultural affirmation can contribute to mental health by strengthening identity and social connection, particularly for Native people whose access to culturally responsive services is often limited. Economically, the Eugene Native American Arts and Crafts Makers market, held the first Sunday of every month at the Eugene Farmers Market Pavilion, provides direct income opportunities for Indigenous artists and crafts people while increasing public access to their work. Supporting these artists, through gallery attendance, purchases, and advocacy for inclusive arts funding, is a local policy priority with implications for social equity.
As November observances wind down, the shows and the monthly market leave a practical legacy. They model how arts programming, land stewardship, and community based commerce can intersect to advance cultural preservation, public health, and economic justice across Lane County.
