“Tell Clyfford I Said ‘Hi’”: An Exhibition Curated by Children of the Colville Confederated Tribes

Curated by children of the Colville Confederated Tribes, Bailey Placzek, and Nicole Cromartie

“Tell Clyfford I Said ‘Hi’”: An Exhibition Curated by Children of the Colville Confederated Tribes is a collaborative exhibition co-curated with youth from the Colville Confederated Tribes in Washington State. It highlights the perspectives of Colville children on Clyfford Still’s depictions of their ancestors and their home, as well as his abstract works. Installed in all nine of the Museum’s galleries, this exhibition investigates six themes identified by our co-curators: Family & Culture, Connection, Imagination, the Outside, Love, and Paint & Color.

Clyfford Still Museum’s curatorial and education staff worked with young children (ages three years to fourteen years old) and teachers from partner schools and childcare centers on the Colville Confederated Tribes Reservation on every level of the exhibition, including artwork selection and arrangement, object interpretation and gallery text, and interactive space.

This exhibition continues CSM’s efforts to foster engagement with its collections by sharing authority on Still’s work with the Museum’s critical communities and is an occasion to bridge various gaps—physical, cultural, metaphorical—that exist between Indigenous communities and the traditional art museum space.

About the Exhibition

Exhibition Background Development

While working as an instructor at the Washington State College Fine Arts Department, Clyfford Still assisted in founding a summer art colony for WSC community members and became one of its first instructors in the summers of 1937 and 1938. Instructors held classes in Nespelem on the Colville Reservation and Toppenish on the Yakama Indian Reservation in Washington. The Clyfford Still Museum collections include three paintings on canvas, over 85 drawings and sketches on paper, nearly 20 documentary photographs, and other archival ephemera documenting Still’s time in the area. These objects reveal how Still’s experiences with the Colville community profoundly impacted his work for years.

While culturally distinct and diverse, the twelve bands of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation—Chelan, Chief Joseph Band of Nez Perce, Colville, Entiat, Lakes, Methow, Moses-Columbia, Nespelem, Okanogan, Palus, San Poil, and Wenatchi—share cultural practices and 1.4 million acres of land. Though CSM has focused past exhibitions and programs on Still’s work from Nespelem since 2013, this exhibition seeks to extend and deepen CSM’s relationship with the Colville Tribal community.

Co-curated with children in the Colville Confederated Tribes in northeastern Washington, this exhibition explores Clyfford Still’s work through the perspectives of children, some of whom are direct descendants of individuals Still portrayed in his art. “Tell Clyfford I Said ‘Hi'” centers young Indigenous voices by engaging them to collaboratively develop an exhibition that builds upon previous evaluation, research, and CSM exhibitions, including Clyfford Still: The Colville Reservation and Beyond, 1934–1939 (2015), Clyfford Still, Art, and the Young Mind (2022), and You Select: A Community-Curated Exhibition (2022). Extending successful strategies for co-curation with children established in Young Mind’s development, we turn our focus now to deepening that engagement. Like Young Mind, “Tell Clyfford I Said ‘Hi'” prioritizes the exhibition’s development process and engages co-curators in artwork selection, interpretation, and design. This time, however, co-curators also contribute to the conception of the exhibition’s general theme(s) to amplify our collaborators’ vision and address the questions most relevant to their lives. In so doing, Still’s artworks—depicting their home, family, and everyday life, as well as Still’s larger, abstract canvas works—become refracted through their experience.

Exhibition Special Features

Discover more about the exhibition with the free mobile guide online or through the Bloomberg Connects app. While exploring the galleries, look for the QR codes on the walls to access the content, which begins with a welcome and introduction from the Colville children curators and the exhibition’s organizers. Additional content includes videos and audio featuring the co-curators, tribal leaders, images from visits to the Colville Reservation, behind-the-scenes development of the interactive experience, and more.

In addition to the videos and audio content in the digital guide, the Museum will feature several videos throughout the gallery level during the exhibition.

The exhibition will also feature a hands-on interactive Weaving Wall experience developed by the co-curators and artist Carly Feddersen. The experience is inspired by Feddersen’s weaving techniques and the colors Clyfford Still used to paint PH-796, which co-curator Kloey likened to a woven blanket.

Exhibition Goals

This project acts on the shared desire of leaders of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and CSM staff to bring youth perspectives to bear in museum practices.

Curatorial Partners

– Nespelem School, Nespelem, WA (three classrooms: 4th, 6th, and 7th grades)
– Colville Head Start, Nespelem, WA (three classrooms, ages 3–5)
– Gathered Hearts Montessori, Omak, WA (one classroom, ages 6–12)

Limited funds are available to support travel to Denver for co-curators’ families. We encourage co-curator families interested in attending the opening celebration to fill out the interest form. Are you a Colville community member interested in traveling to see the exhibition? Hotel discount codes are available throughout the run of the show. Please contact ajohnson@clyffordstillmuseum.org with any questions or for more information.

Thank you to our partners who will make this exhibition possible.

School Partners:

Supported by:

The Jay Pritzker Foundation ‘