The partnership between the museum and Crow’s Shadow was formally established in 2010. Through this partnership, the museum provides scholarly access to the archive collection as well as public access via exhibition and the internet. Prints from this collection are on view in the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Gallery on the second floor of the museum.
Located in the historic Saint Andrew’s Mission schoolhouse on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts was founded in 1992 by Walla Walla artist James Lavadour, one of the Northwest’s most critically acclaimed painters. The institute’s mission is to provide educational, social and economic opportunities for Native Americans through artistic development. Crow’s Shadow sponsors instruction in both contemporary and traditional art forms, and serves emerging as well as established Native American artists. The institute provides a way for Native artists to connect with the mainstream art world, and offers non-Native program participants an avenue for cross-cultural understanding.
Crow’s Shadow houses a state-of-the-art printmaking facility and employs a master printmaker, Judith Baumann, trained at the prestigious Tamarind Institute in New Mexico. Every year, Native artists from within and beyond the Northwest participate in residencies at Crow’s Shadow.
