LA JOLLA – A Native American visual storytelling tradition is on display at La Jolla Historical Society’s latest exhibit at Wisteria Cottage.
An opening reception was held on June 13 for the Kumeyaay Visual Storytelling Project, bringing local Native American traditions to life in a three-dimensional format. The exhibit continues now through Aug. 31 at Wisteria Cottage Gallery, 780 Prospect St.
The free exhibition invites viewers into the pages of the two-part graphic novel “Our Past, Present, and Future, and Beyond Gaming,” authored by tribal historians Ethan Banegas, Michael Connolly Miskwish, Lorraine Orosco and Stanley Rodriguez, and illustrated by John Swogger.
This latest exhibition shares regional history from a Kumeyaay perspective offering a unique immersive experience for visitors. It includes large-scale comic art, video interviews with the project team and opportunities for visitors to engage with Kumeyaay language and traditions, and even create their own comic strips.
The project is community-based, involving over 150 students from local schools who contributed textile art inspired by the comics.
Ethan Banegas, a San Diego State University professor, tribal historian and director behind the Kumeyaay Project, talked about what went into creating it. “It started for me with the oral histories of our elders,” he said, adding, “That’s how we tell and remember our stories.”
Banegas conducted 33 oral histories over a five-year period, forming the basis for the historical museum exhibit. He pointed out that the project was also an attempt by him to get back to his cultural roots. “As a Native American, I grew up in Western-style schools reading textbooks,” he noted. “But I wanted to learn about my own people.”
Learning about his people turned into Banegas’ introduction to Comic-Con and comics, which ultimately led to the Wisteria exhibit. Of the exhibit’s purpose, he said: “A lot of indigenous people throughout the world wanted to do this. For me I wanted to create a model for how to do it. We kind of created a model for how indigenous people of the world can share their stories through comics.”
The new museum exhibit will be interactive and entertaining, promised Banegas. “The audience will get to pick which of about six interviews they play at any specific time,” he said. “We tell the story of how the comic was made. It’s also interactive because people will be able to write and share their comics and interact with each other.”
This Kumeyaay exhibit at Wisteria Cottage replaces “La Jolla Surf: Culture, Art, Craft,” curated by John Durant, which explored La Jolla surfing history.
LJHS Celebrates the history and culture of the region through interdisciplinary programs, exhibitions and research that challenge expectations. Wisteria Cottage is a La Jolla landmark, originally built in 1904, that has served as a residence, a church (St. James by-the-Sea Episcopal Church), a school (Balmer School, precursor to La Jolla Country Day School) and a bookstore (Nexus Bookstore, then John Cole’s Book Store).
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Kumeyaay Visual Storytelling Project on exhibit at Wisteria Cottage )
Also on site :