WELCOME
The new structure itself is a work of art. The 7,300-square-foot facility was designed by MRV Architects, a Juneau-based design firm. The building features indirect lighting, custom-built wood trusses, and windows designed to frame the Chilkat range off in the distance.
The furniture was custom designed and built by local residents John Carlson and Gordon Whitermore.
Go into the Children’s Room and look at the carpet. Can you see the sun and moon?
HAINES BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY 2002
FRONT ENTRANCE
The four carved cedar panels are dedicated to the seekers of knowledge. The two panels at the top honor the two Tlingit clans of the Chilkat Valley: Raven on the right and Eagle on the left. The symbols also can represent the two cultures that co-exist here, Native and non-native.
The lower panels represent a copper piece, or tinah, commonly known as a money piece, split in half to utilize the two spaces. The tinah is thought to have started as a breast shield for traditional armor but, as the armor became obsolete and copper became readily available, the shape gained importance as a sign of wealth. The tinah shape is used here as a symbol of cultural wealth, which the Library protects.
The two large faces represent male, right, and female, left. The bentwood boxes symbolize “boxes of knowledge,” or the books in the library. The dragonfly on top of the box signifies “the Dragonfly Project,” a local program that engages young people to provide technology education to people of all ages. At the heart of the panels is a human figure with large U-shaped ears and wide spread hands: This is the Seeker of Knowledge.
Heaton is an area carver who works in the Tlingit style. He is prolific in both Haines and Klukwan, running programs to teach new carvers.
KNOWLEDGE SEEKERS art panels by Jim Heaton, 2003
CIRCULATION DESK
Linda Axsom lives in Haines. She donated these quilts to the library.
WILD ALASKA SALMON by Linda Axsom, 2009
SUMMER TIME IN ALASKA by Linda Axsom, 2009
CHILDRENS ROOM
These murals of well-known classic and modern children’s book illustrations were designed by Haines artist Tim Shields, and are an on-going project. They have been painted in stages throughout the past decade by grade-school students under Shields’ supervision.
MURALS by Tim Shields and young artists
WATER FOUNTAIN
This piece was commissioned by JoAnn Ross-Cunningham to memorialize her father, who passed away in 2003. The two geese represent her father and mother, and the goslings represent herself and her two siblings.
Kerry Cohen is a self-taught ceramic artist who has been working in Haines since 1983. Her mosaics are composed of individually handmade, hand-carved tiles.
GUIDING OUR WAY tile mural by Kerry Cohen, 2005
INTERNET STATION
This piece was funded by a grant from the Rasmuson Foundation. It depicts a soul catcher, a shaman’s amulet used to hold the spirit of a patient during healing.
Seven major donors, each honored for a contribution of $25,000, are represented by seven pairs of hands, deeply cut in glass along the top. Their names are etched along the lower edge. The central face and hands, and both figures “in the mouths,” were carved in wood and then cast in glass. The remainder of the piece is carved in yellow cedar, and the entire piece is backlit with polychrome neon.
David Svenson carved at Alaska Indian Arts (AIA) here in Haines in the 1970s and 80s, and has been incorporating neon in his art since the 80s. This piece came about shortly after artists at AIA collaborated with the Washington-based Pilchuck Glass School and began experimenting with glass in their own projects.
Hagen is a Haines-area artist who carves in the Tlingit style. He started to carve in the 1960s while in high school and continues to do so with Alaska Indian Arts, the place where he learned to carve. He trained as a jeweler with Ronald Senungetuk in Nome and Fairbanks, and has jewelry in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian as well as carvings in museums and collections across the country.
HELPING HANDS: SEVEN DONORS SOUL CATCHER by David Svenson and John Hagen, 2005
ENTRANCE TO READING/COMMUNITY ROOMS
This piece was created as a memorial to Ellen Borders, a beloved librarian at the Haines Library who passed away unexpectedly in 2011. Borders was with the library for 31 years, 20 of those as Head of Collections. The book and tulips in the piece reflect her love of reading and gardening.
ELLEN BORDERS PLAQUE by Kerry Cohen, 2011
READING ROOM
WILD IRIS by Kerry Cohen, 2002
COMMUNITY ROOM
These two tile mosaic installations honor donors of the library. Artist Kerry Cohen took special care in making sure the depicted flowers were anatomically correct and were placed in their native environment. The irises in swampy land and the columbines in rocky terrain.
COLUMBINES by Kerry Cohen, 2002
MUSIC COLLECTION
Gil Smith painted approximately 3,000 images of local landscapes and has been called the preeminent landscape artist of the Chilkat Valley. The painting on the right, of the road scene, is done in watercolor.
The painting on the left, inscribed “In memory of Tony Spadaro and his love for Alaska” is oil on board and honors a friend who was killed in an avalanche near Sullivan Island in 1983.
Smith was born in 1911 in Jacksonville, Illinois, and first arrived in Haines (from Skagway, via kayak) in 1940. He left Haines in 1988 aster a stroke left him partially paralyzed, and dies in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 2000. His obituary in the Chilkat Valley News described him as “one of the major Alaskan artists of the day.”
TWO UNTITLED LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS by Gil Smith
ENTRANCE TO THE STACKS
This encaustic wax piece was donated by Bud Barber in memory of his late wife Alexandra Feit. She was an active supporter and long-time volunteer for the library.
OUT OF BLUE SKY by Alexandra Feit
COMMUNITY ROOM
FREDERICK THE LITERATE by William Broste
This needlepoint work was inspired by an original artwork by Charles Wysocki.
TOTEM POLE PARK
Dreamcatchers Totem Pole Project design was created by Master Carver Jim Heaton and a crew of student carvers to tell the story of the library through the use of traditional and contemporary design. The totem was carved from a 800 year old yellow cedar log.
Design components (from the bottom up):
The base has Two Rows of Rope Carving to show that the library helps bind our community together. A Crouching Female Figure represents the start of the Haines Borough Public Library by the Haines Women’s Club and the organization’s continuing involvement and support of the library.
The woman is presenting the Chilkat Valley with the Box of Knowledge (from the Tlingit song “Now we open the Box of Knowledge”). The box will be constructed separately and bolted to the figure. It is a time capsule: The entire community had the opportunity to contribute “letters to the future,” now sealed in the box and awaiting reopening in 2034.
Raven in profile on one side, Eagle in profile on the other side. These represent the people of the valley with the Human Figure (holding a book titled “Totem Carving for Dummies:) in between representing the patrons of the library.
Three Tinahs, or copper money pieces (one in the middle and one on each side) represent the cultural wealth which the library protects. They also signify the three incarnations (buildings) the library has had.
A carved Chilkat blanket represents the Chilkat Valley.
The Dragonfly represents the Dragonfly Project, the first partnership project between the Chilkoot Indian Association and the Haines Borough Public Library, with funding assistance by the Institute of Museum and Library services. The Dragonfly also traditionally represents a seeker of knowledge.
The Bear, Raven, Frog, Woodworm, Wolf, Salmon, Whale’s Tale and Eagle at the top represent the clans of each of the carvers.
DREAMCATCHERS by Jim Heaton, 2009