Wayne Price is the Rasmuson Foundation’s 2020 Distinguished Artist. The annual award goes to one Alaskan artist and recognizes a lifetime of creative excellence. (Courtesy Photo | Rasmuson Foundation)

Wayne Price is the Rasmuson Foundation’s 2020 Distinguished Artist. The annual award goes to one Alaskan artist and recognizes a lifetime of creative excellence. (Courtesy Photo | Rasmuson Foundation)

Southeast artist wins major award

He’s a Tlingit master carver, UAS instructor and his work can be seen around Juneau.

Fifty years of artistic endeavor are being recognized with a prestigious award and sizable monetary prize.

Tlingit master carver Wayne Price, who is an associate professor of Northwest Coast arts for University of Alaska Southeast, is this year’s winner of the Rasmuson Foundation’s Distinguished Artist Award. The annual award recognizes lifetime achievement in the arts and comes with $40,000.

“I’m very honored to have received such a prestigious award and to be recognized as an artist for the work that I do and the art that I do,” Price said in a phone interview. “What a great honor. It’s a good testament to the art that has never let my people down.”

Price said the honor came as a total surprise.

“It came with a phone call, and it knocked me off the chair,” Price said. “I had no idea, actually, and a wonderful surprise it was. I’ve heard of other people receiving it, but I had no idea I was a candidate.”

He thanked his wife, Cherri, for her support and the Rasmuson Foundation for the recognition and financial support.

Price, 62, said he began carving when he was 12 years old. In the past he has been open about the healing role art has played in his life and how it helped him in his recovery journey and to maintain sobriety.

He has spread that healing message over the years with multiple healing totem poles and dugout canoes that have addressed topics including boarding school atrocities committed against Alaska Natives, misuse of alcohol and drugs and gender-based violence.

[Tlingit master carver makes healing totem for AWARE]

“It’s been there through all the hard times,” Price said of art. “And we’re going to get through this hard time as well.”

Some of his most visible works include totem poles at Thunder Mountain High School and Tlingit & Haida Vocational Technical School, house posts for the U.S. Forest Service building in Auke Bay, items in the collections of the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage and Denali National Park Visitor Center, etched formline glass panels in downtown Juneau and traditional texture adzing on clan house walls at the Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff building.

This paddle is one of Wayne Price’s ongoing projects. Price, an award-winning artist and associate professor for University of Alaska Southeast, said he’s looking forward to spending some time paddling on the water once the ongoing pandemic calms down. (Courtesy Photo | Wayne Price)

This paddle is one of Wayne Price’s ongoing projects. Price, an award-winning artist and associate professor for University of Alaska Southeast, said he’s looking forward to spending some time paddling on the water once the ongoing pandemic calms down. (Courtesy Photo | Wayne Price)

“Wayne Price represents the best of Alaska art and artist,” said Diane Kaplan, Rasmuson Foundation president and CEO in a release. “He’s preserved and replicated traditional Tlingit art with remarkable attention to detail. He creates his own designs in mediums from cedar to silver. And he is a mentor to the young, teaching ways to sobriety and good health. Build a canoe with Wayne and you’ll not only learn to carve, your life will be forever changed. We are so proud to honor Wayne.”

Price, who is currently in Haines where he grew up, said he continues to work as both an artist and academic instructor despite being stuck in one place as a result of the ongoing pandemic.

[Going home in a 40-foot spruce canoe]

“I have some paddles I’m working on,” Price said. “I’m also in pics and texts with all my students of this past semester. I may be here, but I’m still very involved with everybody’s projects.”

Price said he intends to continue teaching and working.

“Oh yes,” he said. “It’s the artwork that got me here. It’s the artwork that I love. I’m going to continue doing it, and I’m going to continue to teach.”

• Contact Ben Hohenstatt at (907)308-4895 or bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenHohenstatt

More in News

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Aurora forecast through the week of Dec. 22

These forecasts are courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute… Continue reading

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, Dec. 18, 2024. The Senate passed bipartisan legislation early Saturday that would give full Social Security benefits to a group of public sector retirees who currently receive them at a reduced level, sending the bill to President JOE Biden. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)
Congress OKs full Social Security benefits for public sector retirees, including 15,000 in Alaska

Biden expected to sign bill that eliminates government pension offset from benefits.

Pauline Plumb and Penny Saddler carry vegetables grown by fellow gardeners during the 29th Annual Juneau Community Garden Harvest Fair on Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
Dunleavy says he plans to reestablish state Department of Agriculture via executive order

Demoted to division status after statehood, governor says revival will improve food production policies.

Alan Steffert, a project engineer for the City and Borough of Juneau, explains alternatives considered when assessing infrastructure improvements including utilities upgrades during a meeting to discuss a proposed fee increase Thursday night at Thunder Mountain Middle School. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Hike of more than 60% in water rates, 80% in sewer over next five years proposed by CBJ utilities

Increase needed due to rates not keeping up with inflation, officials say; Assembly will need to OK plan.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy and President-elect Donald Trump (left) will be working as chief executives at opposite ends of the U.S. next year, a face constructed of rocks on Sandy Beach is seen among snow in November (center), and KINY’s prize patrol van (right) flashes its colors outside the station this summer. (Photos, from left to right, from Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office, Elliot Welch via Juneau Parks and Recreation, and Mark Sabbatini via the Juneau Empire)
Juneau’s 10 strangest news stories of 2024

Governor’s captivating journey to nowhere, woman who won’t leave the beach among those making waves.

Police calls for Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

The U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. Funding for the federal government will lapse at 8:01 p.m. Alaska time on Friday if no deal is reached. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)
A federal government shutdown may begin tonight. Here’s what may happen.

TSA will still screen holiday travelers, military will work without paychecks; food stamps may lapse.

The cover image from Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s “Alaska Priorities For Federal Transition” report. (Office of the Governor)
Loch Ness ducks or ‘vampire grebes’? Alaska governor report for Trump comes with AI hallucinations

A ChatGPT-generated image of Alaska included some strange-looking waterfowl.

Bartlett Regional Hospital, along with Juneau’s police and fire departments, are partnering in a new behavioral health crisis response program announced Thursday. (Bartlett Regional Hospital photo)
New local behavioral health crisis program using hospital, fire and police officials debuts

Mobile crisis team of responders forms five months after hospital ends crisis stabilization program.

Most Read