Unique cooperation between the State Art Collections Dresden and the U’mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay

Today, Saxony House in Vancouver was the chosen location for the signing of a contract for a cooperation that is currently unique in the world. The State Art Collections Dresden and the U’mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay are preparing a double exhibition on gift-giving customs ("The great Potlach – gift giving customs and economies of plenty").

In the course of the Olympic Games in Vancouver and in the presence of the Prime Minister of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich, Prof. Martin Roth, general director of the State Art Collections Dresden (SKD), and Bill Cranmer, Chief of the ‘Nam g is First Nation`, one of the Kwakwaka'wakw First Nations from Canada, have signed the cooperation agreement. "This cooperation is so important because it underlines once more a historic aspect of the Olympic Winter Games. For the first time the "First Nations" are joint hosts of the Games, their culture being the central motto and motive of the Olympics in Vancouver. With a joint project the State Art Collections Dresden, to which the ethnological collections belong as well, want to attempt a comparison of the superficially incomparable. Unique objects that represent the tradition of social and economic exchange of two different cultures will take center-stage", says the general director of the SKD, Martin Roth.

Dresden, July – September 2011:
„The Great Potlatch. Gift-Giving Customs and Economies of Plenty“
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Staatliche Ethnographische Sammlungen Sachsen

Museum U´mista, Alert Bay (Vancouver Island) July – September 2011:
“The Gift in the Center of Society and Identity”
U´mista Culture Centre, Alert Bay