Artwork copyright Lawrence Ulaaq Ahvakana. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Artwork copyright Lawrence Ulaaq Ahvakana. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Young Drummer, 1986

Lawrence Ulaaq Ahvakana
American Iñupiat (born 1946)

Location: Samantha Smith Elementary, Sammamish

About the Artwork

Artist Lawrence Ahvakana created the sculpture Young Drummer in celebration of his Inupiat (Native Alaskan) heritage and the next generation of drummers and singers, who he describes as "caretakers of my people's history and cultural ways."

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Lake Washington School District.

About the Artist

Ahvakana spent his childhood in Barrow, Alaska, part of the Inuit Nation that spans from Siberia in Eastern Russia, to Greenland in Northwestern Europe. He states, "My first introduction to the Arts was watching my mother, who is a very competent skin sewer... The dances and songs of the Inupiaq tradition is the oral history of my people. It is the emotional interpretation of our respect and involvement within the environment of the North Slope of Alaska." Ahvakana earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture and Glass Arts from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1972. He is a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Cooper Union School of Art in New York City. He lived in Suquamish, Northwestern Washington, for many years, and is currently based in Alaska.