Bunnell Street Arts Center welcomes Yup’ik artist, Amber Webb, as Artist in Residence from October 22 – November 5th. Webb will create new ink drawings which explore Yup’ik pictorial storytelling, participate in Quentin Simeon’s “Spill Your Ink,” and host a storytelling workshop.

Webb will join Yup’ik storyteller, Quentin Simeon, to tell stories about Yup’ik culture in a “Spill Your Ink” storytelling event on Saturday, October 28th at 7:30pm.

Webb will also host “Storyknife Symbols; A Storytelling Workshop” on November 1st, 5-8 pm. Workshop registration is prioritized to BIPOC, LGBTQ+ folx and limited to 15 participants. Registration inquiries info@bunnellarts.org

Artist Statement: So many of the stories Yup’ik people used to tell aren’t told anymore. When I learn a new story, more of who I am makes sense to me. More of the world makes sense to me, and helps me understand why I keep drawing certain things, like birds, or big ladies, or little people. I also learn why my grandparents did certain things. Those moments are really exciting and they make everything else come alive– like subsistence, how and where we go to get foods, and how we name places. We need to tell these stories to know who we are. Pictorial storytelling is an extension of that tradition.

Amber Webb is a Yup’ik artist/activist from Curyung/ Dillingham, Alaska. After graduating from UAA in 2013 with a BA in woven fibers and a minor in history, she worked industrial jobs while designing apparel featuring Yup’ik language in solidarity with language reclamation efforts. In 2018, she was awarded a Rasmuson Foundation Individual Project Award for a 12-ft. qaspeq to honor Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) in North America. Her work visually explores the effects of colonization and the evolution and strength of Indigenous people after genocide and intergenerational trauma through portraiture and textiles. She explores pictorial Yup’ik storytelling to communicate contemporary stories of oppression, historic trauma, resilience, humor, changing climate, motherhood, and resistance. Choggiung Ltd. named Amber Webb Shareholder citizen of the year. She has also been named Bristol Bay Native Corporation Citizen of the year and received the Walter Sobeleff Warrior of Light Award from Alaska Federation of Natives in 2019.