House Screen

The interior clan house features a spectacular glass screen flanked by two house posts made by Tlingit glass artist Preston Singletary. Singletary has become internationally celebrated for his innovative creations, which use a medium not known in pre-contact times.

Singletary’s piece is the largest glass screen in the world, measuring 17 feet wide and 12 feet high at its peak and rendered in carved, amber-and-black glass. The screen is flanked by two seven-foot glass posts depicting Eagle and Raven warriors. The institute requested that warriors be incorporated into the design because they symbolize the protectors of our land and culture. Native people in the region were historically formidable in war, but they also became combatants in political, legal, and educational battles, where they fought for land claims and civil rights.

Singletary’s installation was supported in part by an ArtPlace America grant, which included funds for apprentices to help create and install the screen. The mentor-apprentice approach was historically integral to Northwest Coast art, as it was the way knowledge was passed down. In modern times, this practice was almost lost, but Sealaska Heritage today is incorporating it into art programs operated through the institute.