INUPIAQ ARTIST RONALD SENUNGETUK DIED
Born in 1933 in Kinigin, Alaska (AK), Ron attended high school in Sitka where he learned wood carving. At the School of American Craft, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), he studied both carving & furniture making. After Army service in the Korean war, Ron returned to RIT and began carving panels of traditionally-inspired subjects–animals, people, the ocean–in a contemporary expression. In 1960, after studying on a Fulbright scholarship in Norway, he taught metalsmithing at University of AK Fairbanks (UAF). In 1965, Ron became founding director of the UAF Native Arts Center and from 1977 until retiring in 1986, he headed its Arts Department. His work is in: Museum of the North, UAF; and at the Anchorage, State, and Pratt Museums. Ron was a founding member, AK State Council on the Arts (ASCA), in 2008. In 2014, he received the Distinguished Artist Award from the Rasmuson Foundation & a lifetime achievement award from ASCA. Senungetuk died in Homer, AK.
Source: Kathleen Gustafson, "Artist Ron Senungetuk dies at 87," www.kbbi.org. Retrieved 2/25/2021, Artist Ron Senungetuk dies at 87 | KBBI Photo: National Park Service, undated. Public Domain. Source: Ron Senungetuk: Alaskan Artist Remembered (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
Indigenous America Calendar 