TLINGIT ARTIST JAMES “JIM” SCHOPPERT DIED
Born May 28, 1947, in Juneau, Alaska, Schoppert earned a Master’s in Fine Arts from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1981. He felt that Native artists should stretch beyond stereotypes. A member of the Washington State Arts Commission, Alaska State Council on the Arts, and Institute of Alaska Native Arts, he also taught visual arts at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Exhibitions included Anchorage Museum of History and Art; Alaska Native Arts and Crafts Gallery; and Marilyn Butler Fine Art Gallery. His works are in the Alaska State and Heard Museums. Honors include: Festival of Alaska Native Arts, first prize, ivory and juror’s choice awards (1976 and 1980); and outstanding Native American poet, Native American Center for the Living Arts (1985). In 1987, he created the Northwest design on the Interstate 90 tunnel. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian hosted Instrument of Change: Jim Schoppert Exhibition, 1947-1992, (1999-2000). He died in Ojai, California.
Source: Deloris Tarzan Ament, “Robert James Schoppert, 45, Used Tlingit Heritage in his Artwork,” The Seattle Times, 9/19/1992. Retrieved 7/12/2019, http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19920919&slug=1513875
Photo: Dludwig117, 8/19/2016. “Modern Mask” at SeaTac. Permissive use under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en