National Gallery of Canada

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada

In 2010, Salish Weave donated nine serigraphs by Susan Point to the National Gallery of Canada. The curators of Indigenous Art applied to the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board, a first experience for Salish Weave. The Board determined that the serigraphs met the criteria of “outstanding significance and national importance” as set out in the Cultural Property Export and Import Act. We were delighted that serigraphs by Susan Point, the leading Coast Salish artist, were certified as cultural property.

In 2016, as part of our succession plan initiative, we donated 58 pieces to the National Gallery: 18 original works – sculptures and paintings – and 40 serigraphs. Among them is Susan Point’s Salish Weave, the signature piece after which the Salish Weave Collection was named. The nature of this largest-ever donation of art from Salish Weave prompted the gallery’s Indigenous Art senior curator to apply to the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board. The Board members deemed this collection of works to be of “outstanding significance and national importance” and a Cultural Property Certificate was issued to the National Gallery of Canada. Salish Weave is proud that these contemporary Coast Salish pieces joined those of the Museum of Anthropology and the Legacy Art Galleries collections as part of Canada’s Heritage.

Two of these works, Salish Weave and The Circle Within are featured in People Among the People: The Public Art of Susan Point, a book authored by Robert D. Watt, and published by Figure 1 Publishing and MOA (Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia) in 2019.