2025 Project Award

Reine Pavlik, a Tlingit artist, plans to create a culturally-rooted wearable art collection, emphasizing Indigenous resilience and innovation. She will use upcycled fabrics and traditional materials like sealskin, moose hide and sea otter, integrating Tlingit formline and patterns into items of contemporary clothing. As part of this process, Pavlik will interview elders, research archives and refine her technical sewing and design skills, document the collection and launch it online and at local markets.

When asked what she would like the public to know about her, Pavlik said “I’m Tlingit from Yakutat, Alaska. I first learned how to skin sew and bead from my aunt, Jennie Wheeler.”

(Left to right Sealskin Drip, skinsewing, combining traditional and upcycled and repurposed materials, 2024; Seal Woman Suit, skinsewing, traditional materials lined with repurposed fabrics, 2023; Lady in Black, skinsewing, sealskin and leather, 2023

(Left to right) Bernie Moccasins, skinsewing/beadwork, 2025; Land Back Moccasins, skinsewing/beadwork, 2025; Blooming Orchids Bridal Moccasins, skinsewing/beadwork, 2021