Banner art: Coyote, sculpture by Tonu Shane Eagleton

Resident Collection

Art currently stewarded by The Cultural Conservancy

This collection includes art that is permanently stored and currently stewarded on site at The Cultural Conservancy locations: in the Presidio of San Francisco, unceded Ohlone land, and at Heron Shadow in the sovereign territories of the Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok. Some of this art is currently in ongoing exhibition on location and some is in storage as we exhibit other seasonal exhibits.

Sculpture Garden Collection

Tim Paul’s First Scientist

Raven and First Woman: Tim Paul presents his First Scientist sculpture’s storyscape

Tonu Shane Eagleton and Koa Stevens Collection

The Talking Seat

Also part of the Sculpture Garden, the Storytelling Seat, carved by Koa Stevens and Tonu Shane Eagleton with assistance from Domingo Ferreira, is one of the three pieces of the Humpback Whale Pole that was created by Tonu Shane Eagleton in collaboration with The Cultural Conservancy in 1997 . The pole was split into three after weather and time took their toll, continuing to evolve after a very long history of transformation. The pole was originally created as part of the Kohola Healing Pole Project, which included creating numerous medicine poles from the ancient cedar pylons that were submerged underneath Port Chicago on the Northern California coast after the disaster in which an explosion and fire from munitions destroyed the pier in 1944.

Artist Statement by Koa Stevens - From the Heart of the Talking Seat

From the heart of the talking seat, where multiple stories converge and come to life, stepping back into a time when oration was the precipice of record keeping and bridging that continuum into our present world.

A 2000-year-old Yellow Alaskan Cedar and her sisters were once a floating pier in the SF Bay where an explosion submerged the family into the silty depths only to be dredged up years later, preserved and with a new agenda. From this convergence back to the land, these Yellow Alaskan Cedars had been sculpted and revived into many forms and shared with bounty and awe. The talking seat at Heron Shadow was first formed into a Whale, had a temporary home in the SF Presidio and eventually morphed into thirds and re-sculpted yet again to find a final dock at Heron Shadow to host the stories yearning to be shared through storytelling with an aromatic halo.

From the heartwood of this indulgent specimen, as it was sculpted and chiseled, a unique storytelling incense was crafted blending alongside with the woods of three other large sculptural art pieces from an Arizonian Alligator Juniper, California Cypress and a Himalayan Cedar from California, with copal, clove and turmeric. Together these Sculptures align to lift the narration of tale after whale tale intended as a harmonious guide to send the orations, spoken at the talking seat, up and into the world, to be shared and experienced.

The initial carvings had been the works of Tonu Shane Eagleton, a long-time artist-in-residence with The Cultural Conservancy. Later the works became a conjoined process with his son Koa Stevens and the aromatic upcycling is a blend crafted by Koa Stevens.

The Seed Spiral

The Seed Spiral, carved by Tonu Shane Eagleton from old growth walnut, has held countless Indigenous seeds and with them the histories, hopes and current as well as future nourishment of our communities.

Carved Oak Wine Barrels

These two oak wine barrels were carved and painted by Koa Stevens with the assistance of Domingo Ferreira.

Artist Statement by Koa Stevens

These barrels are 360 canvasses, upcycling the waste from the alcohol industry, turning them into a cultural resource with Indigenous symbols through cultural preservation and transformation, recontextualizing the value of a tree, taking these barrels out of retirement after they’ve held the living blood of the grape for 5-7 years, creating an opportunity for people to have appreciation for the oak’s life cycle and giving that life a new expression. This is part of a larger project which includes planting medicine gardens in these barrels. We recently donated a barrel for a healing garden at Bloody Island and there is currently also a garden being planned through a barrel-carving workshop and internship program with Coyote Valley youth and elders.

Woodblocks and Prints

Banner art: Kathy Wallace and Diane Almendariz, by Jackie Fawn

Guardians of the Waters Youth Art

This art includes works curated for our 2019 Guardians of the Waters Exhibit, where former participants in our intergenerational Guardians of the Waters program contributed art and honored teachers; and works commissioned for both our Native Foodways’ program’s Native seed packets and our Native Seed Pod podcast episode cover art.

Art from the 2019 Guardians of the Waters Exhibit

Knowledge Symbiosis Series episode art by John Jairo Valencia

Commissioned for The Native Seed Pod, 2023-24

Native Seed Packet art by John Jairo Valencia

Art by Jackie Fawn

This artwork was commissioned for the animation of the Youth Gathering of Native Americans video, produced by TCC in collaboration with California Consortium of Urban Indian Health and American Indian Health & Services, Santa Barbara.

Baskets, Weavings and Cultural Objects

These are a few of the baskets, weavings and other cultural objects in our collection. Many of these were donated without any provenance information, and we share them here partly in hopes that we will be able to learn more about them—please do reach out if you have any information on these items.

The Mabel Dodge Luhan Drum

 Seeds of Hope

This collection of digital scanography, created by our Media Associate Alexandru Salceanu in collaboration with our Foodways team, includes seeds being grown at our Heron Shadow farm. This collaborative process is continuing and our land team has been trained in these techniques in order to continue documentation and appreciation of our seed relatives.