Wabanaki Winter Market returns for its 31st year

The largest holiday gathering of Wabanaki artists in New England will return with one-of-a-kind pieces, including those from new and nationally-acclaimed basket weavers, on Saturday, Dec. 13, at the University of Maine Collins Center for the Arts (CCA) from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

During the 31st annual Wabanaki Winter Market, over 60 Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Maliseet and Mi’kmaq artists will showcase and sell their basketry, jewelry, beadwork, wood carvings, birchbark work and other pieces. The free event will also feature brown ash pounding and demonstrations, children’s workshops, storytelling, traditional music, drumming and dancing.

The UMaine Hudson Museum, located inside the CCA will be open during the event and feature an exhibit of photography by Jason Pardilla titled “How Water Connects Us.” The images were taken through the lens of a Panawáhpskewi (Penobscot), and demonstrate connection to water by picturing water itself, the craft used to travel by it and Indigenous communities who live by it. These images reveal items used to provide sustenance and places important to Indigenous people. 

Attendees will also have an opportunity to meet Jeremy Frey, an award-winning Passamaquoddy basketmaker and MacArthur Fellow. From 11 a.m.-noon, Frey will sign copies of his exhibit catalog titled “Woven.” The catalog was organized by the Portland Museum of Art and traveled to the Art Institute of Chicago and the Bruce Museum. Sales of the catalog will benefit the Penobscot Nation Museum.

The Hudson Museum will be collecting non-perishable food items during the market for the Penobscot Nation Food Pantry. 

Additional information and full schedule of events is available on the Hudson Museum website. 

To request a reasonable accommodation, contact Hudson Museum Director Gretchen Faulkner by emailing gretchen.faulkner@maine.edu.