Leadership Skagit's art education La Conner visit

The art of leadership took several forms in La Conner last Friday.

The current class of Leadership Skagit, which develops leaders from the private, public and nonprofit arenas, visited town to see examples of how the arts help leaders broaden their perspectives.

The nearly three dozen participants, selected for the long-running leadership training program affiliated with the Economic Development Alliance of Skagit County (EDASC) and Skagit Valley College, took part in a briskly paced tour starting with lunch and ending with a class photo.

They started at the historic La Conner Civic Garden Club Building on Second Street, where they met recent Skagit County Historical Society Board of Directors President Pat Paul, who shared ways in which art has been employed to advocate on behalf of those impacted by the murders and disappearances of indigenous women.

Class members then trekked to the new La Conner Swinomish Library on Morris Street, where they learned how support of public art can enhance civic leadership.

Recently retired La Conner Library Foundation Executive Director Susan Macek outlined for them the history of various collaborations that made possible construction here of the state-of-the-art library building.

Swinomish master carver Kevin Paul, Pat Paul's husband, followed with an explanation of the thematic symbols appearing on the story pole that he and son-in-law Camas Logue created specifically for the library.

Paul, who in his youth drummed with the Skagit Valley Singers, was joined later by tribal elder Tony Cladoosby and Morgan Brown of the Swinomish Department of Environmental Protection to offer a blessing song.

The class wrapped up its afternoon in La Conner at the Museum of Northwest Art. La Conner Arts Commission Chair Sheila Johnson spoke on the importance of public art and the role visual art plays in inspiring and engaging leadership.

"One of our main reasons for coming here today," said Skagit Valley College Curriculum Manager Laura Flores Cailloux, "was to see how the arts can raise awareness of important stories, especially stories of those whose voices haven't always been heard."

The story of the library's mission, told through the icons Paul and Logue carved into an old-growth cedar installed near the building's main entrance, is intended to last the ages.

Paul recounted for the Skagit Leadership audience how his vision was to shape a traditional Native American story pole that emphasizes the library's values of inclusiveness and enlightenment.

"They asked me to create a structure – a story pole – and I had to decide how to tie the pole to the library," Paul said.

He chose three symbols to do so.

The first is the image of a person with hands crossed at the chest, represents a spirit of welcoming. Two salmon in the middle of the pole depict sharing. At the top of the pole is an eagle, a sign of guidance.

"When you walk into this library," said Paul, "you'll be welcomed, we'll share with you and you'll receive guidance."

Paul said the project took over two years to complete.

Macek had noted over the course of a decade leaders in the private sector and at the state, local, tribal and county government levels joined forces to achieve a mutual goal – the development here of a $4.7 million modern and environmentally viable library facility that also champions the history and artistic and cultural traditions of the La Conner and Swinomish communities.

Swinomish was a major supporter of the library's capital campaign, she said, initially contributing $750,000 and later donating another $100,000.

"We spoke with the Swinomish Education Department to find out what ideas they had for the library because it's their library, too," Macek said. "It's the La Conner Swinomish Library and we're proud of that.

"Like the Rainbow Bridge," she added, "at the library, we're bridging and blending our cultures."

Just as art can help connect leaders with those they serve.

"At the end of the day," Flores Cailloux noted, "the goal is that they (the Skagit Leadership class members) find that connection."

A few hours in La Conner provided them the perfect opportunity.