Join us on Friday, October 4 for a special edition of the New Bedford Whaling Museum's First Friday series, featuring an artist talk, full access to the museum, a lite reception and more.

COURTNEY M. LEONARD, a multi-media artist and filmmaker from the Shinnecock Nation, will discuss the installation of her “breach” project at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, which explores the multiple definitions of “breach”, cultural and historical ties to water and whale and material sustainability.

Courtney M. Leonard (Shinnecock, b.1980) is an artist and filmmaker, who has contributed to the Offshore Art movement. Leonard’s body of work examines histories of water and seeks to activate conversations about industrial impacts on water, inter-species connections, climate change, and the shifting relationships between humans and water, as informed by the past. In collaboration with national and international museums, cultural institutions, and Indigenous communities in North America, New Zealand, Nova Scotia, and the United States Embassies, Leonard’s practice investigates narratives of cultural viability as a reflection of environmental record.

Presented in conversation with the exhibition, BREACH: Logbook 24 | SCRIMSHAW on view June 1 to November 3, 2024. Q&A to follow.

Leonard will be joined by artist HOLLY MITITQUQ NORDLUM, an Iñupiaq artist working to revitalize the tradition of Inuit tattoo in Alaska. Nordlum trained with Maya Sialuk Jacobsen, an Inuit tattooist from Greenland. A growing cadre of Indigenous female practitioners see the reclaiming of tattoo as a way to heal from colonization and as a statement of pride and cultural affiliation. Many are mentored through Nordlum’s Tupik Mi apprenticeship program.