Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts (CSIA) is located on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in the foothills of Oregon’s Blue Mountains. Crow’s Shadow is a nonprofit organization formed in 1992 by local artists James Lavadour (Walla Walla) and Phillip Cash Cash (Cayuse and Nez Perce). CSIA's mission is to provide a creative conduit for educational, social, and economic opportunities for Native Americans through artistic development.
Over the last 30 years Crow’s Shadow has evolved into a nationally renowned studio focused on contemporary fine art printmaking. From 2001-2017 Frank Janzen was CSIA’s Master Printer. Under his tenure, Crow’s Shadow increased its focus on artist residencies and the publication and marketing of prints. In 2017, Judith Baumann joined Crow’s Shadow as the new Master Printer.
In addition to the printmaking studio, Crow's Shadow also hosts an Indigenous arts program to support people of all ages and experiences to develop their voice and skills as artists. In their mission to preserve and maintain practice of valuable and traditional techniques, CSIA’s workshops have covered such art forms as basket weaving, cornhusk weaving, star pillow quilting, ribbon skirts, beadwork, and horse regalia. In 2017, CSIA celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the organization’s founding with an exhibition curated by Dr. Rebecca Dobkins (Willamette University and Hallie Ford Museum of Art) and an accompanying publication. That year, CSIA also won the Oregon Governor’s Arts Award.
Crow’s Shadow prints have been exhibited in and collected by prominent cultural institutions, including the Whitney Museum and Biennial, Museum of Modern Art - New York, the Museum of Fine Arts - Boston, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Art and the National Museum of the American Indian, and the Portland Art Museum. Crow's Shadow was also profiled in a 2019 feature in the New York Times.
Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts and Catharine Clark Gallery’s initial introduction was facilitated by the gallery’s artist Marie Watt; since then, the gallery’s art boutique EXiT has collaborated with CSIA to carry prints by artists by Jeremy Okai Davis, Lisa Jarrett, and Ralph Pugay.
