Soboleff Building

It’s part of a larger vision — in the works for several years — to establish a Northwest Coast arts hub.

Three young Alaska Native artists, including one from Ketchikan and one from Hydaburg, have been chosen to carve cedar house posts that will be cast in bronze and displayed in front of the Walter Soboleff Building in Juneau.

The Sealaska Heritage Institute unveiled its new structure in downtown Juneau today. It’s called the Walter Soboleff Building after the late Tlingit scholar, elder and religious leader. Inside stands a full-sized replica of a traditional red cedar clan house

Tlingit glass artist Preston Singletary explains the inspiration for his glass screen and his take on contemporary indigenous art.

An as-it-happens slideshow of the Soboleff Building opening ceremonies

In 2004, an awning patch-job went bad and led to a fire that razed a historic commercial building in the heart of downtown Juneau.

Juneau’s new Walter Soboleff building balances traditional and contemporary Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian art forms.

COO Lee Kadinger hopes Sealaska Heritage Institute will be relocated by the end of January. The grand opening of the Walter Soboleff Center is May 15.

Soboleff would’ve been 106 years old on Friday. He died in 2011 at the age of 102.

The archives facility at the Walter Soboleff building will be named after William L. Paul Sr.