About Us

Plans for the Future

The Kahnaway owners have spent the last ten or eleven years, among other things, toiling over some five acres of land in SW Washington.   Thirty minutes from the art-filled city of Portland, Oregon and about twenty minutes from the PDX airport. We hope to share this property and its magnificent barn which we have fitted out with studios.

We are in the process of getting permission from the Columbia River Gorge Commission to put 3-5 yurts (semi-permanent tent-like structures which can be heated and as comfortable as a house) so that we might host artist and eventually scientist residents. Getting the permits has been no easy feat and we have been waiting on the Gorge Commission to look at our request for a zone change to agricultural for over four years. A lack of funding for the bi-state agency commissioned to oversee the National Scenic Area has left us in limbo. This is unfortunate for all involved especially seeing how well Kahnaway's mission aligns with that of the very management plan the Gorge Commission is meant to uphold.

Kahnaway would bring in cultural visitors supporting the economic side of the Management Plan's goals, and because of our committment to ecological sustainability, gardening, waste management, and native forestry, we wholly support and help implement the ecological goals of the Management Plan.

Our organization would bring in not only resident artists and scientists but guests from around the world, all bringing with them fresh knowledge and skillsets as well as proven, classical and ancient ones. Residents will be professionals in their fields and will earn their positions at Kahnaway by being selected from a group of applicants by a panel of regional arts professionals. We also hope to provide traditional craft instruction and workshops from experts in indigenous arts and practice.

Here are just a few ideas for workshops and uses of the land:

  • Making and working with home grown pigment and medium
    • where pigments and oils come from
    • how to make oil and water based paints from them
    • what to grow that can be used for pigments and mediums
    • how to grow these plants, we can use our fields to actually grow our paint!
  • Responsible Artist waste disposal and reuse of materials
    • Recycling/conservationism: Tips and methods for responsible low-impact living and art making.
    • Repairing old electronics, such as stereo components, video/film equipment and other potential art-making tools with the aim to sway us all from the all too familiar "toss it" mentality.
  • Portfolio preparation for high school juniors and seniors
  • Useful Woodworking
    • Build your own frames, cut mats, photo mounting
    • Crating artwork for delivery
  • Studio Lighting for sets and 2D slide taking
  • "Guerrilla" film making, super 8.   shooting/editing/transferring
  • Instrument making: the use of wood and metal to make one of a kind sound making machines
  • Learn how to record your band's or your own demo.
  • Horticultural therapy
  • Paper-making with readily available natural materials

please email us: info@kahnaway.org if you'd be interested in any of these workshops.