Sealaska Heritage to host lecture on being an artist in the age of AI

(Watch Live)

Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will host a lecture next week about how artists can continue to make a living during the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).

Tlingit artist and Boise State University photography professor Larry Xeidé McNeil will offer advice to anyone hoping to make a living as an artist. His lecture will focus specifically on how to stay relevant as AI-generated art threatens creatives’ livelihoods.

“In the age of AI, artists need to be more innovative with making a living as artists, and we need to be innovative and reassert the authenticity of our art in the face of AI,” McNeil said. “You still need to do the regular things such as learning the artistry of your media(s) and continuing with it even when things become challenging. After a certain point, you often have your own style of art within the art world. Perseverance with everything is still how to continue your art practice.”

Growing up, McNeil lived in Juneau and Anchorage with his grandmother, siblings and many members of his extended family. As a young man, he supported himself by commercial fishing. He later put himself through college at the Brooks Institute of Photography by working on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. After earning his graduate degree at the University of New Mexico, McNeil became a professor at Boise State University, where he continues to teach and create today.

Over the past three decades, McNeil has worked as an instructor at the Institute of American Indian Arts, a writer and a commercial photographer. In 1986, he was nominated vice president of the Native Indian/Inuit Photographers Association, an organization that advocated for Indigenous photographers from 1985-1992. His work, which often uses humor to deconstruct stereotypes surrounding Indigeneity, has won dozens of awards and has been featured in the International Center of Photography in New York City, the San Diego Museum of Art and the Barbican Gallery in London.

One of his best-known works, titled “Fly By Night Mythology,” features a series of photos from McNeil’s youth. The photos juxtapose his Anglo-American upbringing with Tlingit imagery, representing his mixed ancestry and the tension between the two cultures’ histories. The collection also pays homage to traditional Tlingit stories, featuring several images of ravens as protagonists.

Today, McNeil continues to use his position to encourage young artists to pursue careers in the arts — a historically volatile career path made more so by AI’s growing popularity.

McNeil’s lecture, “How to Continue Making a Living as an Artist and Avoid Being Replaced by AI,” will be held from noon-1 pm, Tuesday, July 21 in the Clan House on the first level of Sealaska Heritage Institute, which is located at 105 Heritage Way in downtown Juneau. His lecture will be live streamed and available to watch on SHI’s YouTube channel.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a tribal organization founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. SHI also conducts scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee, a Southeast Regional Language Committee and an Education Committee.

Caption: Photo of Larry Xeidé McNeil. Note: News outlets are welcome to use this photo for coverage of this story. For a higher-res version, contact kathy.dye@sealaskaheritage.com.