{"id":5443,"date":"2015-12-21T09:01:55","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T17:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/uaf-program-director-draws-inspiration-from-eclectic-sources\/"},"modified":"2015-12-21T09:01:55","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T17:01:55","slug":"uaf-program-director-draws-inspiration-from-eclectic-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/uaf-program-director-draws-inspiration-from-eclectic-sources\/","title":{"rendered":"UAF program director draws inspiration from eclectic sources"},"content":{"rendered":"

FAIRBANKS \u2014<\/strong> If you ask Phillip Charette \u201cWhat makes you who you are?\u201d don\u2019t expect a simple answer.<\/p>\n

The half Yup\u2019ik, half French Canadian director of the Department of Alaska Native and Rural Development at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has such an eclectic background, he could only be described as a Renaissance man.<\/p>\n

From world-wide exhibits of mixed-media sculptures based on ancient Yup\u2019ik masks to being on the administration team for the University of the Arctic \u2014 a group of 180 institutes concerned with education and research in the north.<\/p>\n

He oversees the Festival of Native Arts, has taught wood and high-fire clay flute making, and won awards for his flute music.<\/p>\n

He earned bachelor degrees in arts and education from UAF and a master\u2019s of education from Harvard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all contributes to what you can do and your breadth of experience. An innovative person, I think that\u2019s where my strength is,\u201d Charette said, beaucoup name cards from various groups, organizations and conferences hanging in his office.<\/p>\n

Wearing cowboy boots and a sharp suit, Charette\u2019s gentle voice contrasts his rapid speech; stories of family, youth and early adulthood decorate technical parlance and professionalism.<\/p>\n

Born in Jacksonville, Arkansas, Charette\u2019s dad was in the Air Force, and he\u2019s had many homes.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s lived, worked and studied in Florida, Wisconsin and Oregon, to name a few, but said \u201cI\u2019ve lived in Fairbanks longer than I\u2019ve lived anywhere. I really consider Fairbanks my home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Formerly a full-time job, Charette\u2019s life creating new art has taken a back seat in recent years, though he still presents work in gallery shows, \u201cI used to do a lot, but I\u2019ve spent a great deal of time with my son and my wife, he\u2019s my past time now,\u201d he said, adding most of his work is still in an Oregon storage unit.<\/p>\n

One of many highlights in Charette\u2019s career as an artist was receiving \u201cArtist\u2019s Choice\u201d award at the Sante Fe Indian Market.<\/p>\n

Now Charette\u2019s professional life is more administrative than artistic.<\/p>\n

He recently returned from a University of the Arctic staff meeting in Finland, where he said discussion focusing on insuring indigenous northern populations can share their voice and \u201cmaking sure there\u2019s equity across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charette approaches the University of the Arctic the same way he approaches most aspects of his life \u2014 holistically.<\/p>\n

He said too many problem solvers take a myopic approach and look for solutions through a microscope, when the answer could be directly behind them.<\/p>\n

Being in tune with his surroundings is a result of Charette\u2019s native genealogy, \u201cPeople from nomadic societies are more programed to be looking around,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But it took a long time for Charette to truly embrace his indigenous heritage; his Yup\u2019ik name, \u201cAarnaquq,\u201d roughly means \u201cone who is dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

He struggled with labels, and teachers thought his constant distraction was a learning disorder. His first language, Yup\u2019ik, was \u201cbeaten out of me\u201d in grade school, which he is still trying to relearn.<\/p>\n

As he talks, Charette looks out the window of his small office, the gentle slope of Birch Hill visible to the east, and he shared the definition of a Yup\u2019ik word that summarizes his approach to life \u2014 \u201cellamquq.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecome aware of self and those around you. Awareness of person, of spirit, it\u2019s very holistic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FAIRBANKS \u2014 If you ask Phillip Charette \u201cWhat makes you who you are?\u201d don\u2019t expect a simple answer. The half Yup\u2019ik, half French Canadian director of the Department of Alaska Native and Rural Development at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has such an eclectic background, he could only be described as a Renaissance man. From […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-5443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5443"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=5443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}