Oprea Alley Mural

The objective of this project is to provide Humboldt County artists and art students a prominent space for exhibiting their artwork, help beautify the exterior of the museum, and help make this area more inviting to the community and visitors alike. With all the artwork digitally archived on our website, the public will be able to view all the previous exhibits we’ve hosted. This ongoing project will allow many artists an opportunity
to show their artwork to the community.
It costs $300 to cover the printing and posting costs for each Opera Alley exhibit. Help provide more students with the opportunity to display their work by donating to help defray these costs. Any amount helps! You can donate through our website here or stop by the museum to drop off your donation. The artists thank you!

Now in Opera Alley, we are proud to present....

The Sun Set Twice on the People That Day

When you walk down the alley next to the Museum's Nealis Hall, you'll notice a 40 foot long vibrant mural. This mural is titled “The Sun Set Twice on the People That Day”. It's a unique mural for a few different reasons. It is the first mural to go up in Eureka that was painted by Native artists- Brian Tripp and Alme Allen. It is painted on pieces of plywood affixed to the building, meaning that it can be moved. It was first installed on the side of the Eureka Theater in 2000, and was taken down for restoration in 2019, before being re-hung on the side of the Clarke Museum's Nealis Hall Native American Wing in 2021 during the Eureka Street Art Festival.

The Mural when it was on the wall at the Eureka Theater- Photo from Humboldt Insider. The mural features a variety of symbols related to local traditions including basketweaving, dentalium money, zoomorphs, obsidian blades, and the ever-important water.

Brian Tripp receiving the 2018 California Living Heritage Award. Photo from Alliance for California Traditional Arts

The title of the mural is a reference to a line in a poem written by Brian Tripp, a Karuk artist and cultural leader. Tripp was born in 1945 in Eureka, served in the Vietnam War, and then went on to study and later teach art at Humboldt State University. He is well known for his inclusion of traditional icons and symbols from the Karuk people in his visually impactful pieces, many of which include references to geographic locations in the Karuk homeland. A large amount of his work came into being and was influenced by cultural revivals happening on Karuk lands in the 1970’s and 1980’s, and Tripp himself was involved in the bringing back of traditional ceremonial dances, and activism against projects like the Gasquet-Orleans Road which threatened sacred sites in Karuk territory. He received the Alliance for California Traditional Arts California Living Heritage award, the highest award given by the Alliance, in 2018.

Brian Tripp began his journey home on May 13, 2022, at the age of 77. His obituary, written by his loved ones, can be read in its entirety here.

Below is a video of Tripp singing a song and reading his poem "The Sun Set Twice on the People That Day" accompanied by historical images.

Alme Allen is a Karuk and Yurok artist born in 1970 and raised in Orleans, CA- the traditional homelands of the Karuk. He participated in the ceremonies that Brian Tripp and other Karuk cultural leaders were reviving at the time. These experiences inform his artwork which can be seen around Humboldt County, from concrete cast chairs based on traditional wood-carved stools at Humboldt State University’s Native Forum and on the Waterfront Trail in Eureka, to the mural painted just last year on the side of the Discovery Shop in Henderson Center which is featured on 2021's Street Art Festival poster to the mural being reinstalled at the Clarke in 2021. Allen invests time in the community by teaching traditional carving, which was something he had learned when he was young.

Alme Allen in front of his nearly completed mural on the side of the Discovery Shop in Henderson Center, 2020. Photo from Lost Coast Outpost

Photo from Eureka Community Services District blog

In an interview with the City of Eureka on his Eureka Waterfront art installation which includes a motif from the “Sun Set Twice” mural, Allen says “It has been an honor to conduct this work that has brought so many feelings and emotions not only for me, but for many community members as well. And to once again pay tribute to a very sacred place, Tuluwat (Indian Island), where its People will return and dance on the island again. In many ways I’m fortunate to have this opportunity to help tell a new story for a new generation about a place where the People came to bring balance and rid sickness from their world. This is a story that is not about a great tragedy, but rather about renewal, respect and healing a community. As sure as the sun sets, it will surely rise again and it’s up to us how we choose to stand in tomorrow’s light”.

The mural restoration was undertaken by a team of Native artists led by Alme Allen, including Julian Lang, Lyn Risling, Ahtyirahm Allen, Karamachay Tripp, and Eli Hensher-Aubrey, some of whom were leaders in the cultural revival period that Brian was part of, others from the generation who experienced the revival as young people like Alme, and some from the second or third generation of people involved in this cultural revitalization. One of the artists participating in the restoration, Danielle Briscoe, is also a mural apprentice through a new “Mural Apprentice Program” hosted by the Eureka Street Art Festival supported by Humboldt Area Foundation.

We're pleased to be able to present a video of the official dedication ceremony.