Presented by Seattle Good Business Network
In the heart of downtown Seattle, just blocks from Pike Place Market, you might stumble upon something quietly radical: an Indigenous and woman-owned gathering space pulsing with joy, where ancestral knowledge and contemporary art collide.
Inside, the gallery glows with portraits that seem to breathe, welcoming visitors into a setting that feels less like a gallery and more like a living story in motion. This is Tidelands, a space that hums with vibrant cultural and community offerings, the living vision of artist, educator, and changemaker Matika Wilbur.
Wilbur is known nationally for her groundbreaking photography project and book, Project 562, which documents contemporary Native American life across every federally recognized tribe.
Here at Tidelands, her latest endeavor takes root in something both deeply personal and expansively communal, creating a space where Indigenous creativity thrives, reciprocity is practiced daily, and cultural sovereignty shapes a vibrant, living future.
While several art galleries feature Native artists, according to Wilbur, Tidelands is Seattle's only Native-owned art gallery — and one of very few in the entire Pacific Northwest. Nationally, Native artists continue to face structural barriers to gallery representation, and Indigenous art is often sold and profited from by non-Native individuals and institutions. This pattern extends back generations, with Native art historically appropriated, commodified, and decontextualized for outsider audiences.
"Most Indigenous art in Seattle is sold by non-Native-owned galleries," Wilbur said. "I wanted to create a space where profits from art sales return to Indigenous communities."
But Tidelands is much more than a gallery. It’s a dynamic ecosystem of artistic and cultural exchange. There's a podcast studio upstairs, programming that ranges from Indigenous cooking workshops, drag shows, and a growing calendar of classes: pottery, photography, writing, Lushootseed language and more. With the addition of a boutique, the vibe is highly curated: Anthropologie meets inherited wisdom, where rich Indigenous culture seeps through every object and image in the store.
Tidelands generates revenue not only through art sales but through events, workshops, partnerships, and grants. Each offering serves a layered purpose: as a teaching tool, a community ritual, a revenue stream and a preservation of culture.
Tidelands, she explains, is more than a name; it draws on the teachings of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, her mother's tribe—teachings that emphasize the importance of giving and receiving in rhythm with others and of building a communal future rooted in ancestral memory.
"To be a person of the tide, means you set the table for one another,” Wlibur said. "You give away what you've received freely."
The gallery walls, currently featuring Wilbur’s acclaimed project Project 562, greet visitors with stunning portraits that beautifully carry both the presence of Wilbur’s distinctive visual style and the depth of the lives and stories of the people within them.
Wilbur’s work itself mirrors this multidimensionality. Her vision spans visual art, audio storytelling, and written word, anchored by her photography but expanded through her popular podcast, “All My Relations.”
On a recent spring Friday evening, guests arrived for a writing workshop titled "The Landscape of Memory," led by Indigenous writer Sasha LaPointe.
"It’s not enough anymore to just be a two-dimensional artist," Wilbur said. "You also have to be a storyteller, a brand, a podcast, an Instagram feed. That’s what we help people do."
This multidimensional approach is precisely why Wilbur stood out to Seattle Restored.
Designed to breathe life into vacant storefronts, Seattle Restored is a public-private initiative led by the Seattle Office of Economic Development, Seattle Good Business Network, and Shunpike. The program seeks to revitalize neighborhoods by transforming vacant storefronts and urban spaces into thriving cultural and commercial sites. Since launching in 2021, the program has provided artists, makers, and entrepreneurs — especially those from historically underrepresented communities — with access to free or subsidized retail and studio space.
Participants benefit from rent stipends, tenant improvement funding, technical assistance with marketing and business planning, professional photography, and promotional support. By fostering inclusive economies and uplifting community-centered businesses, Seattle Restored is reimagining urban development as a tool for cultural resilience.
When Seattle Restored first reviewed Wilbur's application, Gabriel-Bello Diaz, program manager at Shunpike, said she was a no-brainer.
"She had already done the work. She had a vision, a track record, and the community impact was evident,” Diaz said.
Through Seattle Restored and Shunpike, Wilbur received critical support: funding for renovations, rent assistance with a multi-year plan, space negotiation expertise, and ongoing promotional help.
"Just having a physical space allowed us to fundraise in a different way," Wilbur said.
Tidelands also secured significant donations from large funders like the Tulalip Tribes and the Pearl Jam Foundation.
"That’s because people could see and feel what we were doing," Wilbur said.
Diaz emphasized how Wilbur helped shape the long-term residency model within the Seattle Restored program.
"Tidelands became our prototype for what long-term support can look like," he said. "It’s a space that’s not just beautiful — it’s rooted in culture, service, and multidimensional impact."
The significance of this work is perhaps best understood not through financial metrics, but through moments: a yoga class taught by Indigenous women, where participants were prayed over with sage and peyote music; a sold-out Thanksgiving fundraiser serving a menu of elk, geoduck, and camas pudding; a room full of writers reclaiming memory, meaning, and ancestral language in their stories; a boutique full of handmade goods and decolonized narratives.
"There's nowhere in the city where I can go to Native yoga classes unless I have it here," Wilbur said. "If I want to go to a Native restaurant on a Tuesday night, I can't do it. If I want to go to a Native art gallery and know that I'm going to see my relatives and family and Native people are going to be running it and benefiting from it, I can't do it. There's not that space. And that's why this space has to exist."
"All of this ancestrally was tidelands," Wilbur said, gesturing in indication of the larger geographic region. "The water used to go up [to] Third avenue and used to go halfway out across Elliot Bay before it was colonized."
Wilbur views her work as an inheritance and a responsibility, to continue the legacy of storytelling passed down by her grandmother, to actively engage in community life, and to create spaces of cultural restoration. Wilbur has designed the space as a reciprocal model, where each aspect supports the others: the gallery, podcast, events, and retail all feed one another, literally and metaphorically.
A perfect example is the collaboration with artist Vina Brown, whose first exhibition is being developed at Tidelands with support from Wilbur and her team. They helped Brown frame her prints, write a show concept, develop a press release, and identify venues for the exhibit after it leaves the gallery.
Simultaneously, they’re launching a podcast series with her called "Healing Talks with Vina Brown,” which they hope will drive visitors into the space, where proceeds from art sales in turn support the production of the show.
"So all three parts of this space are working together really to create indigenous stories. And then those stories are free... that's the goal of the work," Wilbur said.
This summer, Tidelands will also launch a new slate of programming that continues to build on this model of generative community-building. A book club series connected to “All My Relations” will debut with a feature on Indigenous eco-eroticism, a concept that explores the sensual, spiritual, and ecological connections between Indigenous peoples and the natural world. The series will focus on the writing of Leanne Simpson, a leading voice in this movement.
There’s also a sweet partnership brewing with Seattle-based Frankie and Jo’s to host vegan ice cream socials featuring Indigenous flavors like camas, wild roses, and evergreen tips.
These new offerings follow a busy season of transition at Tidelands, the June 6 opening of the IndigiQueer Exhibition, a celebration of expansive visions by Indigenous queer artists.
The next time you walk near the waterfront and see a lighted storefront that seems to pulse with life — step inside. You might find a workshop underway, a circle of strangers becoming kin, or Matika Wilbur herself, creating a new future one story at a time.
Upcoming Events at Tidelands:
- All My Relations Book Club Live with Leanne Simpson — Juneteenth, Thursday 6/19 at 6 p.m.
- IndigiQueer Drag Show — Saturday 7/12
- Block Printing Workshop with Roldy Aguero Ablao — Saturday 7/19
- Old Growth Table Live with Valerie Segrest — Saturday 7/26
- Beading Workshop with Kajsa Cottier — Saturday 8/9
- Lino Block Printing Workshop with Eileen Jimenez — Saturday 8/16
- Next exhibition: Generational Love by Vina Brown, Copper Canoe Woman — Opening July 21, 2025
- Current exhibition: IndigiQueer, open from June 6 — August 17, 2025
For more information, visit thisistidelands.com or follow @this.is.tidelands on Instagram.
Seattle Restored is a program of the Seattle Office of Economic Development, Seattle Good Business Network, and Shunpike.
