Chris Thornton’s father has baskets in the Abbe Museum’s collection. So does his grandfather. And his great-grandfather. Even his great-great-grandfather.

But Thornton didn’t make the drive from Indian Township to Bar Harbor last Thursday to see baskets. He was there to see his 8-year-old daughter, Felicia, get an award for her artwork.

“Did you see what your sister did?” Thornton asked Felicia’s little brother, Chris Jr., as he pointed to her drawing, framed and hanging on the wall. “I was real excited and happy that she had the chance to be here at the Abbe Museum.”

Felicia, a third-grader at the Indian Township School, is one of 30 artists featured in the 2003 Waponahki student art show, “Beyond the Mountain: Modern Views of Traditional Ideas,” at the Bar Harbor museum. The exhibit, which is the first of its scope in Maine, shows the new ways pupils in the state’s three reservation schools are using artistic techniques to explore their heritage.

“They’re expressing not from their old, traditional arts, but new mediums – painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and collage versus beadwork, basketmaking and root-club carving,” said Michael Vermette, the art teacher at the Indian Island School in Old Town and one of the show’s organizers. “What we want to do is put new tools in the hands of our kids. New tools, new mediums.”

Vermette has seen the possibilities of these new mediums first-hand. His daughter Tiana has gained national recognition for her short films “How the Raven Stole the Sun” and “The Windbird,” which use paper and clay animation to interpret the stories of her maternal Penobscot ancestors.

Tiana isn’t alone – in 16 years of teaching, Vermette has found that American Indian pupils are far ahead of their non-native peers artistically, and several national studies have confirmed his observations. It’s a fact he attributes to the children’s rich history of visual storytelling and a lifelong exposure to hands-on arts such as weaving and beadwork.

Vermette wanted to find a way to showcase that talent, so he got together with Romantha Burow of the Beatrice Rafferty School on Pleasant Point and Steve Braziller, who recently joined the staff of the Indian Township School on Peter Dana Point. The three teachers had similar experiences.

“There’s a lot of talent – I think there’s more natural talent than I’ve ever seen,” Burow said during an interview in the art room at the Beatrice Rafferty School. “In this culture, every single one of the kids has a relative who makes baskets or does carving. … They’re more comfortable with doing things.”

Though the Beatrice Rafferty School looks a bit hostile from the outside – it’s a big, brick building surrounded by a razor-wire fence – it’s warm and inviting inside, like a comfortable gallery. Digital renderings of the double curve, a traditional Waponahki symbol, line the walls of one hallway, and brightly colored weavings adorn another wall.

Falon Robinson, a sixth-grader at the Beatrice Rafferty School who is featured in the show, wove together strips of glittery silver mylar and marbleized teal paper in “Ancestral Weaving.” It combines elements of nature – the colors symbolize the water that surrounds Pleasant Point – with an age-old art form.

“It’s part of my culture,” Falon, 13, said during an interview in the school’s library. “I used something so that it would be modern-day, too.”

Falon’s artwork acknowledges her family’s traditions – her uncle Phil weaves and makes baskets – as well as her Passamaquoddy roots.

“It feels good to know that I’m still using my culture,” Falon said. “Nowadays you see people and they aren’t using anything that has to do with their culture.”

That’s the message behind “Beyond the Mountain” – that it is possible for the students to honor their past and embrace the future at the same time.

“What we want to do is foster that kind of thing,” Vermette said. “Not necessarily take away the concept behind the paintings, but to encourage new ideas and new materials.”

Through art, many of the students have found a creative outlet that bolsters their self-esteem. Though many of the children brushed it off when asked about the art show, saying they did the work because it was part of an assignment, their faces lit up when they saw their paintings or drawings framed and hanging on the wall.

During last week’s opening reception, children posed in front of their artwork, flanked by smiling parents, as camera flashes illuminated the gallery at the Abbe Museum. A few hours earlier, student docents led members of the Maine Indian Education Board through the show, discussing the meaning behind each piece. More than 100 people drove down from Washington County or Old Town to support the young artists.

“Art gives the kids a voice,” said Braziller, who is “having a ball” in his first year at the Indian Township School. “It gives them something that they can do. It helps them discover some of their strengths and abilities and it gives them some possibilities and some goals in life.”

For Colby Lewey, a fifth-grader at the Beatrice Rafferty School, the art show was a turning point. His mixed-media work, “Designs of My Ancestors,” combines paint and woven paper in a colorful composition that was inspired by traditional Passamaquoddy weaving.

“He hadn’t shown much interest in art in earlier years, but in fifth grade he just blossomed and found himself,” Colby’s mother, Nancy, said at the opening. “I think the influence of basketmaking at home certainly expressed itself in his artwork.”

Nancy and her husband, Dennis, both weave baskets, and they were thrilled when his weaving was picked for the Abbe show.

“We have a copy of it at home on the fridge, but actually seeing it up on the wall, that’s a whole different feeling,” Dennis said.

The opening brought together generations of Waponahki artisans – those who have made a mark on the culture in the past, and those who will make a mark in the future.

“Indian kids, they start young,” Blanche Sockabasin, 67, said while looking at baskets in another Abbe gallery. “It comes to them and, hey, I’ll tell you that they do good work. … There’s a lot of talent”

Sockabasin came down from Indian Township to see her grandson, Wesley Stevens of Pleasant Point, receive an award. She has always had an interest in the arts, and when Wesley’s mom couldn’t make it to the opening, she was more than happy to join Wesley, a first-grader at the Beatrice Rafferty School.

“I told his mother it’d be a pleasure for me to be here because I’m so proud of him,” Sockabasin said. “He’s a smart little guy.”

“Beyond the Mountain: Modern Views of Traditional Ideas” will be on view at the Abbe Museum in downtown Bar Harbor through Oct. 19. For information, call 288-3519 or visit www.abbemuseum.org.