INDIAN ISLAND – There are some special visitors at Indian Island this week who are participating in a program geared to help support tribal arts and the economy.

Representatives from about 15 tribes across the country, including three from Alaska, are learning this week about how American Indian museums can be part of supporting their community’s arts and artists, while at the same time benefiting from public interest in their culture and traditions.

“It’s been a great opportunity to network with all these other tribal museums,” Maria Girouard, Penobscot Nation’s director of cultural and historic preservation, said Tuesday.

The series of workshops began Monday and continues through Thursday with a variety of speakers and a field trip planned today to the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor.

The timing is perfect for the Penobscots, who were selected by the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian to act as the conference co-host, Girouard said.

“We’re looking in the very near future to really start planning for a new facility,” she said. “This is a good jumping-off point.”

The Penobscots have a museum on the island, but space is tight and the facility is old.

“It’s an excellent opportunity to get some quality training,” Girouard said.

The Smithsonian holds four similar workshops throughout the country each year. There are about 30 to 40 applicants for each program, and Smithsonian officials select about 15 to represent a cross-section of tribes, Karen Cooper of the Smithsonian’s Resource Center said Tuesday.

“We like to keep it a small group because then they get to know each other,” she said. “We’re always trying to make a geographic diversity [and] reach underserved areas.”

During the four-day program, participants will learn about marketing American Indian arts, creating cooperatives, managing museum stores, developing art exhibitions and events, working with artists, attracting buyers, supporting collectors and obtaining funds for community arts initiatives.

“The whole goal is to get the artists to be able to sustain themselves through Native arts,” Cooper said.

Museums also provide an outlet for tribes to educate others in the community about their culture and traditions in a variety of ways, such as on-site demonstrations.

Cooper gave the example of nonskilled buyers who want to purchase American Indian art.

“For a nonskilled buyer, they might think that you go and buy Chinese material and make a basket,” she said.

By educating consumers that there is much time, energy and meaning that goes into creating the art – such as a basket or jewelry – both the consumer and the artist benefit.

“Then [the consumer] will value it more than a basket made in India or China,” Cooper said.

This is the first workshop the Smithsonian has held in Maine, and both Cooper and Girouard said that things are going smoothly.

“By bringing them together, they learn from each other. Networking is so important,” Cooper said. “We want our programs to validate Native people and to empower Native people.”