First Name
Steve
Last Name
Cayard, 2018 Maine Craft Artist Award
Business Name
Steve Cayard
Partner Name
Media Category
Wood
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Region
Katahdin/Moosehead
Email
steve@stevecayard.com
Phone
(207)683-2841
Membership Level:
Professional Membership
About
Steve Cayard is a recipient of the 2018 MCA Maine Craft Artist Award.
Master birchbark canoe maker Steve Cayard settled in Wellington, Maine in 1987. His canoes are based on careful research and are faithful to the tradition of the early Wabanaki birchbark canoes of Maine and New Brunswick- a style which eventually became the model for the wood-canvas canoes of Old Town, E. M. White and Chestnut, among others. Cayard has been sought out by native communities as a teacher, and he has felt honored to offer them his knowledge in a series of workshops in Maine and New Brunswick. He has also taught birchbark canoe building classes for the general public. He completed his first birchbark canoe in 1978 and has been building on commission since 1995. In 1998, Cayard was honored with a request by the National Museum of the American Indian to restore an 1890s birch bark canoe by well-known Passamaquoddy canoe builder Tomah Joseph. In 2002 Barry Dana, then chief of the Penobscot Nation, invited Cayard to lead a birchbark canoe workshop on Indian Island, the Penobscot reservation in Old Town, Maine. This became the first in a number of on-site canoe workshops that Cayard taught in the Wabanaki communities. Cayard’s work has been featured in WoodenBoat Magazine and his collaborative canoe with the late David Moses Bridges (commissioned by the Abbey Museum in Bar Harbor) was recognized for inclusion in the 2018 Portland Museum of Art Biennial.
Master birchbark canoe maker Steve Cayard settled in Wellington, Maine in 1987. His canoes are based on careful research and are faithful to the tradition of the early Wabanaki birchbark canoes of Maine and New Brunswick- a style which eventually became the model for the wood-canvas canoes of Old Town, E. M. White and Chestnut, among others. Cayard has been sought out by native communities as a teacher, and he has felt honored to offer them his knowledge in a series of workshops in Maine and New Brunswick. He has also taught birchbark canoe building classes for the general public. He completed his first birchbark canoe in 1978 and has been building on commission since 1995. In 1998, Cayard was honored with a request by the National Museum of the American Indian to restore an 1890s birch bark canoe by well-known Passamaquoddy canoe builder Tomah Joseph. In 2002 Barry Dana, then chief of the Penobscot Nation, invited Cayard to lead a birchbark canoe workshop on Indian Island, the Penobscot reservation in Old Town, Maine. This became the first in a number of on-site canoe workshops that Cayard taught in the Wabanaki communities. Cayard’s work has been featured in WoodenBoat Magazine and his collaborative canoe with the late David Moses Bridges (commissioned by the Abbey Museum in Bar Harbor) was recognized for inclusion in the 2018 Portland Museum of Art Biennial.
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