Preston Singletary's Scenic Design in PNB's The Sleeping Beauty
King and Queen Papillon atop Singletary’s Eagle Staircase in PNB’s The Sleeping Beauty. Photo by Elizabeth Crook, Seattle Refined.
By Bryn Cavin, Marketing & Content Manager
This winter, Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) debuted a new production of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty. This world premiere production featured costumes by Oscar- and Tony-nominated, and Emmy-winning, designer Paul Tazewell and scenic design by well-known Pacific Northwest glass artist Preston Singletary (American Tlingit, born 1963).
If you’re familiar with the PNW glass community, or a frequent visitor to Museum of Glass, you probably recognize Singletary from his Visiting Artist residencies in the MOG Hot Shop, his appearance as the Featured Artist at the Museum’s 2024 Red Hot Auction & Gala, and as the artist behind Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight. One of MOG’s traveling exhibitions, Raven and the Box of Daylight has made its way around the country, lighting up galleries from its debut here in Tacoma, WA, to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington, DC, with institutions across the country in between.
Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight at NMAI.
Raven and the Box of Daylight is the Tlingit story of Raven – or Yeíl, in the Tlingit language – and his transformation of the world – bringing light to the people via the stars, moon, and sun. This story holds great significance for the Tlingit people, and the exhibition features a dynamic combination of artwork, storytelling, and encounter, where the Tlingit story unfolds during the visitor’s experience. Exhibition visitors are immersed in Tlingit culture through a dynamic, multi-sensory environment in which art objects and exhibition text are supported by audio and video elements, including recordings by Tlingit storytellers, music, recordings of Pacific Northwest coastal sounds, and a backdrop of shadows and projected images. Through these elements, Singletary’s Raven and the Box of Daylight takes visitors on an experiential journey with Yeíl and the transformation of darkness into light.
The tale of Raven and the Box of Daylight told through the exhibition’s label text was adapted from five versions of the story, all told and translated by Tlingit storytellers. Independent Curator for the exhibition, Miranda Shkík Belarde-Lewis (Tlingit/Zuni) writes in the exhibition’s introduction text, “The underlying messages of Raven and the Box of Daylight are not only about light entering the world, but also the values of family over possessions, forgiveness, and accountability for one’s actions.”
The story begins, “Before here was here, Raven was only named Yeíl. He was a white bird, and the world was in darkness.” In the tale, Yeíl decides that he will try to do something about the darkness. He discovers that the light of the sun, moon, and stars are kept in bentwood boxes belonging to Naas Shaak Aankáawa (the Nobleman at the Head of the Nass River). Yeíl concocts a plan to be reborn as a human boy, becoming the grandson of Naas Shaak Aankáawa. As the Nobleman’s grandson, Yeíl is able to release the stars, moon, and sun from their bentwood boxes in the Clan House. The celestial bodies escape through the Clan House’s smoke hole and begin to fill the world with light. With his task accomplished, Yeíl decides to leave the Clan House, transforming back into his bird form. As he attempts to fly out of the smoke hole, the Nobleman catches him by the feet, causing him to become covered in soot from the fire. Thus, Yeíl became a black bird, with his physical form forever changed by bringing light into the world.
Raven and the Box of Daylight at NMAI.
The Lilac Fairy and Prince Désiré travel by canoe to wake the sleeping Princess Aurora, who is under Carabosse’s spell in PNB’s The Sleeping Beauty. Photo by Elizabeth Crook, Seattle Refined.
While designing the scenery for The Sleeping Beauty, Singletary recognized similarities between the characters of Yeíl and Carabosse, the story’s antagonist who places a curse upon the baby Aurora Papillon, fating the girl to prick her finger on a spindle and die on her twentieth birthday. In PNB’s production, Carabosse is not an evil fairy, as she is in most versions of the story. Rather, she is grumpy because she is herself a member of the Papillon family who had been left off the family guest list to the princess’s christening. In this production, the Papillon family’s exclusion of Carabosse as a family member breaks taboo in the Tlingit sense, which is what drives the consequences that befall them. Costumer Tazewell furthered the interpretation of Carabosse as a Yeíl character by clothing her in a long, winged cloak of black feathers and a raven-esque mask.
Preston Singletary (American Tlingit, born 1963). Gagaan Awutáawu Yéil (Raven Steals the Sun), Made at the Museum in 2008. Blown, hot-sculpted, and sand-carved glass. 9 1/2 x 26 x 9 1/2 in. Collection of Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington, gift of the artist. Raven and the Box of Daylight at Chrysler Museum of Art (Norfolk, VA).
Carabosse with the spindle in PNB’s The Sleeping Beauty. Photo by Elizabeth Crook, Seattle Refined.
In addition to her anger-driven curse, Carabosse also brings gifts to the christening, presented in bentwood boxes of different colors, all lit from within. In “Indigenous Design in The Sleeping Beauty,” an article published in the production’s playbill, Kariel Galbraith (Tlingit, Dakl’aweidi Clan) writes, “When considering Carabosse as a Yeíl-like character, Singletary offers that these gifts represent the traits that make a good person, according to Indigenous teachings of the Sweat Lodge: Patience, Endurance, Courage, and Alertness.” With their illumination, Carabosse’s bentwood boxes are visually similar to the three glass bentwood boxes that hold the sun, moon, and stars in Singletary’s exhibition. Like Yeíl, even though she is the driver of conflict in the story, Carabosse brings gifts to her people which will enrich their lives. Also like the underlying messages in Raven and the Box of Daylight, PNB’s interpretation of The Sleeping Beauty invites audiences to consider the importance of family and accountability, as well as the eventual forgiveness shared between Carabosse and the rest of the Papillon family when her curse is broken. It is also worth noting that The Sleeping Beauty’s protagonist, Aurora, is named for the dawn – that is, the coming of the light.
The bentwood boxes containing the sun, moon, and stars in Raven and the Box of Daylight at NMAI.
The fairies present the lit bentwood gift boxes to the Papillon family in PNB’s The Sleeping Beauty. Photo © Angela Sterling.
Whether you are an established fan of Singletary’s work or a new admirer after The Sleeping Beauty, we are excited to let you know that Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight will be returning to the Pacific Northwest later this year, when it opens at Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, WA, on June 28, 2025. We hope that you will visit our partners – and fellow NARM members – to experience Yeíl’s story for yourself.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Singletary’s art has become synonymous with the relationship between Tlingit culture and fine art. His glass sculptures deal with themes of Tlingit mythology and traditional designs, while also using music to shape his contemporary perspective of Native culture.
Singletary started blowing glass at the Glass Eye studios in Seattle, WA in 1982, where he grew up and continues to work and live. He developed his skills as a production glass maker and attended the Pilchuck Glass School. Singletary began working at the glass studio of Benjamin Moore, where he broadened his skills by assisting Dante Marioni, Richard Royal, Dan Dailey and Lino Tagliapietra. It was there where Singletary started to develop his own work. In 1993 he traveled for work to Sweden where he was influenced by Scandinavian design and met his future wife, Åsa Sandlund.
In 2000, Singletary received an honorary name from elder Joe David (Nuu Chah Nulth) and in 2009 Singletary received an honorary doctorate degree from University of Puget Sound (Tacoma, WA). Forty years of glass making, creating music and working together with elders has put him in a position of being a keeper of cultural knowledge, while forging new directions in new materials and concepts of Indigenous arts.
Now recognized internationally, Singletary’s works are included in the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA), the Seattle Art Museum (Seattle, WA), the Ethnographic Museum (Stockholm, Sweden), The National Museum of Scotland (Edinburgh, UK) The British Museum (London, UK), The National Museum of The American Indian, Smithsonian Institution (Washington DC) as well as two solo exhibitions that toured multiple venues originating with the Museum of Glass (Tacoma, WA).