Matika Wilbur's "Project 562" is an ambitious and fascinating photographic study of Native American culture and an equally ambitious artistic project of which Tacoma Art Museum is fortunate to be able to present to the world the inaugural exhibition.

Wilbur is a Native American with connections to the Tulalip and Swinomish tribes. Over the past year she has traveled more than 60,000 miles in the Western United States taking photographs of contemporary American Indians in their home environments, be those environments the reservation, Southwestern plains or urban or suburban America. Wilbur's intent is to document the lives of contemporary Indians in each of the to-date 566 federally recognized Native American tribes through portraits of boys, girls, men and women (and, I would hope, gender-ambiguous two spirits honored by many Native cultures).

Wilbur began photographing members of the Coast Salish Elders for the "We Are One People" project after her late grandmother, a prominent Swinomish leader, appeared to her in a dream and urged her to come home and photograph her people.

Read Alec Clayton's full review of Matika Wilbur's Project 562" in the Music & Culture section.

"MATIKA WILBUR'S PROJECT 562," 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 5-8 p.m. third Thursday, through Oct. 5, Tacoma Art Museum, 1701 Pacific ave., Tacoma, $8-$10, 253.272.4258, www.TacomaArtMuseum.org