COMMUNIT Y PROFILE:
A Shared Blanket of Beauty Gallery of Native American Gems by John Peel
Photos by Lisa Mackey
D
onna Frank gazes around her downtown Durango gallery, brimming with art made by hundreds of Native Americans, and she is filled with wonder. “Beautiful people who make beautiful things,” she says. “It just awes me.” Frank started her business, A Shared Blanket, 39 years ago. She moved into her present location at 104 East Fifth Street, adjacent to the Durango & Silverton Railroad depot, in 2008, after a fire burned down her former location in the 700 block of Main Avenue. An artist with an education that includes a doctorate in archaeology/anthropology, she knows “every single artist” whose artwork she sells. So ask her a question and be prepared to absorb a lot of knowledge. Frank, a Colorado native, spent years on the East Coast and abroad before returning to Colorado. She was an archaeologist on St. Lawrence Island, above the Arctic Circle, and later at Mesa Verde National Park. She rented a loft studio to paint, which evolved into a gallery to include like-minded artists. Little by little, piece by piece and blanket by blanket, she built up a collection. To find authentic Native American goods, Frank drove her Toyota van to the Navajo reservation and put up a sign: “Buying rugs and art.” “Everybody came up and talked to me,” she says. It didn’t take long for her to start getting invited to weddings and other ceremonies, building lasting relationships.
88 Durango Magazine Winter/Spring
The name of her gallery comes from her childhood experiences at the Santa Fe Plaza, where she watched the Puebloan artisans lay out blankets with their creations for view. “That image stuck in my mind,” Frank says. In opening her gallery, “I was trying to put out a blanket for the artists.” A Shared Blanket is now filled with a dazzling variety of art made by Native Americans from Alaska to the rest of the United States. Some of the featured art and artists include: • Navajo sculptures of Susie Enoah, made from Colorado alabaster. • Hopi Kachinas by Patrick Platero, Law rence Charley, Virgil Long, and others. • Original paintings by J.C. Black and local artist John Grow. • Intricately carved pottery by Ute Mountain Ute artist Norman Lansing. • Hand-forged knives of Damascus steel by six different craftsmen. • Award-winning Navajo jewelry by Tommy Jackson and others. “I feel honored that they trust me with their works,” Frank says. She and her staff aren’t salespeople as much as they are educators. Every item has a story. “We help people find pieces that speak to them. ” “It’s fun being surrounded by beauty all day long.”
