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Opening Nov. 5, 2021, on display through Feb. 13, 2022 The Heard Museum exhibition Toward the Morning Sun: Navajo Pictorials from the Jean-Paul and Rebecca Valette Collection is set to open in November. It will feature a little more than half of the 57 pictorial textiles donated to the Heard by Jean-Paul and Rebecca Valette in 2018. The collection includes pictorial textiles with woven images of elements originally depicted solely in sandpaintings, as well as depictions of scenes from the dance portions of multi-day ceremonies, some of which are no longer practiced or not practiced as widely. The exhibition’s co-curators are Director of Research Ann Marshall and Assistant Curator Velma Kee Craig, and the Mellon Fellows, Roshii Montano and Ninabah Winton. Our third Mellon Fellow, César Bernal, also worked on the exhibition up until June, when he had to leave for Maine to participate in an artist residency. Before his departure, he wrote this short reflection on how his participation in a Master Artist Diné weaving workshop facilitated by Gerard Begay helped him to better understand and appreciate the textiles within the collection. Enjoy!
—VELMA KEE CRAIG, ASSISTANT CURATOR Above: Asdzaan Nałi Chu (Diné, n.d.). Pictorial textile, 1895-1900. Four-ply commercial wool yarn, cotton embroidery thread, cotton warp, aniline dyes, 69 1/2 x 94 1/2 inches. The Valette Collection at the Heard Museum, Gift of Jean-Paul and Rebecca Valette, 4930-1
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