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MUSEUM OF INTERNATIONAL FOLK ART
Digital Direct— To You!
As Museum of International Folk Art staff weather the coronavirus pandemic at home, their work on future exhibitions and educational programming continues.
Staff are also devising current and creative ways to reach museum-goers digitally, ensuring that you stay close to the museum while staying home.
These online offerings include the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs concert series “Our Fair New Mexico,” featuring virtual concerts from such beloved artists as Rob Martinez and Lara Manzanares. The concerts are presented in conjunction with the museum’s Música Buena: Hispano Folk Music of New Mexico exhibition.
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Wearing Your Purpose The Politics of Dress
Viewing Dressing with Purpose: Belonging and Resistance in Scandinavia, an upcoming Museum of International Folk Art exhibition, may cause visitors to reconsider the seemingly innocuous folk costumes and flower crowns of the 2019 movie drama, Midsommar.
The exhibition details the traditional costumes of the Swedish folkdräkt, Norwegian bunad and Sámi gákti—and the various implications that go along with donning these types of clothing. Along with intricate embroidery and fine leatherwork, the wearers of these outfits show off a sense of belonging, a set of values and an allegiance to history.
Folk Art Museum textile curator Carrie Hertz explains that two centuries of shifting Scandinavian politics and demographics have shaped not only the development of this dress, but how, where and why it is worn.
“It’s a really malleable way of communicating,” Hertz says. “It has been used by all different kinds of people with all different kinds of agendas, from the far right to the far left. You have people battling with each other over what it means.”
The traditional garb is rooted in various regional concerns. Beginning in the 19th century, as Swedes worried about the toll of urbanization, industrialization and emigration, preserving certain older styles of dress took on new cultural significance. Meanwhile, Norwegians used
Left: Sven Roos in Gagnefsdräkt and Lars-Erik Backman in Leksandsdräkt protecting their fiddles from the rain at Midsummer celebrations in Dalarna province, Sweden. Right: Fatima Aakhus and Randi Myrum in Setesdalsbunader, Norway. Photos by Carrie Hertz, 2015
Young women dressed for Syttende Mai (Norwegian National Day), Oslo, Norway. Photo by Chloe Accardi, 2018.
their dress to define a struggle for national independence, and indigenous Sámi wore traditional clothing to make their culture politically visible within countries where they were often treated as outsiders.
It’s hard to see how a brightly colored peasant costume might cause controversy. But in examining the surrounding politics, the implications of certain style decisions become clear. Hertz mentions new hijabs designed by Norwegians to accompany the bunad styles. Those who decry such innovations argue that Islam has no place in Norwegian national identity.
In Sweden, an ongoing battle rages between anti-immigration Swedish Democrats—who have used folk costumes as a display of mighty ethnic identity—and small communities that would rather keep their regional traditions out of the political fray.
Revivalists of folk music and dance are also swept up in these arguments. Hertz mentions a Swedish alliance called the Folkmusiker mot rasism (Folk Musicians Against Racism). Sara Parkman, co-founder of that group, says, “Those of us who see ourselves as being part of the world of folk music also have to understand that the world of folk music also was established on nationalistic foundations.”
Nearly $160,000 in private funding is needed to help Dressing with Purpose come alive for viewers. The museum’s supply of mannequins needs replenishing, says Hertz, noting that those modular displays don’t come cheap. Acquisitions, education programs and public events are other costs.
The museum also seeks to cover the costly travel of several collaborators who live in rural Scandinavia.
Plans for future exhibitions, though current as of April 30 press time, are subject to change.
