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MUSEUM OF INDIAN ARTS AND CULTURE
Come Together— Digitally!
As Museum of Indian Arts and Culture 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 enable the public to explore various objects from exhibitions via social media and the museum website. A vast research and collections page, including an online library and classroom curricula to keep students busy, can also be accessed from home.
Visit these resources and stay connected today!
indianartsandculture.org
• Library • Online Exhibitions • Podcasts • Research and Collections • Wonders of the World Educational
Curriculum
Social Media
• Facebook • YouTube • Vimeo
Visit museumfoundation.org/ virtual-visit for links to all online resources.
Museum of Indian Arts and Culture
Clearly Original Indigenous Expressions in Glass
The story of Native American glass art is one of fusion and transparency, like the medium itself. It involves the meeting of two minds: pioneering glass sculptor Dale Chihuly and Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) co-founder Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee), who got together in the 1970s to invite a generation of Native artists to practice glass making.
Their artistic and cultural exchange is explored in Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Re-Imagined in Glass, a groundbreaking future exhibition being planned for the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. The show highlights the work of 29 indigenous North American artists with that of two Australian Aboriginal and two Maori glassworkers, for a total, with Chihuly, of 34 featured artists.
“We’ve basically tapped all of the artists who are doing significant work in glass from the U.S., and also from Northwest Canada,” says Letitia Chambers, former CEO of the Heard Museum and co-curator of the show with Cathy Short (Potawatomi). She adds that she was surprised and delighted to watch the show grow to represent the entire lifespan of Native glass work.
Early works include pieces from IAIA student Larry Avakana (Inupiaq) and his teacher Carl Ponca (Osage). Second-generation glass artists such as Preston Singletary (Tlingit) and Dan Friday (Lummi) are represented, as well as contemporary Pueblo artists such as Virgil Ortiz (Cochiti Pueblo) and Jody Naranjo (Santa Clara Pueblo), who primarily work in other mediums.
Chambers traces the genesis of the exhibition to a conversation she had with New more than 20 years ago. Before his death in 2002, New told Chambers how the Studio Glass and contemporary American Indian art movements came together to create an art genre all its own: Native American glass art.
Chambers always knew she wanted to tell that particular story. After she left the Heard, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture director Della Warrior convinced Chambers to bring Clearly Indigenous to Museum Hill. An accompanying book from Museum of New Mexico Press is also in the works.
Left: Raven Skyriver (Tlingit), Submerge. Photo courtesy KP Studios. Right: Jody Naranjo (Santa Clara Pueblo) and Preston Singletary (Tlingit), Flying South for the Winter. Photo courtesy Blue Rain Gallery.
Chambers notes that the cultural exchange that took place in 1974, when Chihuly left the Rhode Island School of Design to teach glassmaking at IAIA, went both ways.
“Dale Chihuly was influenced by his stay here and by American Indian arts,” she says. Chihuly blew glass cylinders of Navajo blankets, and Chambers also notes that the influence of Northwest coast tribal basketry is evident in many of his glass baskets.
Clearly Indigenous also gathers pieces from Pueblo potters in collaboration with Tlingit blower Preston Singletary, who crafts vessels for artists to carve and paint designs upon. “Those are some of the most interesting pieces,” says Chambers. She’s also jazzed about another Tlingit artist, Raven Skyriver, who crafts large sea creatures in glass.
The Museum of New Mexico Foundation has set a goal of $200,000 in private support to help mount the show, which will take up all four rooms of the museum’s Masterpiece Gallery. This includes the cost of shipping glass works and creating original mounts and specialized lighting in the exhibition space. Sponsorship opportunities range from $5,000 to $25,000. Exhibition-related educational programming requires funding as well.
Excitement for the show is already at an all-time high.
“For art lovers in New Mexico, it’s going to be an exhibit that’s worthy of their support,” Chambers says.
Plans for future exhibitions, though current as of April 30 press time, are subject to change.
