Southwestern Indian Basketry
November 2-5, 1997
Old Roots, New Growth: Adaptation and Innovation in
Contemporary Southwestern Indian Basketry
Dubin Artist Fellow Kevin Navasie, a yucca ring basketmaker from Hopi First
Mesa, worked at the IARC throughout the summer on his baskets, and assisted with the
November 1997 Indian Basketry Convocation. This meeting brought together ten accomplished
basketmakers from throughout the southwest who represented Santa Clara Pueblo, Navajo,
Akimel O'Odam, Tohano O'Odam, Jicarilla Apache, and several different Hopi villages. The
School commissioned a basket from each weaver for the permanent collection, provided a
stipend, space in a twelve bedroom house so all the participants could live together,
meals and transportation, and assisted with their study of the basketry collection here.
The convocation participants spent four days of intense
discussion 
and debate on topics at the frontiers of this artform including the creative
process; the past, present, and future of this ancient tradition; and styles, materials,
and techniques. The goal of this convocation was to provide an opportunity for in-depth
communication among these highly skilled artists whose work is among the finest, most
creative being produced today. The School provided the format to facilitate and encourage
productive discussion that broadened the horizons of individual participants and lead to
the dissemination of information for scholarly and public audiences.
The basketmakers decided that a museum exhibition and a small basketry market would help
expose more people to their work. The result was a public exhibition and a weekend-long
public educational seminar in conjunction with a basketry market which was held May 14-16, 1998 at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. The exhibition built upon the
School's convocation, incorporating the work of all the basket convocation participants. The IARC loaned thirty historic period baskets from the School's collection, as
well as the new pieces, which had been commissioned for the convocation. The exhibition
runs through October 28,1998.
Images: [Above Right] Coiled
tray by Rikki Francisco, copyright 1997
[Above Left] Remalda Lomayestewa and
Abigail Kaursgowva at the convocation.
Indian Basketry Artists of the
Southwest
Deep Roots, New Growth
Now available
from SAR press.
