Category Archives: Projects and Programs
A Basketry Class Act
The neighborhoods surrounding the University of Arizona hold a bounty of local treasures, from the Postal History Museum to an Ace Hardware with unrivaled vintage ambience. Also on this list of UA area unique institutions is Ha:san Prepartory and Leadership School “a bicultural public high school for Tohono O’odham youth and Native students interested in [...]
Tohono O’odham Basketry
The Tohono O’odham today weave more basketry than any other American Indian tribe. It is estimated that there are 300-400 active weavers today. This number is still a far cry from generations past when essentially all women wove baskets for their families and communities, for tasks that included desert plant gathering to holding ceremonial saguaro [...]
Clay Speaks
Arizona State Museum’s 20th annual Southwest Indian Art Fair brings accomplished and well known Native artists from all over the Southwest, but one family in particular stands out for their knack in making waves in the art world internationally.
Native American Music and Dance Performances at SWIAF 2013
Native American music and dance is as diverse as the many tribes themselves. Most traditional Native songs and dances can be linked to ceremonies or social gatherings. Today Native musicians and dancers continue their traditional forms, and also draw from these for inspiration as they create new forms of music and dance that combine elements [...]
Delbridge Honanie, 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
The Southwest Indian Art Fair is proud to name Delbridge Honanie as its 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner. Delbridge is a Hopi artist specializing in paint and wood carvings, born in 1946 in Winslow, Arizona. He grew up in Shungopavi Village, Second Mesa, on the Hopi Reservation and has spent the last 20 years living [...]
Southwest Indian Art Fair 2013
Arizona State Museum’s Southwest Indian Art Fair brings together a cross-section of Native American cultural traditions through art sales, music and dance performances and demonstrations by highly skilled artists. Living cultural practices, coupled with meaningful conversations with the artists, provide context for understanding the artwork produced and on sale. This year’s fair, on February 23rd [...]
Repatriation and Collaboration: Opening Our Doors to Indigenous Communities
Today’s blog is written by Dr. John McClelland, Lab Manager for ASM’s Osteology Lab and NAGPRA Coordinator. Most people think of museums as places where things are preserved in perpetuity. It may surprise you to learn that my job at the Arizona State Museum is to find ways to give things back! As Native American [...]
Happy GIS Day!
In honor of GIS day, ASM research specialist Shannon Twilling wrote today’s blog. Shannon is the Assistant Manager of the AZSITE Database and ASM’s Archaeological Records Office. AZSITE is the official geographic information system for managing cultural resources in the state of Arizona. November 14, 2012 is the annual celebration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) [...]
A Slow Look, A Short Poem
Today’s blog is written by Lisa Falk, Arizona State Museum’s Director of Education, and this blog’s editor. People come to museums for a variety of reasons, but chief among these are to see objects, the art and artifacts on display. But according to those who study visitors in museums, visitors spend very little time actually [...]
