News from MIAC/Lab

FEBRUARY 25, 2020

(Santa Fe, New Mexico) – The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (MIAC) is pleased to announce the opening of the 2020 Native Treasures Living Treasure exhibition, featuring artwork by this year’s honoree, Kathleen Wall (Jemez Pueblo).  

The exhibition, A Place in Clay, seamlessly moves between clay sculptures and acrylic paintings, in which Wall engages with and explores her high desert surroundings. Finding inspiration in both her family’s artistic practices and the environment of Jemez Pueblo, Wall ask questions surrounding food sovereignty, language, and connection to place. 

"I have always considered Pueblo pottery to be an essential ingredient in my life," said Wall. "Over the last thirty years, I have begun my creative process with the same actions as my mother, my grandmother, and my great grandmother before her. I dig clay and volcanic ash in the same places that my mother showed me as a young girl. I have created most of my clay figures using traditionally processed clay from here in Jemez Pueblo…where I began." 

Curated by Lillia McEnaney, the exhibition features several pieces created specifically for the exhibition, providing visitors a new look into Wall’s ever-evolving artistic practice.

Location: MIAC, 710 Camino Lejo, Santa Fe, NM 87505 – Diker Gallery. 

On Display:  April 2021–March 2022. 

About the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture: 

 The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture is a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, under the leadership of the Board of Regents for the Museum of New Mexico. Programs and exhibits are generously supported by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, through the generous support of donors.

 As the 19th century closed, one of the Southwest’s major "attractions" was its vibrant Native American cultures. In response to unsystematic collecting by Eastern museums, anthropologist Edgar Lee Hewett founded the Museum of New Mexico in 1909 with a mission to collect and preserve Southwest Native American material culture. Several years later, in 1927, John D. Rockefeller founded the renowned Laboratory of Anthropology with a mission to study the Southwest’s indigenous cultures. In 1947 the two institutions merged, bringing together the most inclusive and systematically acquired collection of New Mexican and Southwestern anthropological artifacts in the country.  

 710 Camino Lejo off Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87504, Phone: (505) 476-1269.Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, May through October; closed Mondays November through April, closed Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. Events, news releases, and images about activities at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and other in divisions of the Department of Cultural Affairs can be accessed at media.newmexicoculture.org.