Category Archives: Native American art

“Grounded in Clay” in the Press

After the opening of SAR’s long-awaited exhibition, Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery, at the end of July, regional and national reviews have begun to appear. The response has been remarkably positive, exceeding even our expectations. Perhaps the most exuberant appeared in Forbes (August 26, 2022) in an article by Chadd Scott largely focused on this year’s Santa Fe Indian Market. Here are the relevant paragraphs:

“The Museum for Indian Arts and Culture premiers a groundbreaking exhibition of Pueblo pottery, “Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery.” On view through May 29, 2023 before heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Grounded in Clay” features over 100 historic and contemporary works in clay offering a visionary understanding of Pueblo pots as vessels of community-based knowledge and personal experience. The exhibition shifts traditional curation models, combining individual voices from Native communities where pots have been made and used for millennia into a uniquely Indigenous group narrative . . . .”

“Most of the items seen in Grounded in Clay come from the nearby School for Advanced Research, which houses the premier collection of Pueblo pottery anywhere in the world. It’s something of a secret as SAR’s work has largely occurred out of the public eye until now . . . Consider this an unmissable experience when visiting Santa Fe. A more powerful combination of art and spirituality may not exist anywhere in the world.

Other illustrated articles on the exhibition:

“Breaking the Mold,” New Mexico Magazine, August 2022 
 “A Community of Clay” Native American Art Magazine, issue 39
Community Focus” Art & Antiques, Summer 2022
60 Curators, 1 Show, Associated Press, 6 August 2022

GIC’s catalog will be available for purchase on Amazon.com in early September.

SAR’s “Grounded in Clay” Set to Launch on July 31, 2022

After years of preparation, SAR’s Indian Arts Research Center (IARC) will open its first-ever major museum exhibition, “Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery,” at Santa Fe’s Museum of Indian Arts + Culture on July 31.

The exhibition, which is entirely curated by Pueblo people, will begin a national tour next summer, opening at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, with a satellite exhibition at the offices of the Vilcek Foundation, the exhibition’s principal sponsor. The show will then travel to Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts and the St. Louis Art Museum. A documentary film about the exhibition is expected to be broadcast on New Mexico PBS in late summer. The exhibition’s catalog is now on sale at Amazon.com and the publisher’s website.

A website documenting the history and significance of this exhibition is accessible here. We expect that additional information, photographs, and video interviews will be added to the site in the coming weeks.

A short video interview of me by the UK’s Independent TV introduces the IARC’s collection and its spiritual significance to Pueblo people.

Lots to report in the coming weeks!