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westernartgirlBehind-the-Scenes Tours at the Southwest Museum Allow a Peek at Conservation Effort
On September 8, visitors to the Southwest Museum of the American Indian got a very special chance to peek behind the plastic sheeting during one of the museum’s quarterly tours. The Southwest Museum has been open to visitors on Saturdays since May. Because much of the building is still being used to conserve, document, and … Read more
Repackaging a Delicate Treasure
Sophie Hunter, collections associate for the Autry’s Southwest Museum Project, looks over a worn cardboard box marked “Mojave” to figure out how to unpack it. Inside is a confused mass of tissue, packing peanuts and bubble wrap, and inside that is an ancient-looking ceramic urn with designs painted in red. Hunter knows it is not … Read more
New at the Autry: Los Angeles’ Oldest Museum
In the lobby of the Autry now is a sampling of the treasures of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian collection, including a pipe that once belonged to Sitting Bull, an ancestral Pueblo basket that is at least 1,500 years old, and a “basket hat” from the Haida culture whose owner, we understand, was … Read more
A Showcase for Native American Art — by Kids!
In keeping with the Autry’s apparent mission to turn little-used spaces into destinations within the museum, the Overlook Gallery, a covered balcony directly above the Trails West activity area, is now Our West, a space dedicated to showcasing art by Southern California students. Collectors, by the way, are welcome. Right now, Our West is showing … Read more
Adrian Wall Explores the Soul of Rocks
Stone sculpture doesn’t much come to mind in your average conversation about Native American arts and crafts. It’s just not a medium Native Americans traditionally have used very much, except perhaps in the carving of fetishes. For Jemez Pueblo artist Adrian Wall and his fellow sculptors, that’s precisely the point. “It’s a medium that is … Read more
A Welcome Mat to View Some Very Special Scraps of Cloth
A couple of really specialized groups visited the Autry this month to get a behind-the-scenes look at some very rare artifacts. On Oct. 23, 20 members of several Southern California quilting guilds arrived to look at historic quilts in the Autry’s collection that are not currently on display. And on Oct. 9, the North American … Read more
The Marketing of an Ancient Culture
Is it fair game for a person to trade on his/her cultural traditions by selling them as art to outsiders? Does the label “art” ever depend on a person’s ethnicity? Native American artists wrestle with these questions all the time. And they are worth examining as the Autry’s American Indian Arts Marketplace 2010, the largest … Read more
Sounds From a Technological May-December Romance
At first, the sound is scratchy and full of clicks and pops. But after a few seconds, a lyrical voice rises from the MP3, singing an operatic aria in a seldom-heard, nearly century-old recording. The voice is that of Agustarello Affre, a leading tenor at the turn of the 20th Century, recorded in 1912 at … Read more
Justin Farmer Draws Basket Fans
Justin Farmer, an Ipai Native American who is an authority on Indian basketry, last weekend conducted “Working Knowledge,” a seminar on identifying, collecting and caring for baskets at the Wells Fargo Theater at The Autry, drawing a total 111 people over the two days. Farmer, who in the past has been affiliated with the Southwest … Read more
