The grand tour of Indianapolis!

By Eva Fognell, Curator of the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art

I recently returned from a week installing Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. It was just great! Brittany, IMA's registrar, was a master organizer all went according to her plans and schedule. It was a smooth and easy installation. IMA and its grounds are a delight and I even got myself photographed with the LOVE sculpture.

There are a few Cooperstown Graduate Program alums here in Indiana and I got to visit with Jane Hedeen, my own former class mate. Jane came down and meet me for lunch at IMA.

On Saturday my coworker Chris Rossi, Dorothy (my neighbor back home in New York and a former Indianapolis native) and I went to visit Johanna Bluhm, associate curator of western art at the Eiteljorg Museum.

Johanna interned with me in the Thaw Collection while a student at CGP. I really enjoyed seeing her at "her museum, her collection and her exhibit." Congratulation on a job well done, Johanna! We had a ball at the Eiteljorg - I especially loved the Christmas Train exhibit.

We also went to their storage facility and looked at everything... what a treat! Thank you, Johanna!


Sunday, Dorothy and I, in this Fiat 500, went to Columbus, Indiana. That outing is known as the "Modernism on the Prairie" tour and boy did we look at architecture!

We also toured the Miller House, a recent acquisition of IMA. Getting tickets to the tour was a tricky business. They have been sold out for every tour they have done since opening in May! IMA does 1-2 tours per day with 20 visitors in each tour, and they have a waiting list. No photos were allowed so here is the link to an article from Architectural Record.


I had a lovely lunch in a sweet little ice cream parlor that has been in business for 100 years! They had already decorated for Christmas. Somehow it felt right in this little place.

Many thanks to Dorothy for her tour of Nashville, Bloomington and its university!

“Birds and Beasts in Beads”

By Eva Fognell, Curator of the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art

On the weekend of September 17 through 19, Colgate University hosted an Iroquois beadwork conference in conjunction with their exhibition Birds and Beasts in Beads.

Samantha Clink, my student intern extraordinaire when she is not hard at work at SUNY Oneonta, joined me for a day of beads, bags and birds.

First we went upstairs to the Longyear Museum of Anthropology, to take a look at the exhibit.

There was lots of beautiful beadwork in the exhibit. The low light levels in the space (to preserve the textiles) makes the photographs a bit dark.

We enjoyed an interesting program with presentations by bead workers, scholars and collectors all day long.

The first talk of the day was by Karen Ann Hoffman from the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. Her talk was titled “Written in Beads: Iroquois Stories in Raised Beadwork.” She is a teacher as well as beadworker. The stories that she told, beaded into her work, were so fascinating.

On a light blue bag she beaded a turtle. A pearl in the corner is Sky Woman and Turtle is the land - these are part of the Iroquois Creation story. Here is Karen Ann holding her “Fall Map”, in her Council Map series:

The story she tells in this map is about 4 brothers and their dog named Four Eyes that hunts and kills a bear in the sky world. They butcher the bear and he bleeds, blood falls from the sky and that is why maple leafs turn red in the fall. Later the brothers have a great feast of bear meat and the fat sizzles down. That is why we have snow in late fall. The hunters’ slept the winter away and in early spring the bear constitute himself and he was off again for a new year. That is how the world continues.

Next up was Dolly Printup Winden, Tuscarora, a contemporary bead worker. Here she is talking about the familiy tradition. The photo in the background is of her grandmother selling beadwork:

There were also bead-workers there selling their amazing creations as well as a beadwork competition. Look at these photos of some of the amazing creations:

I also learned a lot about dating and styles of beadwork - information that will come in handy when working with our collection.

Installing "4 Artists Under 30"

By Chris Rossi, Associate Curator of Exhibitions

Fenimore Art Museum's Lower Level galleries boast some very high ceilings and a sweeping staircase that one could imagine making a grand entrance on. Recently we installed some exciting new artwork that took advantage of both features.

Leah explaining how her sculptures hang

Leah Shenandoah’s vividly painted stretched cloth sculptures float before and above the staircase, suspended from the slatted ceiling. Using this vertical space is a treat for us and provides an opportunity to create a new vantage point for our visitors and truly fill the space.

The sculptures are part of our 8th Contemporary Iroquois Art Biennial exhibit titled “4 Artists Under 30.” The exhibit features work by Lauren Jimerson, Awenheeyoh Powless, Shenandoah and Natasha Smoke Santiago. Three of the women know each other from time spent studying and creating art at the Rochester Institute of Technology. You can see a shared sensibility between Shenandoah’s bright colors and the palette used by Powless in her danced canvases. Jimerson has captured schoolmate Shenandoah in pastels. Santiago is self-taught and expresses traditional techniques in a unique way.

These young artists “take their place as the latest installment of artists coming from the land of the Haudenosaunee – witnesses to the Indian Way of Life who seek visual expression for their time and place.”

Otsego: A Meeting Place update

By Eva Fognell, Curator of the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art

Otsego: A Meeting Place officially opened on July 2nd. I have blogged a few times about this new outdoor site at Fenimore Art Museum, so I thought a follow up with some pictures of the site and of the activities that takes place there would be in order.

This sign greats visitors just as they are about to enter the site:

Mike Tarbell, educator at the Iroquois Indian Museum is here and talking to some of our visitors. Mike is Mohawk and a terrific teacher sharing his experiences and knowledge of the Iroquois culture.

There is lots to see in the log house. On one wall a finger-woven sash that is in the process of completion and beaded bags and splint basketry on the shelves help to tell the stories of the people that called a dwelling such as this one home. An interpreter is in the house and ready to talk about objects and art.

Outside one of the summer interns is chopping wood for the fire where he later will be cooking beans.

The garden is still in its infancy since the first plating was eaten by crows, but hopefully there will be something to harvest this fall.

Moosehair Embroidery on Birchbark

By Eva Fognell, Curator of the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art


When you go through The Eugene and Clare Thaw Gallery of American Indian Art or the open-storage Study Center the next time you visit Fenimore Art Museum, look for the intricate small objects made of birchbark and embroidered with moosehair. If you didn’t read the material section of the object label would you guess that the embroidery floss is made of moosehair? I had no inkling of this amazingly creative use of animal hair until I started to study Native American art.

Moosehair also was used by Native people prior to European contact to decorate objects but Native artists did not embroider directly onto birchbark. Prior to the use of birch bark to make decorative items Native people used it for canoes, wigwams, baskets, and more.

French nuns brought European embroidery traditions with them to the new world and started using moosehair as embroidery floss on birch bark in the beginning of the 18th century. The convents had little access to supplies and goods (imported silk treads etc.), and turned to local converted Native people and their natural resources for new materials.

The Native phase of creation of these wares began in the early 1800s. The mid 1800s saw a major turning point in the art of moosehair embroidery as tourism and the popularity of Native-made art purchased as souvenirs increased. Women embroidered many different types of objects with moosehair, creating wonderful masterpieces; boxes, scissor cases, needle cases, spectacle cases, card cases, cigar cases, purses, trays, fan handles, screen fans, pictures, decorative panels pincushion, photo frames, blotters and notecases. Ruth Phillips in her book Trading Identities wrote that “The origin of these wares was a true contact zone event that fused the technological knowledge of Aboriginal peoples with the entrepreneurship of the Quebec Nuns.”

The most common types of decoration are either local village scenes or everyday occurrences and include people, animals and plants.

This tray is embroidered with animal as well as human figures. The many scenes speak of life around the village. The woman on the left, smoking a pipe, may be going to the market with baskets she made for sale.

This small card case shows that the birchbark was first covered with red trade cloth and then a beautiful spay of moosehair flowers were embroidered on both sides of the case.

The short length of the moose-hair, only about 9-12 centimeters, makes only a few insertions possible for each hair. Natural dyes from roots, as well as aniline dyes, were used. The hair was pulled from the mane, rump, and neck of the moose because that is where the hair is the longest. The moose’s fall and winter coats provided longer and better quality hair.

The loose ends of hair on the reverse were always hidden by a second layer of birch-bark. The two panels, the decorated panel and the lining panel, were joined together and edged with strands of un-dyed white moose-hair laid along the edges and over-sewn with stitches of contrasting dark commercial thread.

Seneca Log House updates

By Eva Fognell, Curator of the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art


I’m here to update you on the status of the Seneca log house, now that spring has made it possible to see it out from under all the snow!

Here are a few photos showing the additions and changes that have taken place.

A fence marks the boundary of the site, and new trees, shrubs and grasses have been planted to create a space distinctly different from the great lawn that surrounds the museum on the lake side. Indigenous plants used by the Iroquois people for utilitarian purposes and for food will grow all around the Seneca log house.


As an aside, when I was out taking the log house photos I noticed lots of work taking place to make the museum grounds in tip top shape for the spring and summer season. New plantings and big baskets of yellow flowers adorn the back terrace, planted by the Clark Greenhouses.

The Brooklyn Museum's Tipi exhibition, starring our Horse Mask

Eva Fognell, Curator of the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art

Sitting in my office and reading the book Tipi: Heritage of the Great Plains, in anticipation of my visit to the Brooklyn Museum, I came upon an image of a war shirt (Shirt for a Chief’s War Dress) from the early 19th century. It is truly stunning. Our own magnificent beaded Horse Mask is also in the catalogue, as is one page from our Black Hawk’s Ledger Book. On another page is an image of a local Mohawk Valley landmark, The Tipi (on Route 20), which is where some of us, (guilty!) go for Hot Dog Pete’s great hotdogs with chili. But I am digressing…  The Shirt for a Chief’s War Dress was collected by Dr. Nathan Sturges Jarvis at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. It is such a beauty! Brooklyn Museum has so many treasures from all over the world. Thinking about the museum brought back memories for me...

War Shirt and leggings

For a long time while I lived in New York City the Brooklyn Museum was my favorite because SHE lived there. SHE was and is the most fabulous piece of art ever made, in my humble opinion. On the museum’s label she was referred to as Figure of a Lioness, 3000 BC - 2800 BC, from Elam. The unforgettable face and sculptured body, only 3.25” high but larger than life, is no longer at the Brooklyn museum, unfortunately. The Lioness was on loan to the museum when I saw it and it was eventually sold at Sotheby’s in 2007. Take a peak at the Sotheby site for some amazing close ups of this magnificent masterpiece of early art.

So this time it is not the Lioness that is calling me to the Brooklyn Museum but the opportunity to see the Tipi: Heritage of the Great Plains exhibit. I blogged about this show a few weeks ago so this is a follow up. The museum entrance had changed since I last visited. It was a much-discussed architectural revamp of the front. It was a bit startling to see the change but it will undoubtedly work better for the museum and it added more public space upon entering.

Front entry of the Brooklyn Museum

Tipi exhibition ad on Flatbush Avenue

The exhibition was on the 5th floor and covered quite a few galleries. Our Horse Mask is in the first gallery and looks magnificent. In the photo you can see the mask with the large tipi in the background. There were quite a few visitors in the galleries and everyone seemed to really enjoy the exhibit. The Shirt for a Chiefs War Dress looks even more powerful in person then in the catalogue.

Our Horse Mask in the gallery

Also check out what’s for sale in the gift shop! Love the little popcorn tipi! I had a wonderful visit and really enjoyed seeing our Horse Mask so prominently displayed.

Popcorn tipis for sale in the Brooklyn Museum's shop

Bringing Home the Thaw Collection from Minneapolis

By Eva Fognell, Curator of the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art

When my colleague Chris Rossi and I were at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts last October to install our traveling exhibition Art of the Native Americans: The Thaw Collection, the sun was shining and Minneapolis had a heat wave with 75 degree temperatures. But what a difference a few months makes! When I returned to Minneapolis for the dismantling of the exhibition, -2 degrees Farenheit welcomed me. And, since I had just got home from a winter vacation the cold weather was even more startling. From 90 degrees to -2 in 36 hours can shake up just about anyone; even this winter-hardy Swede.

Chris and I successfully dismantled the exhibition with much assistance from the fantastic MIA staff. However, the weather has made it impossible for the MIA to take down the teepees that have graced their front lawn, welcoming visitors and sending the message that the Native American show is here. All the snow in December and then some rain made the snow into icebergs that are not allowing the poles to be pulled up. So, they’ll stay put until spring!

The exhibition was a great success for the MIA. Nearly 28,000 people came out to see it during its run there. That is more then 7,800 over their target visitation. And that is with a few snow days when the museum was closed due to inclement weather!

I asked Joe Horse Capture, (MIA’s Native American Curator) to reflect on the experience of having this exhibit at the MIA:
Art of the Native Americans: The Thaw Collection was an opportunity for us to show our audience the highest quality of Native American art-which reinforces our mission as a museum. It is the first Native American art survey exhibition since 1972 Art of the Native American also provided us an opportunity to reach out to the Native American population in the Twin Cities. We had 45 schools with a high Native American population (which translates to about 1475 students) tour the exhibition. It was also great that the exhibition had the flexibility for us to add components that we thought would enhance the work-including the video interviews and photo blow-ups of the geographic regions. Lastly, the exhibition provided me an opportunity to show our trustees/patrons some of the best Native American art that inspires them to help the MIA acquire better works for our collection.

Here are a few words from a visitor’s email to the MIA:
American Indian Art is diverse and complicated, often times not lending itself to the typical academic theories about art for arts sake. However, if there are little to no opportunities to view American Indian Art in museums, the American public has no real place to cultivate an interest in it, and if the public has no interest, museums have little incentive to curate such exhibits. … Thanks to MIA for giving us the rare opportunity to experience this art form up close.

The picture below shows poignant evidence of a visitors emotional and appreciative response towards the exhibition and the objects: look carefully at the lower end of the photo with the shield. Someone gave an offering to the shield. The birch bark container contains tobacco - a sacred offering that feeds the shield.

Another Installation of Another Show (with apologies to Cole Porter...)

By Chris Rossi, Associate Curator of Exhibitions

Another Installation of Another Show
(with apologies to Cole Porter, on the occasion of installing Fenimore Art Museum's exhibition, Art of the Native Americans: The Thaw Collection, at its second venue, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts)

Another install'in, another show
In Cooperstown, Cleveland, or Minneapolo’
A chance for museum folks to say hello!
Another install'in of another show.

Another installation you hope will be a blast
Will make your museum’s future and salute its past
Another venue where visitation will grow
Another install'in of another show.

For weeks, you plan and rehearse
Three weeks, and it couldn't be worse
One week, will it ever be right?
Then out of the hat it's that big first night

The press preview is about to start
You cross your fingers and hold your heart
It's curtain time and away we go -
Another install'in
Another installation of another show!