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!

Final Destination - Indianapolis

By Chris Rossi, Associate Curator of Exhibitions

Greetings from the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), where colleague Eva Fognell and I are installing our traveling exhibition, Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection, at its last venue in this 2-year long tour. The IMA has a collection of over 50,000 works of art from a variety of cultures and periods in art history. It also features traveling exhibits such as our own. Situated in the midst of 152 rolling acres, which include a nature park, mansion and gardens, the museum is a lovely place to install an exhibit.

Once again we are working with a topnotch crew to unpack our collection and get the objects in place. Every venue has given us a new way to think about the collection and how to present it. David, the designer here at IMA has chosen wonderful colors and layout for the gallery to offset and compliment the objects.

Tips from the road

By Chris Rossi, Associate Curator of Exhibitions

After packing and installing our traveling exhibition, Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection  six times I've picked up a few things. Curator Eva Fognell and I like to think that by the time we finish the tour we may have perfected installing and packing the 111 American Indian objects we have been traveling.

At each venue we have had the pleasure of working with talented preparators who have taught us a few new tricks about art installation. The Cleveland Museum of Art staff tipped us off on new ways to coat and pad our brass mounts.

Minneapolis Museum of Art staff introduced us to the use of magnets for hanging textiles. That technique was just the thing for installing the unframed canvasses by Awenheeyoh Powless in the 8th Contemporary Iroquois Art Biennial: 4 Artists Under 30 exhibit now on display at the Fenimore Art Museum:

Our last venue, the Dallas Museum of Art, ended with preparator Mary drawing a level mark on one of our more difficult to hang mounts. A seemingly simple act, but we have struggled for ages to get the Box and Border robe consistently hung at just the right angle. All we were waiting for, apparently, was a fresh perspective from a kind colleague at another venue:

We have one more stop in our tour. I am looking forward to meeting the staff at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and have no doubt they will add something new to my toolbox!

What a difference a day makes!

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

What a difference a day makes!

My colleague, Chris Rossi,  and I were just in Dallas deinstalling our traveling exhibition Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Dallas Museum of Art. Dallas was dry and had a light smell of smoke in the air from the terrible fires that were burning in parts of the state. The drought was visible as I flew into the Dallas /Forth Worth airport and the city looked exhausted from the heat wave.

All went well when we took down and packed up the exhibition. I left Chris to finish up the last day of packing by herself while I flew to Naples Grand Resort in Florida to present a paper at the Embroidery Guild of America’s International Embroidery Conference. My paper was entitled THE EMBROIDERY OF THE AMERICAS AND INFLUENCE OF COLONIALIZATION.

So what difference a day makes. Look at this view out my hotel room in Naples! The Embroiders Guild sure knew where to hold a conference.

This may be where they dispose of presenters they don’t like? ☺

My talk was on moosehair embroidery on birchbark. I presented my paper on the opening night of the conference. It was followed by a dessert reception on the terrace.

The following 2 days were filled with interesting and lively presentations on various topics. My favorite might have been on the huipil embroidered blouse tradition made by Maya women in Guatemala.

Look at this beauty. Over 60 embroidered birds on this blouse. The little parrots sitting there in a row may be my favorites.

A very interesting and varied work week!

Opening Week for Art of the American Indians at the Dallas Museum of Art

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

I recently spent a great week at the Dallas Museum of Art doing what I love doing; talking and thinking about American Indian art.

I arrived in Dallas on Monday the 18th. Tuesday morning was off to the DMA for press tours at 10 am. It was an impressive event as their Board President introduced the exhibit and its sponsors. My guess is that about 35-40 people were there for the tour. Here are a few of the reviews that were published by various organizations in the following week: Dallas Art News, D Magazine and Art & Seek. At the bottom of this blog is the review from the Dallas Morning News.

Wednesday was the big opening evening event for a select group of members and sponsors. Carol Robbins (the DMA curator of the show) and I took a group of people on a tour and after drinks and snacks and much talking about the exhibit we later went for a wonderful dinner at Stephen Pyles restaurant around the corner from the museum.

On both Thursday and Saturday I did a few more tours of the exhibit with members and other interested parties. On Thursday we were joined by Lou, (“doing a tour with a dog named Lou” is my new opening line to that famous song …) who was an adorable little Chivava service dog accompanying her owner:

Thursdays, the DMA is open late night and there was live music and lots going on in the museum. The glass flowers are by Dale Chihuly:

Monday was for training docents and a wonderful, interesting and thoughtful group they were! Maybe about 70-80 docents attended the talk and although I had a few hours to take them round the galleries there just is never enough time!)

Spiritual works: Thaw Collection brings American Indian creations imbued with a sense of the sacred to the DMA


To a Texan overdosed on Santa Fe blankets, kokopelli dolls and turquoise bracelets, a museum show of American Indian artifacts might not seem a prime draw.


But “Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection,” which opened Sunday at the Dallas Museum of Art, will open eyes to wonders far beyond clichés of Southwestern tchotchkes.


Exploring widely varied indigenous cultures from the Northeast to the Great Plains to Alaska, stretching back a whole millennium, it’s a revelatory display of earthy vigor balanced by exquisite detail, visual fantasy by material practicality. From cultures that sensed supernatural forces in earth and sky, rain and wind, coyotes and snakes, items as different as capes, war clubs, masks and pottery exude totemic resonance.


Organized by regions, more than 100 items are on a national tour from the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. The show was assembled by Eva Fognell, curator of the Fenimore’s Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art.


Eugene Thaw had a distinguished career as a dealer and collector of European art. But on retiring to Santa Fe in 1987, he was captivated by the purely aesthetic qualities of American Indian artifacts. By 1995 he and his wife had amassed a substantial collection they offered to the Cooperstown museum, which built a new wing to house it.


There are some eye-poppers here: a circa-1850 Chilkat robe boldly patterned in cream, black and white; a 15{+t}{+h}-century clay jar with amazingly modern-looking geometric designs; a Navajo blanket brilliantly striped in red, white and black.


At the other end of the spectrum are finely woven baskets by early 20{+t}{+h}-century artists Scees Bryant Possock, Louise and Elizabeth Hickox. The 19{+t}{+h}-century introduction of tiny colored beads, bought in trade from the white men, inspired finely worked garments, bags, even saddles. French missionaries taught embroidery to the Hurons in Quebec, with results including a miniature settee with exquisite floral designs on birch bark.


The hybridization of aboriginal and invasive cultures is a recurrent counterpoint. A paint-decorated circa-1800 hunting coat is made of caribou skin, but in a contemporaneous European cut. Commercial cloth, silk ribbons, glass beads and ostrich feathers are incorporated in an exuberantly decorated hood presented around 1850 to Lord Elgin, the British governor-general to Canada.


“Eye-dazzler” serapes in the Southwest were made possible by commercial, synthetically dyed yarns. As the 19{+t}{+h} century progressed, the American flag began to appear as an emblem of power.


More striking, though, is imaginative use of indigenous materials, and not just animal skins and bird feathers. The Indians of the Pacific Northwest were particularly ingenious in steaming and re-forming wood and even animal horns into food containers and implements. Looking at a silky waterproof parka, decorated with zigzags of dyed walrus and polar bear fur, you wouldn’t guess it’s made of seal intestines dried, sliced into strips and stitched together.


Spirituality imbues much of what we admire. Prayers were offered as Indians scooped clay out of the earth to make pottery, and as weavers began to make baskets. Garments and masks had ritual uses; animal skins and hair incorporated animal forces into clothing. A Lakota lyric says, “Something sacred wears me.”


Add deep, nature-based spirituality to imaginative use of materials and real visual flair, and the DMA show is well worth a visit.

Dallas, Here We Go!

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

On to the 3rd stop of the national tour of Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection – the Dallas Museum of Art!

When I left Cherry Valley to go to Albany to catch a plane for Dallas, it was snowing! When I arrived in Dallas, I was greeted with sun and a glorious 80F! It is amazing how different the world looks when the sun is shining. Green trees and flowers lined the highway into Dallas. I arrived a few hours before I could check into my hotel so I decided to walk around and familiarize myself a bit with the neighborhood that will be my back yard for the next week.

As I was walking down the street, I saw a very colorful sign announcing that I was near the museum:

I kept walking down the street and came to an entrance:

I kept walking around the block – and there was another entrance:

Somehow neither looked like the main entrance of the museum so I followed the street and around another corner, and there it was! A HUGE frontlet looking at me. Maybe the biggest banner I have ever seen!

Very fittingly, facing the entrance is a glass mosaic by the artist, author, art historian, ethnologist and caricaturist - the multitalented Miguel Covarrubias. It is called Genesis, the Gift of Life. An amazing piece of art:

It is many years since I last read The Eagle, the Jaguar, and the Serpent - Indian Art of the Americas; North America: Alaska, Canada, the United States. Maybe looking at this mosaic every day for a few weeks will inspire me to go back to his writings.

I hope to report more from Dallas in the next few weeks as the exhibit goes up and programs and opening events take place.

A Pit Stop for Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection

By Chris Rossi, Associate Curator of Exhibitions

In addition to getting ready for the upcoming season here at the Fenimore Art Museum, the curatorial team is hard at work overseeing our traveling exhibit the Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Our objects are back from the Minneapolis Institute of Art and are resting comfortably until its time to hit the road for our next stop – the Dallas Museum of Art.

The parka takes a break from its crate.

For some of the objects that means getting a break from their crates and relaxing on manikins. Others are getting conservation care to make sure they look and feel their best for the Dallas venue.

Making sure all is well with the Boy’s shirt.

The crates themselves also need maintenance. Preparator Steve Loughman and I worked with Thaw Collection Curator Eva Fognell to review the crates and repair evidence of wear and tear. Over the course of packing and repacking, truck travel and handling, crates may need reinforcement, reworking or repair. Bolts strip and foam may wiggle loose. We need to make sure all the crates are ship-shape before hitting the road.

Securing loose padding inside a crate.

We will soon be repacking those objects that are out of their crates. Then off they go to Dallas, with Eva and I to follow and once again oversee installation at a new venue. The exhibition opens in Dallas on April 24.

Opening Festivities for Art of the Native Americans: The Thaw Collection, at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts

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

Fenimore Art Museum’s traveling exhibition, Art of the Native Americans: The Thaw Collection, opened at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) on October 24, 2010. Eva was there to celebrate and train teachers and docents. Here’s here recap of the opening events.

From teacher’s education programming and docent training to the opening day event this was one of the most inspiring, impressive and fun series of events I have been part of in a museum setting. The audiences at the MIA were wonderful, energetic, very interested and very grateful that they had a chance to see the magnificent collection. It was a successful, well-executed, and exciting weekend and the MIA had certainly put an extraordinary amount of their resources behind our exhibit.

On Thursday October 21st the museum hosted a 4-hour program for K-12 teachers. Four hundred thirty seven teachers were registered for the program that focused upon the exhibition and its themes. The museum had developed an extensive curriculum guide available on CD as well as on-line for in-class teaching. The teachers were also toured through the galleries. The teachers were asked to rank their experience that day and an overwhelming majority rated their visit to the exhibit as the best part of the program.

Thursday evening was also the MIA’s 3rd Thursday event when the museum is open from 5-9 pm. Live rock music bands, art making, dancers and performers were everywhere. The museum was very busy with people of all ages, including teenagers and 20- and 30-somethings. The gallery was open to members and there was a large audience in the gallery all evening long.

On both Friday and Saturday Joe Horse Capture (the MIA’s Associate Curator of Native American Art) and I conducted training sessions for museum docents. Over the two days at least 80 people participated in our tours. Their enthusiasm was truly amazing. Many had spent considerable time familiarizing themselves with the objects in the exhibition prior to the training sessions.

Representatives from the Twin City Press (St Paul), Star Tribune (Minneapolis), as well as NPR and St. Paul Magazine toured the exhibit on Friday. They all asked in-depth questions and were very impressed by the exhibition. This was later reflected in the superlative reviews that appeared in the Sunday editions of their respective papers:

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/art/105479213.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU

http://www.startribune.com/galleries/105205549.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/state-of-the-arts/archive/2010/10/native-american-art-is-alive-and-beautiful.shtml

On the last day, Sunday, a brunch event for 150 invited guests officially opened the exhibit. Later I presented a lecture, Masterworks in Native American Art. Throughout the day there was a museum-wide celebration featuring free art activities, story time, music and entertainment.

Photos by Eva Fognell and Joe Horse Capture

Native American art is alive and beautiful

The Ferns, ca. 1904

Scees Bryant Possock (ca. 1858-1918) Wa she shu (Washoe)

Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor

On Sunday October 24, Fenimore Art Museum's traveling exhibition, Art of the Native Americans: The Thaw Collection, opened at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. We'd thought our blog readers would like to see a wonderful review of the exhibition, given by Minnesota Public Radio. If you are in the region, it's well worth a stop by the MIA to see the show.

Native American art is alive and beautiful | State of the Arts | Minnesota Public Radio

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!