New Year’s festivities inevitably include reviews of the year that’s winding down. For SAR’s first blog post of 2024, I prefer to pivot toward the near future. Although some details have yet to fall into place, I’m pleased to identify highlights of our programming for the coming months.
Grounded in Clay. Our much-lauded exhibition of Pueblo pottery, remains on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Vilcek Foundation in Manhattan until June. It will open on October 20 at Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts, where the entire exhibition will be on display in a single location.
“Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery” Reception at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 10, 2023. Photo courtesy of The Met. Credit: Paula Lobo.
Photo courtesy of Performance Santa Fe. Illustration by Keiko Fitzgerald.
Native Storytelling. On January 24, SAR will be partnering with Performance Santa Fe for an evening of Indigenous storytelling at the Lensic, The Aunties: Women of the White Shell Water Place. SAR is sponsoring the post-performance talkback at the Lensic, moderated by Tara Gatewood (Pueblo of Isleta, Diné).
Pueblo Fiber Arts. Beginning in late March, the IARC will launch biweekly talks on Pueblo fiber arts to celebrate the 2024 show of the Pueblo Fiber Arts Guild in May. The talks will feature a range of talented Native textile artists, fashion designers, and basketmakers.
Photo courtesy: Louie Garcia (Tiwa/Piro), the artist of this traditional Pueblo weaving.
Creative Thought Forum Series on Social Inequality. On April 28, we will begin a series of events that explore the deep history and contemporary implications of social inequality. In partnership with the New Mexico History Museum, archaeologist Tim Kohler (Washington State University) will present a lecture assessing how and why human societies became more stratified beginning 10,000 years ago. Kohler’s talk will be followed by the annual President’s Lecture on May 4, to be held at the Lensic, which will feature a talk on the persistence of poverty in the U.S. by noted sociologist Mark Rank (Washington University, St. Louis), with a follow-up discussion at SAR on May 5. As part of the series, we will soon be announcing the date of a member discussion of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s controversial book The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, led by SAR board member and archaeologist Jeremy Sabloff.
Admin building at SAR. Photo by Garret P. Vreeland.
Author Interviews and more. We expect to add one or two online author interviews and a local field trip during the winter and spring. Dates and times will be announced as soon as they are available.
SAR Gala: Save the Date. SAR will hold a gala fundraiser on campus on June 8. Information on the gala will be available soon.
In sum, at SAR we’re looking forward to a busy, engaging winter and spring. I hope to see you at many of these events.