Elysia Poon and Laura Elliff Cruz working with Met staff Sara Levin (Associate Conservator, Objects Conservation), Lauren Stimola (Maintainer Pack Shop), and Jo Robles (Maintainer Pack Shop) to prepare Grounded in Clay works for transport to Houston.
After a year of stellar reviews and visitors from all over the world, IARC staff recently traveled to New York to deinstall the second venues of Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Vilcek Foundation. The deinstall took place in order to prepare it for travel to its next venue in Texas. Over the course of two weeks, IARC director Elysia Poon and head of collections Laura Elliff Cruz carefully worked with Met and Vilcek Foundation staff to take apart the exhibit, prepare the condition report, and pack each pot into its crate.
Head of collections Laura Elliff Cruz condition reporting and packing a pot into its crate with Vilcek Foundation registrar and manager of collections, exhibitions, facilities Seamus McKillop.
“We are always happy to visit with the pots during installation or deinstallation,” noted Poon. “It’s like catching up with old friends, seeing what adventures they’ve been on, how their travel went.” Deinstallation was also assisted by the Vilcek Foundation’s Native American Arts Fellow Povi Romero, who was hired to help interpret the exhibition during its run at the Vilcek Foundation. Povi’s parents are community curators Mateo Romero and Melissa Talachy Romero.
Povi Romero preparing to pack a jar made by her grandparents Thelma and Joe Talachy. The pot was chosen for the show by community curator Samuel Villarreal Catanach and was on view at the Vilcek Foundation.
The third installation of Grounded in Clay will take place at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH). SAR, Vilcek, and MFAH staff been working closely together to plan the intricate details surrounding the presentation of the exhibition in Texas and look forward to its opening with the Pueblo Pottery Collective and the public in mid-October this year.