"Pottery Families," a collection-based exhibition

Following a successful, Luce-funded research project based on the practice of relational curation, the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology (MMA) at the University of New Mexico will organize and present a year-long, collection-based exhibition of Pueblo Pottery that critically revisits the exhibition, “Seven Families in Pueblo Pottery,” presented at MMA 50 years ago. The current project is distinguished by the participation of 26 co-curators practicing Pueblo potters from 15 communities in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. With MMA staff, they have studied the holdings and have selected objects for the exhibition, which will be grounded in the knowledge and practices of individual makers and the histories and lives of their communities. The project allows MMA staff to deepen its ethical work with collections and serve participating artists and communities by helping to recover and share knowledge associated with clay and pottery traditions of Pueblo peoples and acknowledging the impacts of colonial systems on their histories. The presentation, which will include videos of the artist-curators in conversation and at work, is organized for a diverse UNM and regional audience, including students in area public schools.