Navajo Weavings of Teec Nos Pos (original) (raw)

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Trees in a Circle: Navajo Weavings of Teec Nos Pos

January 14 - April 15, 2006

The beautiful and distinctive pattern of Navajo weaving is the focus of The Grace Museum's newest Main Gallery exhibit. Trees in a Circle: Navajo Weavings of Teec Nos Pos opens January 14, 2005 at The Grace, and features a rare glimpse into the aesthetic, technical and design evolution of the weaving tradition of the Navajo nation.

Teec Nos Pos means Trees in a Circle in Navajo, and takes its name from the cottonwoods that grow around the water at this remote northeast Arizona location in the four corners region. The area is also home to the Teec Nos Pos Trading Post. The post originally opened in 1905, and has been run by four generations of the same family.

The exhibit features more than 30 weavings, some of which measure more than 7 feet tall. These spectacular textiles, along with insights from Navajo weavers and the subsequent story of the trading post's family heritage, highlight the exhibit.

Trees in a Circle will be on exhibit in The Grace Museum's Main Gallery through April 15, 2005.

The exhibit is generously sponsored by Ruth and Lee Caldwell, Carol Windham and James Harding, Larry and Judy Godfrey, Greathouse Foundation, Helen K. Groves, Terry and Donna Long-Wolfer, Gail and Howard Tobin, and Kim and Jim Snyder.

Gallery talk

A fourth generation Navajo master weaver will pay a special visit to The Grace Museum Thursday, January 19, 2005.

Roy Kady will give a Gallery Talk beginning at 6:30 p.m. in conjunction with The Grace's current Main Gallery exhibit Trees in a Circle: Navajo Weavings of Teec Nos Pos. Kady, a master weaver, is on the cutting edge of Navajo rug design. He takes the traditional craft and adds a modern edge. "Everything I put into a weaving is my thinking," Kady said, "so when I sell a rug, I'm selling my mind."

Kady, who was taught to weave by his mother and grandmother, teaches traditional arts, including weaving, to gifted and talented students at Teec Nos Pos school in northeastern Arizona.

In addition to weaving, Kady tends to 75 head of sheep and Angora goats. Unlike most Navajo weavers, he still gets most of his wool from his own herd and picks his own vegetables to produce the dyes in soft hues.

About the Grace Museum

The Grace Museum houses three museums in the historic Grace Hotel -- The Art Museum, The History Museum and The Children's Museum. Built in 1909, The Grace is on the National Historic Register. It is a four-story, 55,000 square foot, missions-revival style building, representing the hopes of the western frontier.

The art museum spilling into five gallery spaces on the first and second floors, offers a rich, diverse array of traveling exhibits as well as art from the permanent collection. The museum strives to show art from all over the world, from throughout history and in a broad range of mediums. Offering lectures, symposiums, demonstrations, family activities, and a wide range of children's programs, the Grace Museum is a leader in the cultural life of Abilene and West Central Texas.

The museum is on the corner of North First and Cypress Streets in downtown Abilene, Texas. Across the street is the restored Abilene Texas & Pacific Railroad Station, which is now the Convention and Visitors Bureau. Hours and fees are available through the museum's website.

Editor's notes

TFAO's Online Educational Programming for Museums and Art Centers features a section on Online audio which contains a page on podcastingwith examples from museums including the Grace Museum. The museum creates podcasts named MuseCasts for the benefit of its visitors. The Grace plans to add podcasts regularly to their web site, and upcoming programs will include gallery lectures, docent-led tours of the galleries and audio "eavesdropping" on The Grace's popular Children's Museum. On of the current podcasts is Trees in a Circle: Navajo Weavings of Teec Nos Pos and is available on the museum's website until April 15, 2006.

Resource Library readers may also enjoy these articles:

• Native American Art, a topic within Topics in American Representational Art, a catalog of TFAO
• Blanket Statements (9/19/05)
• Trees in a Circle: Navajo Weavings of Teec Nos Pos (9/15/04)
• Southwest Textiles: Pueblo and Navajo Traditions (2/20/04)
• Evolving Identities: Figurative Work from the 19th Century to Now (2/4/04)
• American Indian Art at the Spencer Museum of Art (9/25/03)
• Angel DeCora: American Artist and Educator; article by Sarah McAnulty (8/4/03)
• The Navajo Weaving Tradition (11/13/00)
• Stories Woven In: the Navajo Way of Seeing (9/9/99)
• Southwest Weaving: A Continuum (7/7/99)
• Navajo Weavings from the Getzwiller Collection (1/29/99)
• Gifts of the Spirit: Works by 19th Century and Contemporary Native American Artists (5/24/98)

Amazon.com produces page images, conducts OCR scanning, and makes available to registered users both text search and page image display for a large segment of the books it sells through "Search Inside" on the premise that the results will enhance book sales. A book featured in Amazon.com with excerpted pages is Trees in A Circle: The Teec Nos Pos Story, by Kerry Hannon. (right: front cover of Trees in A Circle: The Teec Nos Pos Story)

The Amazon editorial review says:

Trees in A Circle is an inside look at an Indian trading post that has been run by the legendary Foutz family for four-generations. It is a stunning collection of photographs by award-winning photographer Marcy Holquist displaying the unique weavings of the Teec Nos Pos region, located in the Four corners area where Arizona, New Mexico,Colorado and Utah come together. It tells the story of a dying craft and a vibrant skill that has been passed along from generation to generation.

Another book covering Navajo weaving with Search Inside excerpts is Navajo Weaving: Three Centuries of Change (Studies in American Indian Art) by Kate Peck Kent

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