Southwestern Souvenirs

The Museum of Northern Arizona has been noted for offering fine cultural festivals of Zuni, Hopi, and Navajo culture and arts over the years. They had been suspended for a period of time, but now look to be back in line. As a longtime collector of Zuni arts, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to visit this year’s Zuni celebration on May 29-30. The museum and the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center at Zuni Pueblo co-sponsor the event.

What I particularly like about the festival concept is that it offers a carefully chosen program of activities decided by the Native peoples themselves, with input from a cultural institution with a proven history of dedication to the interpretation of Southwestern Indian arts. The Museum of Northern Arizona played an active role in encouraging the development of Hopi silverwork in the 1930s and 1940s, allowing Hopi artists to gain recognition for their skill in the jewelry medium, and for their fine designs in overlay.

"Zuni Olla maiden from Pueblo of Zuni, NM, in traditional clothing at Native American Arts Festival, April 1998." Photo by Sara Bartley, for "Annual Native American Arts Festival," a Nevada Local Legacies project.

How I wish I could tell that European tourist encountered in Scottsdale in March to come back for this event, or the Hopi festival on July 3-4, or the Navajo festival on August 7-8…

If your collecting tastes have begun to form, you may want to take in the Fair the way I do, by artistic media. In my case, this is jewelry. One caveat, though. Artists are interspersed through the grounds, regardless of what they make. Therefore, you will not find jewelers together in one physical area, or potters in another. Viewing by artistic category means a lot of walking, backtracking, and sudden dashes to different parts of the museum grounds.

On the other hand, it has been my experience that one’s focused viewing by media can be relieved by intriguing booths that suddenly appear next to the booth of personal interest. At this Fair, I was able to indulge my passion for Zuni beaded figures and fetish carvings without breaking away from my self-appointed program of jewelry viewing. The only thing I have to say against my chosen approach is that I always leave the grounds feeling like I haven’t seen “everything.” And the truth is, I haven’t.

The Heard Guild Fair offers the following categories for media:

• baskets
• diverse art forms (for those artists who refuse to be “pegged” or who do multiple media)
• jewelry
• paintings/drawings/graphics/photography
• pottery
• sculpture
• textiles/weavings/clothing
• wooden carvings

Navajo pottery artist Samuel Manymules, at the Heard Guild Fair.

Jewelry is the largest category by far, meaning lots of legwork for me. The fine arts category has grown larger in recent years, along with textiles and clothing, reflecting a growing ability on Native artists’ part to make these media attractive to consumers. The larger size of the jewelry and pottery categories also reflects their traditional popularity dating back to earlier decades when they seemingly represented what Indian “arts and crafts” were all about.

Even if Native arts of the Southwest are your real interest, The Heard Guild Fair has worked to encourage Native arts from all regions. I’ve discovered that seeing good metalwork by Seneca, Northwest Coast, and Plains artists has only sharpened my appreciation for Navajo and Pueblo jewelry. Thanks to institutions like the Institute of American Indian Arts, intertribal influences have helped artists everywhere build upon their Native legacies.