Southwestern Souvenirs

The best place for Indian arts in Durango is Toh-Atin Gallery. We’ve only met Jackson Clark once during our visit several years ago, but we keep running into him at Indian arts events like the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market. Clark is particularly known as an expert on Navajo weavings and frequently judges those items at arts markets. He oversees an intriguing event over Memorial Day weekend up at Mesa Verde National Park.

Jackson Clark of Toh-Atin Gallery (Durango), with some of his amazing Navajo weavings.

This is a small Indian arts exhibition and market of local talent. Two years ago we based a trip out west entirely on attending this event. Everything went well until the day before. That morning I woke up and had for 32 hours what was either a mild case of salmonella or a really rotten stomach virus. If anybody has attended the Mesa Verde Indian arts show, we’d love to hear a report. It’s planned again for this year, but we’re opting for the Zuni Cultural Festival at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff.

The Heard Guild Fair has become one of the most significant events to showcase Southwestern Indian arts. Held on the first weekend in March for a little over fifty years now, this annual Indian market is a labor of love on the part of many volunteers. This year’s dates are March 6 and 7. Attendees in all categories of the arts — their works screened by a jury — occupy booths on the museum grounds. Participant numbers have risen steadily to  650-700 artists.

Outside at the Heard Guild Fair and Indian Market.

The show’s organizers invite more than just Southwestern Native artists, thereby providing a real overall look at the state of Native American artistry today. Southwestern artists predominate, however, and their works can be dazzling. The Guild Fair draws serious collectors and enthusiasts from all over to its downtown Phoenix location, and Valley Metro, the new light rail system now offers visitors easier access.

Inside one of the huge tents at the Heard Guild Fair and Indian Market.

Just like the Indian Market in Santa Fe, the first few hours are devoted to frantic collector viewing, but the atmosphere is lighter in tone than the larger event in New Mexico. Artists don’t feel compelled to show their most expensive creations here. Since the Fair is held on the museum grounds, it’s more compact in nature and such coziness is welcoming. Book signings, educational demonstrations, and high quality music and dance add to the festive mood.

New collectors and tourists with little or no experience in Indian markets will find this the perfect place to shop. Artists chat freely about their work, and the sense of quiet tension that marks booth occupants in Santa Fe is lacking here. For more description see my recent article in The Journal of Antiques and Collectibles (Feb. 2010; the print edition).