Posts from ‘May, 2020’

Object labels are generally mounted adjacent to the objects in an exhibit and identify the object for the viewer. They usually include information such as: Artist or Maker and Year(s) of birth and death, the Title of the object and Date created, the Medium (material) from which the object was made, the Donor of the […]

With fabrication complete for the wood cleat mounting hardware and sewing complete on the textiles, it was time to install the hardware and textiles. Tom Worley from Facilities Services had fabricated the mounting hardware and continued to work with us on this part of the project. We did a test run of the mounting hardware […]

The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado has a large collection of Rio Grande textiles. With hopes of viewing some of these, I contacted Polly Nordstrand, their Curator of Southwest Art. I met with her and Michael Lorusso, Assistant Registrar regarding various aspects of collections management. We began with […]

History Colorado Center in Denver, Colorado is home to the Woodard Collection of Rio Grande textiles. From the same family, the Luther Bean Museum received the Woodard Collection of southwest pottery, retablos (Hispanic sacred paintings on wood), and antiques. Part of the internship was to visit museums with collections similar to ours and to learn […]

We were fortunate to work with Tom Worley from Facilities Services and met with Tom initially to discuss options for mounting hardware and hanging methods for the Rio Grande textiles. Because the textiles would be mounted high up on the stairwell walls, and installation would take place from the top of a ladder maneuvered on […]

We had set the date of Saturday, March 9, 2019 for the sewing party and I had sent an advance email, requesting volunteers from our museum advisory committee to help sew. The sewing of the Velcro/twill strips does not need to be done by a professional, but it does require care and attention to detail […]

After reviewing best practices for textile support systems, we chose the Velcro support system for its ease of installation, for its even distribution of weight across the width of the textile, and for its strength and ability to support heavy textiles. We purchased spools of Velcro (which comes in two parts: loops and hooks) and […]

The main project of my internship was to curate, plan, and develop an exhibit of Rio Grande textiles from the Luther Bean Museum (LBM) collection. I had learned much from my own research, the Mark Winter NMAM 2018 conference lectures, and especially my visits to the Millicent Rogers Museum. My concept for the exhibit was […]

The first Navajo textile we viewed during Mark and Linda Winter’s consultant visit to the Luther Bean Museum (LBM) was a late phase Chief blanket in very good condition. Mark folded the blanket to show how the pattern would appear when worn. I found it amazing that these patterns were designed in the mind of […]