Panel Discussion | “Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery”
Pueblo (Acoma), Acoma Jar with Abstract Bird Design, early 1900s, clay, slip, and paints, Vilcek Foundation, IL.2020 – VF2019.02.02. Photograph © Vilcek Foundation
Pueblo (Tesuque), Figurine (Rain God), before 1900, clay, slip, and poster paint, Indian Arts Research Center, gift of unknown donor, 1999, SAR. 1999-9-31. Photograph © Peter Gabriel Studio
In a preview of Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery, curators Chelsea Dacus, Tara Gatewood, Christina M. Castro, PhD, and Tony Chavarria offer an inside look at the Pueblo Pottery Collective. This group of more than 60 members of 21 tribal communities wrote about artistically and culturally distinctive pots from two significant Pueblo pottery collections: the Indian Arts Research Center of the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and the Vilcek Foundation in New York City.
Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery combines individual voices from Native communities where pots have been made and used for millennia into an Indigenous group narrative. The traveling exhibition marks the first Native-curated exhibition at the MFAH and features more than 100 historical, modern, and contemporary items in clay.
Plan Your Visit
- Free with Museum admission.
- This panel discussion takes place in Brown Auditorium Theater on the lower level of the Law Building. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
- The exhibition, included with ALL ACCESS admission, is in the Beck Building. Attendance at this program allows special admission to the exhibition.
- Parking Information | Museum Hours | MFAH Campus Map
All Learning and Interpretation programs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, receive generous support from H-E-B; Institute of Museum and Library Services; Sempra Foundation; the Brown Foundation, Inc.; the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo; the John M. O'Quinn Foundation; the Joe Barnhart Foundation; the Cockrell Family Fund; the CFP Foundation; Macey and Harry Reasoner; the Texas Commission on the Arts; and the Junior League of Houston, Inc.
Endowment funds are provided by the Louise Jarrett Moran Bequest; Caroline Wiess Law; Windgate Foundation; the William Randolph Hearst Foundation; Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Fondren Foundation; BMC Software, Inc.; the Wallace Foundation; the Neal Myers and Ken Black Children’s Art Fund; the Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation; Medha and Shashank Karve; Virginia and Ira Jackson; Jesse H. Jones II; the CFP Foundation; the Favrot Fund; gifts in memory of John Wynne; Neiman Marcus Youth Arts Education; gifts in memory of Peter Lotz; and gifts in honor of Beth Schneider.
“Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery” was curated by the Pueblo Pottery Collective and organized by the School for Advanced Research and the Vilcek Foundation.
Generous support is provided by:
Duncan W. Corbett
Michael W. Dale
Colleen and Andrew Gold
Franny Koelsch Jeffries and John Jeffries
Alice C. Simkins
The Margaret Cooke Skidmore Exhibition Endowment