Current Exhibitions Gallery Hours
Cutter World Maps
Exhibition Dates: Aug 2011 - Sept 2012
This exhibit features 15 authentic and intricate world maps dating from 1595-1810, along with historic artifacts from around the world selected from our museum vaults. This exhibit has been developed by student archives and museum assistants Jenna DeVincenzo and Kelly McBride.
Come enjoy one of our most prized and extraordinary collections! To view digital images online, you can also visit the finding aid.
Exhibition Dates: Mar 18 - Dec 2011
Opening Event: Mar 18, 2011, 4pm - 6pm
In celebration of 100 years as an outstanding educational institution, Fort Lewis College and the Center of Southwest Studies have opened a new major exhibit honoring the remarkable heritage of the College. In three parts, the exhibit focuses on distinct chapters of Fort Lewis history: the military fort period (1878 - 1891); the Fort Lewis Indian School (1891 - 1911); and Fort Lewis A&M (1911 - 1956).
Exhibition Dates: June 17, 2010 - Dec 2011
Opening Event: June 17, 2010, 5pm - 7pm
Treasures Unveiled is an exhibit of unique and rarely seen items from the Center’s collections. This exhibit will "explore for treasure" in a number of ways.
The word treasure can have many meanings. The Southwest holds national treasures, such as Canyonlands and Mesa Verde National Parks. People, too, are treasures. Artists like Stanton Englehart and R.C. Gorman are venerated for the beauty they create. Some treasures have more personal meaning: a family possession that survived the journey west, or perhaps a wedding photograph or an heirloom quilt. Some treasures are less tangible, such as a thoughtful word or stories of a different way of life.
The Center of Southwest Studies invites you to joins us in a Southwestern treasure hunt!
Upcoming Exhibitions Gallery Hours
Check back for info on upcoming exhibits!
Selected Past Exhibitions
Virgil Ortiz: Visionary Artist
Exhibition Dates: May 25 - Dec 2011
This exhibit features comtemporary native artist Virgil Ortiz, who blends tradition with edgy provocation in his art as well as his fashion designs. This exhibit has been developed by student library assistant Emilio Diaz.
World-renown Cochiti Pueblo artist Virgil Ortiz has taken the entire genre of Native American art to new levels. His intricate designs blur the line between the appropriate and provocative and the beautiful and grotesque; making Virgil one of the most unique and talked about artists today.
Visual Re-Count: A Boarding School Era Retrospective as Seen Through Native Youth
Exhibition Dates: May 25 - Dec 2011
In this art installation, Dine (Navajo) sisters - Ruthie, Sierra, Chamisa and Santana Edd - examine the Federal Indian policy of educating Native American children. These young artists address the disruptions to tribal life when children were removed from homes and placed in government-run boarding schools. For inspiration, they draw upon their own
experiences of acculturation as residents of Durango, as well as the boarding school experiences of their grandparents. You can view work by the Edd sisters at eddgirlart.weebly.com.
Fiber Celebrated 2011
Exhibition Dates: July 21 - Sept 24, 2011
Fiber Celebrated 2011 is an exhibition of handwoven or handmade fiber forms that are one-of-a-kind, including functional household items, functional wearable items and 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional work emphasizing decorative, expressive or sculptural ideas. The juried exhibition is organized by the Intermountain Weavers Conference.
This year's juror is Juanita Girardin, who owns a fiber studio in Velarde, New Mexico.
Exhibition Dates: Mar 18 - July 2011
This exhibit presents a viewpoint of how propaganda and American stereotypes have influenced and impacted Native American cultures and identities. Juxtaposing stereotypical, visual images with historical facts, this exhibit explores the experience of culture assimilation, identity and knowledge.
The Real Savages began as a Fort Lewis College student independent study project by graphic design major, Babe Lansing, who is Ute Mountain Ute. The project was inspired after a summer semester in Germany studying propaganda in art. Art professor Paul Booth facilitated both the summer semester, and Lansing’s project. What resulted from dedicated research and creativity was a student exhibition that was first displayed in the Fort Lewis College Art Department and is now featured in the Center's main gallery. "My ideas and motives have come from a variety of sources and influences within my own life and culture. I am pleased to see that the overall final product has exceeded by far what I expected when I first started this project," says Lansing.
Wish You Were Here...
Selections from the Nina Heald Webber Southwest Colorado Postcard Collection.
Exhibition Dates: Oct 4, 2008 - Feb 2011
This collection is a visual documentation of the events, places, and people of Durango and the greater Four Corners region.
Postcards sent to loved ones are as popular today as they were over 100 years ago. With brief greetings, postcards tell of travels, adventures or good news. Today they provide us with glimpses of turn-of-the-century Southwestern communities, historic events, people and towns.
Exhibition Dates: Aug 22, 2009 - Jan 22, 2011
Is your institution interested in exhibiting Mountain Lion!? Visit the Mountain Lion! website for further details.
RARE: Imperiled Plants of Colorado
Exhibition Dates: Oct 10, 2009 - May 31, 2010
Rocky Mountain Society of Botanical Artists (RMSBA) has organized a juried, traveling exhibit of 40 rare plants of Colorado. The exhibit is designed to introduce the public to the most imperiled plants in Colorado and educate them to the importance of protecting these plants. It also seeks to illustrate the usefulness that contemporary botanical art plays in ecological education and preservation today. The illustrated plants were selected from the Colorado Rare Plant Master List. The RMSBA will work with the Colorado Rare Plant Conservation Initiative to promote rare plant education at each showing. The exhibit debuted at Denver Botanic Gardens in March of 2009 and will continue on to the Steamboat Art Museum in Steamboat Springs and the Business of Art Center in Manitou Springs after its stay at the Center of Southwest Studies.
Woven to Wear: Navajo and Hopi Textiles from The Durango Collection®
Exhibition Dates: September 17, 2009 - January 22, 2010 at the Avenir Museum of Design & Merchandising
Opening Event: Sept 17, 2009, 5:30pm - 7pm
Representing 800 years of weaving in the Southwest, The Durango Collection® forms the cornerstone of the Center of Southwest Studies, chronicling the remarkable achievement of Pueblo and Navajo weavers. This exhibition of a portion of the collection pays homage to the creativity and skill of Navajo and Hopi weavers. Mantas of the Hopi parallel the introduction of cotton to the Southwest. And Navajo textiles reflect the Dine (the Navajo name for "the People") concept of harmony.
Fiber Celebrated 2009
Exhibition Dates: July 31 - Sept 18, 2009
Fiber Celebrated 2009 is an exhibition of handwoven or handmade fiber forms that are one-of-a-kind, including functional household items, functional wearable items and 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional work emphasizing decorative, expressive or sculptural ideas. The juried exhibition is organized by the Intermountain Weavers Conference.
The Fine Art of Revolutionary Crochet
Exhibition Dates: Feb 8 - Aug 2, 2009
Featuring the work of internationally recognized fiber artist & costume designer Birgitta Bjerke spanning 1964 - 2008.
The work of 100% Birgitta has a story to share. It tells of her personal history and changing times by looping together family, friendships, loves, and the cultural attitudes of the places she lived and worked.
Birgitta’s work spans several decades and illustrates social and political attitudes of the 1960s through the 1980s. Her key work includes clothing and fashion design, graphic illustration and drawing. Her work can be wild and revolutionary, or precise and practiced, but it is always 100% Birgitta.
Transitions: Navajo Weaving, 1880 - 1920
Exhibition Dates: June 22, 2008 - Aug 2, 2009
This exhibition features a selection of transitional Navajo weavings from the renowned Durango Collection®.
Navajo weaving is admired for its beauty, innovative designs and the endurance of the art form. However, although historic weavings sell on today’s art market for thousands of dollars and acclaimed weavers name their price for award winning pieces, many weavers have struggled to make a living from this time consuming art form. Hours are spent in the weaving process, and also in procuring and preparing the woolen yarns. Unfortunately, the dollar return in exchange for the time or money required to prepare or procure materials and complete an intricate weaving has often been extremely low, even for the finest weavings. Navajo weaving is often misinterpreted as a part-time endeavor for weavers, between tending to chores and children. In fact, often times, and especially during the 1880s to 1920s, weaving was a major contributor to the Navajo economy, and at times surpassed all other industries. Even today, weavers may support entire families through weaving.
Images of the Southwest
6th Annual Juried Photography Show
Exhibition Dates: Jan 25 - Mar 27, 2009
Our annual photography show was juried this year by David West of David J. West Gallery in Springdale, Utah.
Connections: Earth + Artist
A Tribute Art Show in Resistance to Desert Rock
Exhibition Dates: June 22 - Sept 28, 2008
In December 2006, the Elders, with the help of Elouise Brown , set up a grassroots resistance camp called Doodá Desert Rock in opposition to the third coal-fired power plant to be established in the Four Corners region. Translated simply, this says "No Desert Rock." The camp sits on a desert mesa near the location proposed for the power plant. To the passing traveler, the area looks desolate and dry, yet it holds many natural underground springs, and traditional sacred sites for prayer and ceremonies.
Curated by Venaya Yazzie, this juried exhibition featured work that unites artists with the community in resistance to Desert Rock. To read the entire exhibition statement, click here.
The Old Spanish Trail: Conduit for Change
Exhibition Dates: Jan 27 - May 15, 2008
The Old Spanish Trail was primarily a horse and burro pack route linking Santa Fe to Los Angeles. The trail evolved from a network of Indian and Hispanic trade thoroughfares criss-crossing the modern states of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California.
Forged by Hispanic traders in 1829 as a trade corridor, the Old Spanish Trail was the first successful Euro-American effort to connect the Mexican frontier provinces of New Mexico and California. The overland trail linked the burgeoning ranch economy of the Pacific communities to the pastoral villages of the intermountain southwest. Ultimately, the Old Spanish Trail became a crucial part of the commercial triangle comprising the Santa Fe Trail in the east and Mexico’s Camino real in the south.
Although the trail was neither "Spanish" nor "old" when western pathfinder, John C. Frèmont, coined the term in his now famous report of 1845, Anglo-Americans popularized the name. To Hispanos the trail was known variously as "el Camino de Nuevo Mexico" or "el Camino de California."
After being exhibited at the Center, the exhibition travelled to the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is currently on display at the Anasazi Heritage Center through Oct 31, 2009.
The Jewelry of Ben Nighthorse
Exhibition Dates: Jan 21 - Oct 28, 2007
In the late 1950s, when Ben Nighthorse's jewelry career began, Indian jewelry was defined by Southwest Indain jewelry styles and was created with the region's trademark materials, silver and turquoise. In the 1970s, the Madison Avenue fashion industry popularized Indian jewelry. Artists such as as Ben followed this new trend and focused their talents on jewelry making. The growing Indian jewelry market encouraged artists to experiment with innovative forms and styles and to exchange design ideas. Ben's early work shows the the range of techniques and designs explored by Indian jewelers during this pivotal era.
A portion of this exhibit is still on view in the Center's exhibition cases.
Circle of the Spirit
Navajo & Tibetan Wisdom for Living
Exhibition Dates: Mar 13 - Oct 22, 2005
This exhibition was accompanied by special programs with visiting Tibetan monks from the Gaden Shartse Monastery in India, including a solstice sighting, tea offering, sand mandala, music and chanting. After its exhibition at the Center, the exhibit travelled to the Navajo Nation Museum in 2006.
Exhibition Policy & Forms
Exhibit Policy
Permission to Photograph Gallery
Visual Artist Exhibition Waiver Form
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