Imagine a group of sixteen Andean textile arts enthusiasts peering through magnifying glasses at pre-Columbian pieces displayed on fabric-covered tables. Questions float around the room: “Can you identify the thread count?” “Is that knitted or looped?” “The label says Tiwanaku but is it Huari?” Smartphones hover over pieces as close-up photos are taken to be analyzed later.
This was the first of many similar scenes over ATA’s two days of behind-the-scenes, curator-led tours at our nation’s capital this past September. Our first visit was at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) Cultural Resources Center, the housing facility for its archives. Curator Amy Groleau, our host and guide, shares a similar passion for Andean textiles. She introduced us to the principles behind NMAI: why it’s different from most museums (archives organized by communities), how the architecture reflects Indigenous ideology (e.g. a kiva-like lobby and conical-shaped roof), and how it practices shared stewardship with the Indigenous populations it serves.
Amy had curated a small collection of Andean pieces for us to “ooh” and “aah“ over, which we did. And Susan Heald, the textile conservator, demonstrated some nifty tricks of her trade in the conservation lab.
We also visited with Rachel Menyuk, a processing archivist, who demonstrated how to access items within the collection’s digital archives. The selected example was Elayne Zorn’s archives, which were donated in 2012. One of the connecting threads for this collection relates to artist Aymar Ccopacatty who presented a textile talk for ATA this year. Aymar had studied Zorn’s collection, especially the photos taken in the Puno area on Lake Titicaca where Aymar’s family descended. Through Zorn’s work, he learned more about his cultural heritage, filling in missing ancestral links.
While Rachel answered questions about the digital archives, Kyle Marini, a PhD candidate of Art History at Penn State University, studiously turned pages of Zorn’s field notes. He commented that Zorn’s notes and illustrations were some of the best he had seen.
We continued to the NMAI on the National Mall to view the just-opened exhibition Sublime Light, the first retrospective of fiber artist DY Begay, showcasing forty-eight of her most remarkable tapestries and celebrating more than three decades of innovation. Curator Cecile Ganteaume guided us through this exhibition. Here we connected threads to our Andean friends in Peru with DY’s piece “Woven Through,” a result of sharing weaving techniques with Quechua weavers from Pitumarca, Peru. DY stated, “Many weavers proudly wear their handwoven serapes. I was deeply inspired and created a serape emulating Quechua style but applying my own colors and designs.”
Our second day highlight was at The Textile Museum of the George Washington University Museum where we saw The Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection (and the store there too!).
Cotsen Collection academic coordinator Karthika Audinet did her best to corral us, which was challenging given that Cotsen Textile Traces is home to one of the world’s most significant textile study collections. It was assembled by the late Lloyd Cotsen and consists of nearly 4,000 fragments of textiles created around the globe and dating from antiquity to the present, as well as some one hundred sample books. Karthika introduced us to the collection while showing us extraordinary pieces from the Andes including a Paracas fragment, a khipu, and a collection of very fine spindles.
Our afternoon concluded with Shelley Burian, curator of the Indigenous cultures of the Americas. She highlighted Andean pieces from the exhibit Irresistible: The Global Patterns of Ikat, led us through Art Uncovered: Visionary Textile Scholars and Their Archives, and wrapped up our day with a short presentation on the textile practices of the Indigenous Ecuadorians.
