A brand-new reason to visit the Heard Museum is on the horizon: “Twilight: Trading Posts and Creative Legacies” opens its doors on October 25, celebrating the brilliant Indigenous artists whose creativity flourished around the trading posts of the Southwest.
The exhibition traces a fascinating century-long story. In the early 1900s, trading posts and Native artists developed a close relationship that sparked a golden age of finely woven textiles, with designs becoming signatures of specific posts and regions. Too often, though, the names of the individual weavers — and their families — were lost behind the trading post’s identity.
“Twilight” sets the record straight. As social and technological change swept the Navajo and Hopi reservations in the late 20th century, weavers increasingly asserted themselves, creating textiles that reflected their own artistic visions and reaching audiences far beyond the reservation. The exhibition follows this beautiful arc of creative independence through textiles, pottery, jewelry, and photography from the Heard Museum’s collection.
Highlights include a recent acquisition by Diné artist Calvin Toney and a charming pictorial textile by Florence Riggs depicting the exterior of a trading post. “It is about artists… finding a way to honor and continue important aspects of culture,” says Dr. Ann Marshall, the Heard’s Director of Research.
Mark your calendar for October 25 — this is a joyful, eye-opening celebration of Indigenous creativity that will make you see American art history in a whole new light.
Photo: Jerry Jacka / Heard Museum
