27 research outputs found
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Officially Indian: Symbols That Define the United States. By CĂ©cile R. Ganteaume.
Exposition de vêtements de femmes des Premières Nations : L’Indian Style Show du Denver Art Museum
Le vĂŞtement, Ă©lĂ©ment habituel des expositions ethnographiques, est gĂ©nĂ©ralement prĂ©sentĂ© Ă plat dans une boĂ®te ou drapĂ© sur un mannequin. En 1942, Frederic Douglas s’est servi des 53 vĂŞtements de femmes des Premières Nations conservĂ©s au Denver Art Museum pour organiser un dĂ©filĂ© de haute couture. PrĂ©sentĂ© plus de 150 fois entre 1942 et 1972, ce dĂ©filĂ© visait Ă Ă©liminer les prĂ©jugĂ©s raciaux en montrant que toutes les femmes aimaient les beaux vĂŞtements. J’examinerai ici l’utilisation qui a Ă©tĂ© faite des vĂŞtements des Premières Nations dans le cadre de ce dĂ©filĂ©.Clothing is a standard item of ethnographic display, usually placed flat in a case or draped on a mannequin. In 1942 Frederic Douglas took 53 historic American Indian and First Nation women’s dresses from the Denver Art Museum to exhibit as an haute couture fashion show. Presented over 150 times between 1942 and 1972, the live exhibit was designed to eliminate racial prejudice by demonstrating that all women liked beautiful clothes. In this paper I discuss the use of First Nation attire in the program.El vestido, elemento habitual de las exposiciones etnográficas, se presenta generalmente tendido en una caja o suspendido sobre un maniquĂ. En 1942, Frederic Douglas utilizĂł 53 prendas femeninas de las Primeras naciones conservadas en el Denver Art Museum para organizar un desfile de alta costura. Presentado más de 150 veces entre 1942 y 1972, ese desfile trataba de eliminar los prejuicios raciales mostrando que a todas las mujeres les gustan las prendas bonitas. ExaminarĂ© aquĂ la utilizaciĂłn que se ha hecho de los vestidos de las Primeras naciones en el cuadro de dicho desfile
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Staging Indigeneity: Salvage Tourism and the Performance of Native American History. By Katrina M. Phillips.
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Economic Aspects Of Navajo Sandpaintings
Permanent sandpaintings, pictures of pulverized colored sands glued onto particle board, are made by the Navajo Indians of the American Southwest, specifically for sale to non-native consumers. This art form has experienced a widespread growth since 1958. By 1965 its production had become an important source of income for at least one community,Sheep Springs, New Mexico, as well as for many other individuals both on and off the reservation. Today almost 500 makers can be identified and while the industry is not yet comparable in size to weaving or silversmithing it is by no means negligible. Why has the spread of this craft-art been so rapid and widespread? The following· paper wil1 begin to analyze some of the reasons for the craft's success
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A New Deal for Native Art: Indian Arts and Federal Policy, 1933 –1943. By Jennifer McLerran.
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The Indian Fashion Show: Manipulating Representations of Native Attire in Museum Exhibits to Fight Stereotypes in 1942 and 1998
White Americans are inclined to forget how deeply imprinted is the influence of the Indian on our life and culture. Indian names and traditions have been absorbed into our language and folklore. It is interesting to be reminded that the dress and the materials they used also have provided ideas that are still being turned to account in giving distinction to American fashion trends.
—Rochester Democrat Chronicle
The exhibition has been a really brilliant success. About 2,000 students from public and private schools have been taken through the show by our staff or their teachers. Costume design students from the Maryland Institute have made sketches of the show. Adults as well as children have been enthusiastic. The receptionist tells me that more persons have asked for booklets or postcards of your exhibition than have made inquiries about any other exhibit held here. She estimates that a total of 25,000 people have seen the Indian show. It is high spot of the year.
—Belle Boas
For approximately twenty-five years I have been researching how museologists, especially anthropologists, have affected Southwest Native American art through their perceptions of, and interpretive paradigms about, Native peoples. Some theoretical issues I have been interested in are: (1) how and why museologists attempted to relabel and reevaluate ethnographic specimens as ethnic and fine art, (2) how they developed markets for and encouraged commodification of art, (3) how they created or tried to manipulate class-specific concepts of taste through displays, lectures, and outreach programs, and (4) the message museologists wanted to convey about quality to the Euro-American public as part of the continuous debates over crafts and material culture versus fine art, prestige, and status. American Indian studies scholars must address the theoretical and behavioral intersections of race, class, gender, and culture in the context of a multicultural United States and do so in ways that conceptualize America as a complex and dynamic culture that has experienced many fads and longer-term polar-value changes over time. We must also document how anthropologists and museologists have tried to fight stereotypes through manipulating and revaluing visual representations, and do so within the parameters of how cultural definitions have fluctuated through time and by place (to prevent presentism). Scholars must also attempt to understand how Native feelings and philosophies about these activities and collection and exhibition techniques have changed since the 1870s, again controlling for time and place and culture. When researching this complex and multifaceted topic, I have been theoretically concerned with both institutional and individual initiatives and the importance of setting, place, and social landscape over tim