Koret Auditorium

William Fitzhugh, director of the Arctic Studies Center at the Smithsonian Institution, will discuss the Arctic collections of the Smithsonian and a new installation at the Anchorage Museum, Alaska.

Chuna McIntyre, Yup’ik artist and cultural consultant, will discuss a perspective on the restoration, conservation, and care of ceremonial objects.

Abraham Anghik Ruben, Inuvialuit artist, will provide an artist talk.

Roslyn Tunis, independent curator, will discuss the Fowler collection of Inuit and Eskimo art and the Yua, Spirit of the Arctic exhibition at the de Young Museum.

Join the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas; the Jolika Collection of New Guinea Art; the Caroline and H. McCoy Jones Department of Textile Arts; and a panel of experts for

Museum purchase, Dr. Leland A. and Gladys K. Barber Fund and American Art Trust Fund  Lecturer: Christina Hellmich, Curator in Charge of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas and the Jolika Collection of New Guinea Art 

Join the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas; the Jolika Collection of New Guinea Art; the Caroline and H. McCoy Jones Department of Textile Arts; and a panel of experts for

Museum Fakes, Forgeries, and the Quest for Authenticity: A Mini-Symposium

Thursday, February 9, 2012

The Textile Arts Council presents Lynn A. Meisch, Professor of Anthropolgy, Saint Mary's College of California.

The only documented continuous Inca weaving tradition involves abstract maize-motif belts woven in the Andes of Huamachuco in northern Peru. Prof. Meisch identified these belts in 2002, and her research involved a 16th-century manuscript, French and American textiles researchers, museums, highway robbers, and the Peruvian spinners and weavers. Her talk covers the importance of maize to the Incas, the decoding of the manuscript, how local women warp and weave the belts, the challenges of doing fieldwork in this region, and the gendered significance of the belts, which have linked female fertility with maize agriculture for at least 700 years.