Museum of Northern Arizona — Two new exhibitions, many May events

Message from Mary –

At MNA we look at the land through many lenses. Some are literal lenses – microscopes, binoculars, and telescopes. Many are figurative – mapping data to reveal an otherwise unseen pattern or reconstructing a place in time from remnants that remain.

Art can be another lens to bring the world into focus. The Great Unknown: Artists at Glen Canyon and Lake Powell opens in May, exploring that area through the artistic lens of the photographer. The starting point is Eliot Porter’s striking, nearly abstracted images. Porter’s book The Place No One Knew established the genre of photobooks for environmental causes. Among the other works in the exhibition are the black and white photos by Martin Stupich, where the dam itself dominates the frame, as well as more recent images by Peter Goin that bring attention to what the receding waters of Lake Powell reveal. The Great Unknownhas been drawn from an exhibition of the same name previously on show at the New Mexico Museum of Art, and curated by Katherine Ware, MoA’s Curator of Photography.

Museum members will get the first viewing of this new exhibition on May 6, at a special evening event. If you are not yet a member of the museum, now is a great time to join. Your support helps MNA present exhibitions like this, and create the many programs planned for this summer.

I hope to see you soon at the museum,

Mary Kershaw

Executive Director & CEO

Museum of Northern Arizona

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Purchase admission tickets online or at the door.

Meet new MNA staff

The museum offices are full of people and activity again, and some of the faces are new. Maggie Twomey brings 12 years of event coordination to her position planning development events and Ventures trips. Maggie has lived in Flagstaff since 2005, but the new development associate, Katherine Fye, is fairly new to town. Come welcome them both to the museum at the first Thirsty Thursday on May 26.

Springs Stewardship Institute takes off

The Springs Stewardship Institute (SSI) has spread its wings to become an independent, globally focused institution, prompting a move from the museum campus into offices in downtown Flagstaff. Started at MNA in 2013 by Dr. Larry Stevens and Jeri Ledbetter, SSI now works with hundreds of colleagues in dozens of countries and manages a database containing 160,000 springs, primarily in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. SSI also just completed a global review of the conservation status of springs around the world, which will be published this year. Learn more about SSI here.

Grand Canyon: A stream of jewels

May 9, 3 pm via Facebook Live

Grand Canyon contains more than a thousand springs and at least 50 springbrooks that are among the few pristine perennial streams remaining in the Southwest. In this talk Dr. Larry Stevens, MNA’s Curator of Biology will explore springs hydrology and ecology, stream processes, and the biodiversity of this verdant drainage network in the Canyon. Past Grand Canyon talks are found on the YouTube.

Spring Plant Sale

May 21, 10 am – 2 pm at the Colton Garden

This event will be a one-stop shop for local plant starts and information about how to garden in Flagstaff. The Coconino Community Master Gardenersare working with MNA to hold their plant sale at our Colton Garden and Discovery Village. Besides plant starts and seeds for purchase, there will be garden talks, garden tool repairs and sharpening, kids activities, a bakesale supporting Northland Hospice, and the Dog House food truck.

Celebrating the voices of Navajo Women

May 21, 2-3 pm in person in the museum

Meet some of the women featured in the new book, “Voices of Navajo Mothers and Daughters: Portraits of Beauty,” and hear their stories. These compelling, multi-generational oral histories were collected by Kathy Eckles Hooker, and provide insights into the experiences of the Diné women, including the coming-of-age ceremony (kinaaldá), boarding schools and education, and sheep and wool-weaving.

Thirsty Thursday: Tha Yoties

May 26, 5 – 8 pm

General admission $15, $8 for MNA members

Tha ‘Yoties will rock the MNA courtyard again! Led by Ed Kabotie, Tha ‘Yoties are a reggae/rock/ska band known for their blend of lively performance, catchy melodies, and conscious message, which they call ‘IrieZona Reggae-Rock’. Mark your calendars for upcoming Thirsty Thursdays featuring other local bands on June 23, July 28, and August 25.

Bursting with color, this retrospective exhibit presents the full spectrum of art by Baje Whitethorne Sr., a visual storyteller acclaimed for his colorful paintings full of life and energy. Born and raised on the Navajo Reservation, his art often depicts the landscape around his family home near Shonto and the harmony of the Navajo way of life.

Opens May 7; Private viewing for MNA Members on May 6

For hundreds of years people have responded to the beauty of Glen Canyon by creating beauty of their own. This exhibition presents an artistic narrative crafted around human responses to the natural world, focusing on the twenty-first-century photographers who visited the canyon and lake to assess it as the dammed waters rose, then fell again due to drought.

These tracks were discovered in November 2020 at a construction site just a couple miles down the road from the museum. The prints are preserved in red sandstone from the Moenkopi Formation, which is estimated to be early to middle Triassic in age (252 to 235 million years). Now they are on view in the Jaime Major Golightly Courtyard.

Classes for adults at MNA’s Discovery Village

Pick up a new skill, from painting to pottery.

Nature Sketching, Sundays, 1:30-3:30 pm, email Liz Blaker to register

Beginning Watercolor, Thursdays and Saturdays, email Lisa Lee Pearce to register

Landscape Painting, Tuesdays 9 am – noon, email Deborah Mechigian to register

Ceramics, email Chas Frisco to register

Full-time, part-time, and internship positions open

Whether you are an experienced collections professional looking for a new challenge or a student seeking to gain skills, the museum has several positions open now and more opening soon. These are great opportunities to join a lively, dedicated team and be part of the renaissance of this venerable and forward-looking museum.

Share your writing

In the two newest exhibitions at MNA, artists bring attention to places that matter to them through painting and photographs. Baje Whitethorne Sr. also wrote short poems to go with his paintings. We invite you to write something too, either inspired by the exhibitions, or by the places they depict. Send your poems or short essays to khutchison@musnaz.organd you may be invited to read in the gallery at an upcoming Thirsty Thursday.

The triangular indentations around this redware pot are a distinctive pattern seen on pottery by Hopi-Tewa artist Garnet Pavatea (1915-1981). Garnet began making pottery in the 1940s and frequently demonstrated for visitors at the Museum of Northern Arizona. She created the corrugated design by pressing the end of a key style can opener into the clay. Find more pottery, as well as jewelry, baskets,and books at the Museum Giftshop, where every purchase supports MNA and the artists.

Select Museum of Northern Arizona to support MNA with every purchase when you buy through Amazonsmile.