| Message from Mary –
November is Native American Heritage Month, an opportunity to spread awareness of Indigenous history and contemporary Native issues. At the Museum of Northern Arizona we share and celebrate the Indigenous peoples of the Colorado Plateau year-round, both in our exhibitions and through special programs. This month we have a panel discussion about Indigenous foods with a Diné chef and a performance by a group of young Native dancers who have earned international recognition. Both programs are rooted in tradition while being contemporary and relevant – an appropriate reflection of Indigenous peoples and culture today.
A visit to the Museum is always a good way to learn about Native American Heritage, this month and year-round.
I’d also like to remind you that the exquisite exhibition of Joella Jean Mahoney’s paintings, Vast Lands, Inner Visions, comes to the end of its run on November 6th. If you haven’t yet seen this exhibition, do see it before it goes. If you have had the pleasure of visiting it, I encourage you to take one more opportunity to enjoy these vibrant paintings.
I look forward to seeing you here.
Mary Kershaw
Executive Director & CEO
Museum of Northern Arizona |
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Protecting ancestral sites
MNA archaeologists are assisting the National Park Service in protecting an ancestral village in Petrified Forest National Park that is being damaged by erosion from an adjacent drainage. Our goal is to learn about the architecture, subsistence, and technology of the people who lived there between AD 250 and 400. The site contains some of the earliest pottery produced in the Puerco Valley. |
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20th Annual Celebraciones de la Gente
The museum was buzzing October 22 & 23 to celebrate the Day of the Dead with mariachi music, poetry writing, sugar skull decorating, and dancing by Flagstaff’s Ballet Folklorico de Colores and the Aztec Fire Dancers. On Saturday evening the museum’s historic courtyard was aglow with candlelight illuminating Flagstaff Nuestras Raices’s ofrendas. Save the date for next year’s event: October 26-27, 2024! |
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More Than a Meal
November 5, 2023 at MNA 2 pm
Expert panelists will discuss appropriation of Indigenous foods and crops, the impacts of colonization on food security, and current trends in Indigenous foodways. This series is a collaboration between MNA and the Sedona Arts Center, funded by the Arizona Humanities.
Drawing Cultural Inspiration
January 21, 2024 at Sedona Arts Center 2 pm
Expert panelists will discuss Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists’ use of cultural symbols, the history of Indigenous representation in art, and the dynamics of the dominant culture and artists who rely on selling their art for financial success. |
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Indigenous Enterprise Dance Performance
November 25, 11:00 am and 1:00 pm
$25 Non-members/$10 MNA Members/$5 Child/ $5 Native American
Champion dancers representing tribes from the Colorado Plateau will perform and share their culture. Indigenous Enterprise is a Phoenix-based Native American collective founded to share Indigenous culture through film, fashion, and dance. They have performed at the Super Bowl, Sydney Opera House, Joyce Theater, and the 2020 Presidential Inauguration and received critical acclaim from the New York Times and Vogue Magazine for their captivating performances and stunning visual artistry. For more information and tickets:Indigenous Enterprise Dance Performance |
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Collection Center tours
November 10, March 8, April 12, May 10
3 pm – 4 pm, registration required
$15 Non-members/$10 MNA Members
Free for Native Americans
There’s one more behind-the-scenes tour of the Easton Collection Center this year. These docent-led tours take a small group of people into the ECC, where MNA cares for more than 800,000 objects. Visitors will see highlights from the collection. |
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Winter Market & Open House
December 2 & 3, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Free museum admission
Enjoy a day of browsing, buying, and visiting with 25 Native artists. The museum has free admission for the weekend and has again coordinated with Coconino Center for the Arts and Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy to hold our holiday markets on the same weekend, so you get three different markets on one road.
The entire museum is open and free to everyone all weekend long. |
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Holiday Card Workshop
Nov. 11, 10 am to 2pm
Additional times may be added
Artist Lisa Lee Pearce guides participants through the process of creating beautiful, handpainted holiday cards. Templates and materials provided. Email Lleearrist@gmail.com for details, prices, and to sign up.
Landscape Painting
Tuesdays from 9am-12pm
Landscape painter Deborah Mechigian teaches fundamentals of composition, perspective, and color mixing in the Guernsey Building. Email rockhunterdeb@gmail.com for details, prices, and to sign up.
Ceramics Classes
Potter Chas Frisco teaches wheel throwing and hand building in the Newberry Building. Registration for these classes is directly through the instructor. Email chasarts101@gmail.com for details, prices, and to sign up. |
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Vast Lands, Inner Visions
Closes November 6
This exhibition presents key paintings by one of the most important female artists of the Southwest. Mahoney’s art career spanned sixty-six years, from her roots in the abstract expressionism of the 1950s to her role as a mentor and master artist with a distinctive style that bridges realism and abstraction. |
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Watercolour Diaries from the Green River
Opens November 20
Members Preview November 19
A visual journey along the Green River, from the frozen granites of the Wind River Range to the confluence with the Colorado in the red sandstones of Canyonlands. Seen through the detailed watercolor paintings of Tony Foster, we see the river as it exists and as a repository of ancient fossils. |
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Seeing People Through Trees
This exhibition showcases different ways people need trees and have related to them in varied ways through the decades, as revealed by what we’ve left in the forest. From stone axes to cross cut saws, this exhibition looks at the forest and our relationship to it through collections objects and historic photos. At the center of the exhibition is a slice from a 290-year-old ponderosa pine, which was growing on the west side of the San Francisco Peaks since 1730. This exhibition was created in collaboration with Coconino National Forest, NAU School of Forestry, Riordan Mansion State Historic Park, and the Fort Valley Experimental Forest. |
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Designed to Move
See Southwest seeds in a new way through macro-photography by Taylor James. This up-close look reveals the beauty and functional diversity of desert seeds that use different methods for dispersal and propagation. They can float in the air and water, fly far from their mother plant, and hitchhike on the fur of animals. The exhibition was organized by the Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University in collaboration with Desert Botanical Garden, ASU’s Herbarium and ASU’s Design School. At MNA the exhibit also features items from the museum collection highlighting the ethnobotanical uses and cultural importance of these plants. |
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Honoring the mothers
These graceful female figurines shelter children in their robes, a way of honoring the mothers and grandmothers. The sculptor, John C. Whiterock, grew up watching his mother, Cecelia Whiterock, coil and paint her pots in the traditional Diné manner. Now John collects clay from the mesa behind his home to coil and roll into beautiful shawled dolls performing daily rituals in Diné life. Sacred symbols adorn each unique doll’s attire.
Symbolism is found throughout much of the art and jewelryavailable at the Museum Gift Shop, where every purchase supports MNA and the artists. |
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