Blog

In this series, MOIFA's docents explore our collections online and select a favorite piece to share with you. This week, Carolyn Culhane discusses Japan's Kokeshi tradition of handcrafted wooden dolls, as seen in the Girard Foundation Collection.
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In this series, MOIFA's docents explore our collections online and select a favorite piece to share with you. This week, Lucie Church explores the history and technique of ceinture fléchée as seen in a 19th century Assumption sash.
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In this series, MOIFA's docents explore our collections online and select a favorite piece to share with you. This week, Nancy Walkup discusses the ceramic figures of Oaxacan artist, Josefina Aguilar.
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In this series, MOIFA's docents explore our collections online and select a favorite piece to share with you. This week, Christine Durlak presents a 19th century Mexican retablo from the Girard Foundation Collection.
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A beautiful widow looking for love. A dashing playboy fallen from grace. Despite being centuries old, these personalities from Aoi-no-Ue, a classical Japanese Nōh drama, sound like the leading roles of a modern movie blockbuster. In a day where digital romances grow more quickly than weeds after a storm, this timeless tale of love, betrayal, jealousy and revenge grips us in the most tender places of our heart.
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Vivid in Japanese art and imagination are creatures that are at once ghastly and comical. Yokai generally refers to demons, ghosts, shapeshifters, and “strange” and supernatural beings. Specific creatures are commonly associated with classical literature, folklore, theatrical performances, festivals, art, and other forms of expressive culture. Yokai are also prevalent in contemporary Japanese popular culture; you find them in manga (comics), anime (animation), and character-based games such as Pokémon (“pocket monster”).
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Long before Chip and Jo-Jo became the reigning royalty of repurposing, however, a group of industrious artisans redefined resourcefulness. If you thought you'd seen amazing, buckle up and get ready for a ride. Nestled warmly within the Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA), an eclectic array of intricately carved tramp art greets visitors like an old friend. No Idle Hands, which opened to the public in March of 2017, features over 150 tramp art objects collected from around the world. The first feature of its kind since 1975, this carefully curated exhibition helps educate viewers about the highly skilled, ingenious works created from discarded cigar boxes and fruit crates.
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In late Fall of 2015, MOIFA's Gallery of Conscience embarked on a three-year project, along with leaders from nine other museums and historic sites around the country. The goal was to create dynamic, youth-based public engagement programs that foster much-needed community dialogues on race, education equity and incarceration in the context of civil rights history.
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As the current exhibition, Sacred Realm: Blessings and Good Fortune across Asia comes to a close and we prepare for its final program, I take this moment to reflect on the exhibition’s development. ... Sacred Realm: Blessings & Good Fortune across Asia closes this Sunday, March 19, 2017. From 1:00- 4:00 PM, Piers Watson will give a lecture and a demonstration of a lost wax bronze casting technique. We will take all the thousands of paper offering flowers that visitors made, and we have saved, during the run of the exhibition and we will burn them as offerings of gratitude to our community. Please join us!
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We started with a traditional idea - a Master-apprenticeship program which would support renowned folk artists and their students in the teaching of traditional arts. But we wanted to go further. We felt it was important to not only bridge generations, but bridge the old and new ways of learning and transmitting knowledge.
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