Museum of International Folk Art

Negotiate, Navigate, Innovate: Strategies Folk Artists Use in Today's Global Marketplace

in the Mark Naylor & Dale Gunn Gallery of Conscience
June 4, 2017 - July 16, 2018

The Mark Naylor and Dale Gunn Gallery of Conscience is an experimental gallery inside the Museum of International Folk Art where the public is invited to help shape the content and form of the exhibition in real tme.

Visitors notice the Gallery of Conscience looks different than the rest of the museum. In this gallery, visitors are invited behind the scenes to participate directly in the creation of an exhibition. That is why the space looks informal and unpolished- it’s on purpose. The Gallery of Conscience team seeks to make visitors feel welcome to write comments, leave thoughts and participate in the exhibition’s creation.

Negotiate, Navigate, Innovate is about contemporary folk artists and their relationship with their patrons, buyers and collectors. We are especially interested in understanding the pressures they might feel to keep their traditions alive in the face of modern technological advances and new consumer demands. Visitors will see a kind of "mock up" or series of idea sketches. The artworks will come at a later point in the process- after we have heard from visitors, artists and local community members.

See six digital stories created as part of a six month master apprenticeship program in 2016, that focuses on cross-generational conversation, documentation and learning of traditonal New Mexican folk arts

Iyamopo: My Life in Indigo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93BQvlaWLoQ

Pueblo Weaving https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dre1SamDIXQ

Native Arts: Rooted in Tradition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iffnsiFva7k

Colcha Embroidery: Stitching a Story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2H7J6SyFI8

Unfolding Tradition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Lxduz1IFo

Loving Creations in Clay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-06LO_f2emk