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Museum shows pottery, old and new
Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Sep 13, 2007 by Rodger L. Hardy Deseret Morning News
PROVO -- Ancient and modern pottery -- the latter modeled after ancient techniques -- is on display at the Brigham Young University Museum of Peoples and Cultures.
Saturday marks "Celebrate Your Museum Day," a national celebration focusing on museums, and includes special activities. A lecture series on the Casas Grande culture of northern Mexico by Gordon Rakita, professor of archaeology at the University of North Florida, is scheduled for Sept. 13 at 4 p.m. in the Harold B. Lee Library on the BYU campus. His lecture is "Ramos Black, Cults of the Dead, and Ritual Practices at Casas Grandes, Mexico."
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Other Saturday activities include crafts such as making bird shakers and mask colorings, raw clay pottery making and an I-spy petroglyph game along with face painting and a mock archaeology dig.
On Friday, free tours of the museum are every hour from 1-4 p.m.
However, the focal point is the exhibition "Touching the Past, Traditions of Casas Grandes," a student-curated collection of pottery that hasn't been seen publicly since 1994. The collection, acquired during the 1970s and 1980s, is part of a shared heritage with American Indian and Mexican peoples.
Juan Quezada, a revival potter, is credited with bringing back ancient designs and techniques the Casa Grande people used during the 13th to 15th centuries. Researchers believe the Casa Grande area was once a thriving trade center. Many of the artistic pots and jars found in the area contain designs from stories and beliefs common to their culture, curator Glenna Nielsen said.
Included in the ancient collection are effigy jars -- jars that were made in the images of the ancients' gods and animals.
As a young farmer, Quezada picked up pieces of pottery in what anciently was a city. The tradition for making the pottery had been lost, but he redeveloped it to produce forgeries, Nielsen said. However, his work caught on as a new Southwest art form and spawned other artisans from the Mata Ortiz village region.
Made of adobe dating to as early as A.D. 1000, the multistoried metropolis of Casa Grande eventually melted away after its inhabitants mysteriously disappeared.
Setting up the exhibition started last year with three graduate students. The Museum of Peoples and Cultures received a $134,000 grant from Museums for America for the project. The grant is part of $17 million from the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services targeting hundreds of museum programs across the country. The project runs through December 2008.
Students, including those enrolled in the Museum Practices Program, have been working with professionals to document, photograph and catalog the artifacts.
They are producing catalogs tentatively titled "Wealth of the Lost Red City" and "Legacy of Ancient Casas Grandes," which includes articles by experts and a student-authored section of 300 photo- illustrated catalog entries. The entries include each object's cultural affiliation, date of manufacture, description and condition report. Publication is scheduled for the spring of 2008.
Another exhibition is titled "Seeking the Divine, Ritual, Prayer and Celebration," also a display of indigenous cultures.
The Museum of Peoples and Cultures is open weekdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 700 N. 100 East. Call 422-0020 for more information or to schedule a guided tour.
E-mail: rodger@desnews.com
Copyright C 2007 Deseret News Publishing Co.
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