Lectures and Talks

What role does community play in the development of an exhibition?

Get a glimpse into Near East to Far West: Fictions of French and American Colonialism with JR (Jennifer R.) Henneman, director of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art and curator of the exhibition, and Lauren Thompson, senior interpretive specialist. Learn how the exhibition team collaborated with local community members, national scholars, and the Denver Art Museum’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) committee and Indigenous Advisory Council to create a multi-faceted and thought-provoking visitor experience.

What role does community play in the development of an exhibition?

Get a glimpse into Near East to Far West: Fictions of French and American Colonialism with JR (Jennifer R.) Henneman, director of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art and curator of the exhibition, and Lauren Thompson, senior interpretive specialist. Learn how the exhibition team collaborated with local community members, national scholars, and the Denver Art Museum’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) committee and Indigenous Advisory Council to create a multi-faceted and thought-provoking visitor experience.

Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) stages theatrical compositions infused with vibrant color and dramatic lighting to illuminate Indigenous worldviews and aspects of the supernatural in everyday life. As a visual storyteller, Romero creates sometimes playful and sometimes serious images that explore collective Indigenous histories and identity.

Romero, whose work is in the permanent collection of the DAM as well as in the special exhibition Speaking with Light: Contemporary Indigenous Photography, will discuss her over two decade-long career as a photographer.

Through photography, painting, installation, and archival research, Colorado-based artist Renluka Maharaj explores how history and memory inform identity. Her work brings attention to forgotten histories and the endurance of the human spirit, often focusing on empowering the stories of women. She is particularly influenced by Indian indentureship in Trinidad and Tobago, which is a part of her own family’s history. As she explains, “Starting in the mid 1800’s, indentured laborers from India were sent throughout the globe as a substitute for slave labor. My grandparents entered Trinidad and Tobago as indentured laborers to continue working on sugar plantations, and this has been a point of departure for ongoing dialogue and research.”

Renluka Maharaj grew up in Trinidad and Tobago before moving to New York and then Colorado. She holds a BFA from University of Colorado and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been widely published and exhibited and she has participated in several artist residencies around the country.

The Avenir Institute of Textile Arts and Fashion announces its first symposium inspired by the exhibition Rugged Beauty: Antique Carpets from Western Asia (December 18, 2022–May 28, 2023).

“From Workshop to Nomad: New Thinking about Rug Weaving Categories and Design Influences” will explore rugs and the various weaving cultures of West Asian carpets. Though prevailing ideas about these categories have been important and useful to the study of these textiles, the current models of producing rugs are often ambiguous and do not account for the complex cultures and economies of the people who create them. Usage of the word “tribal” as a rug-making category comes into question, as does the classification “village.” Speakers will address these issues through the lens of three main categories of weaving: tribal/nomadic, workshop, and village, including prayer rugs, and potentially suggest directions for future study.

Artist Eric Garcia’s drawings reexamine and reframe invisible histories of brown and black communities in the United States. His politically charged works use humor and a bold graphic style to prompt viewers to consider themes of power, language, and memory.

As Garcia explains, "I am the colonized and the colonizer. I am a descendant of the Indigenous lands north of the Rio Grande conquered and colonized by Spain and then by the United States. Like many generations of black and brown people have done before, I enlisted in the occupying military with the hopes of opportunities within the empire. Drawing on my experiences and cultural history, I create site specific installations, murals, hand printed posters and political cartoons. By reexamining forgotten stories in an accessible and visually striking way, my work can be a tool with which to share, learn from and spark critical dialogue. Specifically, I make art to prevent historical amnesia and cultural erasure."

9:00 AM MDT/11:00 AM EDT

The Avenir Institute of Textile Arts and Fashion announces its first symposium inspired by the exhibition Rugged Beauty: Antique Carpets from Western Asia (December 18, 2022–May 28, 2023).

“From Workshop to Nomad: New Thinking about Rug Weaving Categories and Design Influences” will explore rugs and the various weaving cultures of West Asian carpets. Though prevailing ideas about these categories have been important and useful to the study of these textiles, the current models of producing rugs are often ambiguous and do not account for the complex cultures and economies of the people who create them. Usage of the word “tribal” as a rug-making category comes into question, as does the classification “village.” Speakers will address these issues through the lens of three main categories of weaving: tribal/nomadic, workshop, and village, including prayer rugs, and potentially suggest directions for future study.