Colorado State University’s Avenir Museum Announces Fall Lecture Series Schedule, New Exhibition Featuring Navajo, Hopi Textiles

Colorado State University’s Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising announces its fall 2009 exhibition schedule. The museum, located at the University Center for the Arts at 1400 Remington Street, features 19th and 20th century costumes, designer apparel and ethnographic artifacts from Asia and Central and South America, along with a collection of period chairs reflecting the relationship between interiors and apparel.

Woven to Wear: Navajo and Hopi Textiles from the Durango Collection will be on display from Sept. 17 – Jan. 22, 2010. Guest Curator Jeanne Brako, curator of Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College, Durango, will offer an informal gallery talk during a reception for the exhibition from 5:30-7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17. Woven to Wear pays homage to the creativity and skill of Navajo and Hopi weavers. Mantas of the Hopi parallel the introduction of cotton to the Southwest. Navajo textiles reflect the Diné (the Navajo name for “the People”) concept of harmony.

The museum also features a lecture series on the third Thursday of each month, providing information on a number of textile-related topics about the current exhibition or a unique costume or textile in the museum. The Third Thursday Lecture Series begins each month at 7 p.m. in Room 136 University Center for the Arts Annex, east of the UCA main building.

The following Third Thursday lectures are planned:

– Sept. 17 – Lace at the Avenir: The Ruth Payne Hellmann Collection. JoAnn Eurell, a lace-maker and past president of the International Old Lacers Inc., will identify various types of lace and discuss how lace is made. Examples of lace and lace-making tools will be displayed.

– Oct. 15 – Well Heeled Life Styles: The Shoes of David Evins. Leslie Nottingham, graduate of the Corcoran College of Art and Design and the Smithsonian Institution, will discuss the legacy of David Evins, shoe designer, recognized as a master of his craft and a favorite with Hollywood movie stars and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

– Nov. 19 – Wearing Blankets from The Durango Collection. Jeanne Brako, guest curator for Woven to Wear will discuss textiles from The Durango Collection that chronicle the remarkable achievement of the Navajo, Pueblo and Hispanic peoples.

All Avenir exhibits and lectures are free and open to the public. For more information, call (970) 491-1983 or visit events at http://www.dm.cahs.colostate.edu/welcome/awards_events_news/.

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