First American-born artists to participate in folk art market
Five American artists will take the Museum Hill stage for the first time in the International Folk Art Market’s 16-year history.
From Friday, July 12 through Sunday, July 14, artists chosen by curators at the Museum of International Folk Art, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian and the School for Advanced Research will sell their work.
“You can either blame me or credit me,” market CEO Stuart Ashman said. “I thought, ‘It’s an international market; why don’t we have any American-born artists?’”
Market organizers decided to restrict the numbers to the museums’ nominees to keep from being inundated by stateside applications, Ashman said.
“The board was quite receptive to the idea,” he added. “It’s a nice gesture for the museums themselves.” The artists are:
Billy Ray Hussey, ceramics, North Carolina, selected by the Museum of International Folk Art. Hussey makes face jugs and southern folk ceramics.
Mary Tafoya, Santo Domingo (Kewa) Pueblo, chosen by the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. Tafoya makes traditional Santo Domingo jewelry using natural stones, shells and turquoise in free-form inlay.
Marie Romero Cash, wood carving, Santa Fe, nominated by the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art. A longtime santero (saint maker), Cash has distinguished herself as a contemporary master of the traditional Hispanic art of carving and painting.
Elizabeth Manygoats, pottery, Navajo, chosen by the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. Manygoats developed her own unique pottery style of painted pictorial works depicting daily life on the Navajo reservation. Her figures include horses, sheep, dogs and chickens, as well as historic scenes and everyday roadside sights.
Anthony Belvado, fiddle maker, San Carlos Apache, San Carlos, Ariz., selected by the School for Advanced Research. Belvado is a thirdgeneration Apache fiddle maker who learned his craft from his grandfather. His traditional materials include agave, mesquite wood and roots, pine pitch, acacia branch and horsehair.