SETTING THE TONE
The 2019 Heard Guild Indian Fair & Market kicks off with the Best of Show Reception on March 1 in Phoenix.
PHOENIX, AZ
Most art fairs and markets, as well as museum exhibitions and gallery shows, open with an opening night reception. These serve all sorts of purposes, including presenting awards to the artists and allowing collectors a first look at the artwork available. More than anything, though, these events help set the tone for what is to come.
For the 2019 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, the mood will be set on March 1 during the Best of Show Reception, the kickoff for the two-day market in Phoenix. The opening night party, which is a ticketed event, will feature a welcome by Anna Flynn, chair of the museum fair, and an awards announcement by David Roche, the museum’s director
and CEO. Following the announcement guests will be invited into the museum’s Steele Auditorium to view the award winners, including each of the classification winners and the coveted best of show winner.
Pat Kilburn, the chair of juried competition at the market, has participated in the annual fair for 12 years and says the Best of Show Reception is one of her favorite events because the public gets to have its first glimpse of the winners.
“We set up on Wednesday for judging and it is quite a process. Receiving all the artworks and then preparing for judges is exhausting. By Friday we call many of the winners so they can be present at the Best of Show Reception and be able to speak to guests about their pieces,” Kilburn says. “By the time the doors open on Friday night to get in and see the works, everyone is quite excited.”
Besides numerous awards related to the nine classifications—and the best of show, which last year was awarded to a mixed-media sculpture by Jamie Okuma (Luiseño/shoshone/bannock)—another honor given is the Conrad House Award, which is presented to an artist who, according to the museum, “is grounded in traditional precepts yet shows originality, vision and innovation.”
The innovation award was named after Conrad House, a Navajo and Oneida artist who worked in many mediums, including paint, glass, collages, ceramics and textiles. House died in 2001. Artwork considered for the award must exemplify House’s artist’s statement: “My concerns as an artist reflect life and all its complexities, from color and textural relationships, to confronting contemporary issues (i.e., impact of A.I.D.S., political beliefs, spiritual values, environmental destruction, trips to Europe, Sweet Love Relationships, etc.), the list goes on, but are all interrelated. My concerns can change as drastically as the many mediums I play with, from pastels, to clay, to glass, to beads, to collages, to paints, then back to pastels. Freedom of choice is essential…with the drawing mediums I can spontaneously release my thoughts and findings, whether literal or not. I am always trying to learn and explore other possibilities freely, therefore growing and changing.”
While collectors examine the award winners at the reception, they can only browse since all the artworks will be available the following day at the opening of the market. There are opportunities to purchase artwork,
though, at the silent auction, which this year will have more than 40 pieces. The artworks range in price from $300 and up, “with emphasis on the ‘and up’ part,” says Kilburn, adding that works under $300 are offered in a raffle during the market. “All of the works in the silent auction are donated, so all the proceeds help the museum. Bidding can get quite competitive, and I think people have a lot of fun.”
Additional events at the reception include a dinner and the fashion show, which takes place in one of the beautiful courtyards on the museum grounds.
Kilburn, who is a retired accountant from Chicago, is one of many volunteers for the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market. She got a degree in art history, so when she retired from accounting she started volunteering at the museum in hopes of using some of her degree. “I knew nothing about the area, but I knew I wanted to be involved in the museum. I figured I could learn a great deal and that’s certainly been true,” she says. “Now here I am with these other volunteers all working together on this fair. We have a guild of more than 400 people, and we’re all here to make this event wonderful.”