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Press Release Contact: Michele Mountain, MNA Marketing Director 928-774-5213 x273

2010 Press Releases

March 11, 2010
2010 Heritage Program: In the Spirit of Community, Culture, and Creativity
Festivals

MNA’s four annual festivals highlight the region’s cultures and encourage the creative exchange of stories and ideas. Music, art, and presentations fill the weekend-long celebrations. New year-round monthly Insight Presentations, sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, create a forum for dialogue and provide a deeper look into the living cultures of the Colorado Plateau.

20th Annual Zuni Festival of Arts and Culture
Saturday, May 29 and Sunday, May 30
Spiritual Landscape and Storytelling
The A:shiwi or Zuni people, an integral part of the Colorado Plateau and the sacred landscape of the San Francisco Peaks, will share Zuni language, lifeways, and traditional music and dances. Prepare to be amazed and inspired by weavers, inlay jewelers, fetish carvers, and painters. See exotic stone, shell, and antler formed into animal fetish carvings. Learn about the shaping, forming, and painting of traditional Zuni pottery. Enjoy the Olla Maidens who dance with Zuni pots balanced on their heads and the Nawetsa Family Dancers who perform traditional Zuni dances. This event is created in partnership with the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center in Zuni, New Mexico.

77th Annual Hopi Festival of Arts and Culture
Saturday, July 3 and Sunday, July 4
The Oldest Hopi Show in the World
A Fourth of July tradition since the 1930s, the Hopi Festival is the world’s premier gathering of Hopi artists and scholars. More than 55 booths brim with Hopi fine arts and crafts. Visitors gain insight from carvers, painters, jewelers, potters, quilters, and basket and textile weavers against a backdrop of cultural presentations, storytelling, music, and dancing. Take a taste of Hopi bread or piki baked in outside ovens. Watch Hopi pottery being shaped, painted, and traditionally fired. Walk the Museum’s Rio de Flag Nature Trail with a Hopi medicine woman. And take part in discussions about the Hopi values of humility, cooperation, respect, balance, and earth stewardship.

61st Annual Navajo Festival of Arts and Culture
Saturday, August 7 and Sunday, August 8
Expressions of Beauty and Place
More than 65 of the finest Diné artists display and demonstrate their work during this colorful and exciting weekend. Enjoy hoop and traditional dancing, a retrospective fashion show, and ancient and modern Native music. Artists demonstrate jewelry, painting, beading, pottery, and weaving techniques. Customs and ways families are using to keep traditions strong are discussed by cultural experts. Explore the tribe’s intricate language with a Navajo linguist, and come to understand many ancient legends and traditions. Hike with a Navajo ethnobotanist and learn the Native uses of local plant life.

7th Annual Celebraciones de la Gente
Saturday, October 23 and Sunday, October 24
A Lively Celebration of the Day of the Dead
The Museum comes to life for Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead, an ancient Mesoamerican holiday held throughout Mexico, Latin America, and the Southwest. Transforming grief into celebration, this ritual pays homage to the lives of lost loved ones by inviting them back to enjoy their favorite music and foods, and to honor their contributions in life. More than a dozen Flagstaff families bring ofrendas (altars), from their homes to share in a courtyard exhibit. At the nighttime Members’ Preview, the courtyard and the ofrendas are illuminated by luminarias and candles. Learn about the Day of the Dead traditions and the meanings behind the objects on the ofrendas. This event is created in partnership with Nuestras Raices, an organization of Flagstaff Hispanic pioneers.

Insight Presentations

Cesar Says, a Play about Cesar Chavez
Saturday, March 20, 2 p.m.
by Zarco Guererro
Multitalented playwright, actor, and mask maker Zarco Guerrero portrays the life and times of Cesar Chavez through his unique masked characters and their reverent, yet humorous, style of storytelling. Commissioned by the Cesar Chavez Education Foundation, this family-oriented play’s premier was on December 10, 2009. In Cesar Says, Zarco Guerrero gives Chavez’s life and accomplishments historical perspective in a delightful and engaging way.

Journey of the Sacred Clown: A Tribute to Michael Kabotie
Saturday, April 10, 2 p.m.
with Ed Kabotie
Michael Kabotie, esteemed artist, philosopher, and friend of MNA, passed away unexpectedly last year (September 3, 1942–October 23, 2009). Ed Kabotie, Kabotie’s son from the Santa Clara Pueblo and the Hopi village of Shungopavi, is an artist, musician, bilingual educator, and storyteller. Ed Kaboties’s presentation, entitled “Journey of the Sacred Clown a tribute to Michael Kabotie,” is a thoughtful and humorous presentation that will focus on the work of his father in the context of both Jungian philosophy and Hopi clowning. This Insight Presentation is in conjunction with the exhibit Walking in Harmony: The Life and Work of Lomaywyeswa, Michael Kabotie.

Navajo Rug Weaving, Dying, History and Buying
Saturday, June 12, 12 p.m.
with Dr. Jennifer McLerran
Dr. McLerran’s former curator at MNA and professor of art history and museum studies at Northern Arizona University, will share her knowledge of the tradition and art of Navajo rug weaving. Her most recent publications include A New Deal for Native Art: Indian Arts and Federal Policy 1933–1943, a study of Native American arts during the New Deal era, and Weaving Is Life: Navajo Weavings from the Edwin L. and Ruth E. Kennedy Southwest Native American Collection.

This Insight Presentation is in conjunction with the 4th Semi-Annual Navajo Rug Auction.

Havasupai Ceremonial Dances
Saturday, September 18, 2 p.m.
with James Uqualla and Havasupai Dancers
The Havasupai people, Havsuw ‘Baaja or people of the blue green water, live in the beauty of Havasu Canyon. Orator James Uqualla and Havasupai dancers will share the Havasupai people’s efforts to preserve their land, and their determination to preserve their ancient cultural heritage and language through traditional dancing and ceremonial storytelling.

A Celebration of Poetry and Language
Saturday, November 13, 2 p.m.
with Dr. Laura Tohe and Amada Blanco
Poet, writer, and librettist, Laura Tohe will read from her most recent work and will be joined by photographer and writer Amanda Blanco, who will read a sampling of Latin American poets in this celebration of poetry and language. Tohe has been published in the journals Ploughshares, New Letters, Red Ink, World Literature Today and many others. Dr. Tohe grew up near the Chuska Mountains on the eastern border of the Diné homeland and currently lives in Mesa, Arizona. She is an associate professor in the English Department at Arizona State University.

Zuni Emergence and Migration History
Saturday, December 11, 2 p.m.
Zunis believe they emerged from Mother Earth within the Grand Canyon and migrated across the Colorado Plateau to Halona Idiwana’a or the Middle Place of the World, home of the Zuni for at least the last 1300 years. A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center Technician Curtis Quam, joined by A:shiwi A:wan director Jim Enote, will present “Zuni Emergence and Migration History,” beginning in the Grand Canyon, to European contact at the ancestral A:shiwi village of Hawikku, post contact history, arrival of the Americans, and finally to the influence of ethnographers, anthropologists, and archaeologists on the A:shiwi way of life. Accompanying images for this talk are from the A:shiwi A:wan exhibit Hawikku: Echoes from Our Past.

Images are available upon request.

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March 1, 2010
CESAR SAYS - An Interactive Musical Play by Zarco Guerrero
No Latino is more respected as a civil rights advocate than the late, courageous Latino leader Cesar Chavez.

Multitalented playwright, actor, and mask maker Zarco Guerrero portrays the life and times of this iconic historical figure through his unique masked characters and their reverent, yet humorous style of storytelling.

Zarco Guerrero will present his original theatrical tale, Cesar Says, on Saturday, March 20 at 2 p.m. at the Museum of Northern Arizona. This program is part of a yearlong series of Insight Presentations from MNA’s Heritage Program, which is sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Zarco puts Chavez’s life and accomplishments into perspective in a delightful and engaging way in this family oriented show. The Cesar Chavez Education Foundation commissioned Zarco to write and stage this new play.

“Cesar Chavez is an inspiration in my life and in the lives of many Latinos. I hope this show will inspire the young people who see it,” says Zarco. “It is an honor for me to be chosen to write and perform in this play.”

Onstage with Zarco will be the poetry-spouting El Vato Poeta, the flirtatious La Comadre, and other beloved characters this prolific playwright has created.

Zarco has a longtime association with Cesar Chavez. Both Chavez and Zarco grew up in Arizona—Chavez in Yuma and Zarco in Mesa. Zarco sculpted a life-sized bronze of the Latino leader for the City of Phoenix that now stands proudly at Cesar Chavez Park in south Phoenix. He also sculpted the monument dedicated in San Luis, Arizona—Chavez’s birthplace—on the occasion of the leader’s 80th birthday, March 31, 2007.

Zarco has been a force in the Arizona arts scene, as a multimedia artist and community arts advocate, since the early seventies. He has performed one-man theater throughout the United States and in Mexico.

He and his wife Carmen de Novais founded Xicanindio, which staged some of the first Chicano theater in parks and at small coffeehouse venues beginning in the seventies. Many of the theater skits performed then were inspired by Teatro Campesino, a theater troupe founded in northern California that supported Chavez’s struggles, his farmworker strikes, and his vision for economic equality and equal justice for all workers.

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January 8, 2010
NEW EXHIBIT SHOWS ORDINARY LAYERS OF ROCK REVEAL ANCIENT EARTH LANDSCAPES
Geologists who study ordinary layers of limestone, sandstone, and shale in the high desert country of the Colorado Plateau are able to describe the ancient environments that once existed in this region and how those environments evolved. Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau, a new exhibit at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, takes visitors on a geologic journey of discovery with Dr. Ron Blakey and Wayne Ranney, map maker and author, respectively, of their new book by the same title.

Wayne Ranney says, “Since the beginning of human thought, our species has held a fascination with the idea of time travel. Amazing as it may seem, ordinary rocks beneath our feet are a kind of time machine, allowing us to know an ancient past that existed long before humans.

“We are the only species that recognizes the passage of time in this way. All other creatures exist in the “here and now,” and for them everything present on the Earth today is all that there is. But, we humans are curious about the evolution of our planet and the ancient worlds of the dinosaur, or the woolly mammoth. In this way, man is and always will be an inveterate time traveler.”

Museum Director Dr. Robert Breunig added, “Geologists have been privileged to have learned much about Earth’s ancient landscapes. By making some of these maps of our region available to our visitors, we hope to foster a greater understanding of the geological processes that shaped our Colorado Plateau region through time and will which continue to shape it into the future.”

Dr. Blakey was one of Ranney’s first geology professors as a student in 1979. Ranney was fascinated with Blakey’s work in the Sedona area and took many classes from him. They met again in 2005 at a professional conference, where Blakey shared the map work he was currently involved in and the Ancient Landscapes partnership was born. Their book is published by the Grand Canyon Association and to date, has won two awards, Best Science Book, Arizona, by the Arizona Book Publishers Association and Best Large Format Book, from the National Association of Interpretation.

Ron Blakey is recently Professor Emeritus at Northern Arizona University, following 34 years of teaching and research in the Department of Geology. His degrees are from the University of Wisconsin (B.S.), University of Utah (M.S.), and University of Iowa (Ph.D.). He has studied and published on many Late Paleozoic and Mesozoic rock units on the Colorado Plateau. For the last 15 years, he has been heavily involved in producing paleogeographic maps from regional to global in scope. Ancient Landscapes, his latest endeavor, has merged these two disciplines.

“Paleogeographic maps represent the ultimate synthesis in geologic interpretation. The accuracy of the map is directly dependent on the accuracy of the data, and the data are derived from the geologic rock record. Because the rock record is incomplete due to erosion, a paleogeographic interpretation is also incomplete. The mapmaker then has to extrapolate, taking into account all previous geologic work, to reach a pictorial presentation of the ancient Earth. Until we can create a time machine that can take us back to directly examine past Earth landscapes, paleogeographic maps remain the best tool for reconstructing ancient Earth landscapes,” Blakey stated.

Wayne Ranney inspires others to find passion in the geologic history and beauty of our Earth. He became interested in landscapes while working as a backcountry ranger at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. He later received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Northern Arizona University, then worked as a geologic interpreter on shipboard expeditions around the world. Having retired from the high seas, Ranney now works as a trail guide with MNA’s Ventures and the Grand Canyon Field Institute. He also teaches geology at Coconino Community College in Flagstaff. He has authored numerous books, including his recent Carving Grand Canyon.

Ranney waxes philosophically when considering the stunning modern landscape we are privileged to inhabit. “Today’s deep, red rock canyons of the Colorado Plateau are not the ultimate end for which all previous landscapes were created. Rather, each of the ancient landscapes were whole and complete unto themselves, lasting a few million years, and then slowly evolving as larger Earth forces exerted their influence. What we see today is just another moment in time that will, itself, give way to something else,” Ranney said in closing.

Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau is open Sunday, January 10 through Sunday, August 29, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The Museum of Northern Arizona is located at the base of the San Francisco Peaks, the tallest mountains in Arizona. It is three miles north of downtown Flagstaff on Highway 180, on the way to the Grand Canyon. Now celebrating its 82nd year, the Museum is one of the great regional museum of our world, surrounded by tremendous geological, biological, and cultural resources in on of Earth’s most spectacular landscapes. With a long and illustrious history, MNA evokes the very spirit of the Colorado Plateau, including the Grand Canyon and Four Corners regions. For further information, call 928/774-5213 or go to musnaz.org. You can also find MNA on Facebook.com/musnaz or http://twitter.com/MuseumofNAZ.

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