Celebrate Hozhoni Days with us on March 25th!

Celebrate Hozhoni Days by joining the Center of Southwest Studies as we open two new exhibits featuring Native American artists!

Center of Southwest Studies - Delaney Library
Friday, March 25, from 3pm – 5pm, just before the Pow-Wow!
Light refreshments will be served.

Virgil Ortiz: Visionary Artist (Left Image)
This exhibit features contemporary native artist Virgil Ortiz, who blends tradition with edgy provocation in his art as well as his fashion designs. This exhibit is developed by student library assistant Emilio Diaz.

World-renown Cochiti Pueblo artist Virgil Ortiz has taken the entire genre of Native American art to new levels. His intricate designs blur the line between the appropriate and provocative and the beautiful and grotesque; making Virgil one of the most unique and talked about artists today.

In honor of Hozhoni Days, Virgil is pleased to extend a 50% savings on any VO Fashion item. Visit http://www.virgilortiz.com/ and enter promo code VOHOZ at the time of checkout – offer only valid March 23–26, 2011 and includes FREE SHIPPING!

Visual Re-Count: A Boarding School Era Retrospective as Seen Through Native Youth (Right Image)
In this art installation, Diné (Navajo) sisters - Ruthie, Sierra, Chamisa and Santana Edd - examine the Federal Indian policy of educating Native American children. These young artists address the disruptions to tribal life when children were removed from homes and placed in government-run boarding schools. For inspiration, they draw upon their own experiences of acculturation as residents of Durango, as well as the boarding school experiences of their grandparents.

To see more work by the Edd Sisters, visit eddgirlart.weebly.com.

The Real Savages opens March 18

The Center of Southwest Studies to present a new exhibit, The Real Savages
DURANGO, CO – March 11, 2011 - The Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College will open a new exhibit on March 18th, The Real Savages. This exhibit presents a viewpoint of how propaganda and American stereotypes have influenced and impacted Native American cultures and identities. Juxtaposing stereotypical, visual images with historical facts, this exhibit explores the experience of culture assimilation, identity and knowledge.
The Real Savages began as a Fort Lewis College student independent study project by graphic design major, Babe Lansing, who also Ute Mountain Ute. The project was inspired after a summer semester in Germany studying propaganda in art. Art professor Paul Booth facilitated both the summer semester, and Lansing’s project. What resulted from dedicated research and creativity was a student exhibition, first displayed in the Fort Lewis College Art Department. “My ideas and motives have come from a variety of sources and influences within my own life and culture. I am pleased to see that the overall final product has exceeded by far what I expected when I first started this project,” says Lansing.
Impressed, the Center of Southwest Studies staff invited the exhibit to the Center’s gallery space, in part to augment the story of Indian boarding schools, which is touched upon in the Center’s new exhibit Frontier Blues: The Legacy of Fort Lewis College, also opening on March 18th as a part of the college Centennial celebration.
An opening reception for both exhibits will be held Friday, March 18, from 4:00-6:00pm at the Center of Southwest Studies Gallery, on the campus of Fort Lewis College. The event is free and open to the public, with light refreshments provided.