Jackson Clark talk on collecting Native American Art

Durango, CO – October 21, 2011 – The Center of Southwest Studies will host a Native American art identification session, followed by a talk, by local Toh-Atin Gallery owner Jackson Clark on Wednesday, October 26 from 4:00-6:00pm. The public is encouraged to bring up to three Native American art pieces for identification by Mr. Clark. A talk on collecting art will follow, beginning at 6:00pm. This event is free and open to the public. Donations to the Center for participating in this unique opportunity are encouraged.

Cutter World Maps now on exhibit in Delaney Research Library

Come and enjoy one of the Center of Southwest Studies most prized collections, the Cutter World Maps, which is now on exhibit in the Delaney Library!

The finding aid for the Cutter Map collection is available online at: http://swcenter.fortlewis.edu/finding_aids/cutter_maps.shtml

The Center of Southwest Studies celebrates ten years of progress and partnerships

DURANGO, CO – October 7, 2011 – The Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College celebrates a decade of progress and partnerships, as this year marks the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Center’s state-of-the-art building. A special Tenth Anniversary Building Celebration will be held on Thursday, October 13th, with a public open house from 4:30pm to 6:30pm. Opening remarks begin at 5:00pm, followed by a special presentation by local, award winning author, Jack Turner, on his book, “Landscapes on Glass: Lantern Slides of the Rainbow Bridge – Monument Valley Expedition”. This celebration is free and open to the public.

The Center of Southwest Studies opened the doors of its 50,000 square-foot building in 2001. It houses the Center’s museum/gallery space and the summer solstice window, the Delaney Southwest Research Library and archival collections, an auditorium for public lectures, the Departments of Anthropology and Native American and Indigenous Studies, and the Office of Community Services. The building was in part funded by the local community, under the leadership of the late Mrs. Morley Ballantine, who chaired the fund-raising campaign and was the founding donor of the Center, along with her husband Arthur.

Established in 1964, the Ballantines and former college president, Dr. John Reed, together envisioned a repository for artifacts, resource materials, books, records and documents that could be used for research of the history and development of the Southwestern United States.

The Center of Southwest Studies collections include the famed Durango Collection, ® which holds old and rare textiles spanning eight centuries. Other collections consist of Native American basketry, contemporary Southwestern art, Ancestral Puebloan ceramics, historic maps and photographs, rare books and ephemera, microfilm, and manuscripts- including personal papers of Congressional and state leaders, and some civic records.

The Center of Southwest Studies was the first research center in the country to focus exclusively on the Southwest, and is regarded as holding one of the best archival collections of any undergraduate institution in the West.

New postcard collection book, 'Durango'; Authors book signing event September 15th

The Center of Southwest Studies is pleased to announce a new publication, Durango, from Arcadia Publishing's Postcard History Series, complied and written by Fredric B. Wildfang and the Center's Archives Manager, Nik Kendziorski. A book signing will be held Thursday, September 15th from 5:00-7:00pm, in the Center of Southwest Studies' Delaney Research Library. The authors will discuss the book beginning at 5:30pm.

This collection presents a postcard tour of Durango and its environs and provides keen insight into the history and colorful character of this area, which has been a vibrant center of Southwestern Colorado for more than a century. A brief history of postcards as a convenient medium for sharing messages - and as a revolutionary departure from Victorian-era long letters - is included in the book as well. And a very special thanks is due to Nina Heald Webber for amassing the collection of these historical postcards, what she herself calls "windows to the past".

The Center is pleased to offer these books for sale at the event for $24.00.

Native American and Southwest artists' files now available in the Delaney Research Library

The Center of Southwest Studies Delaney Library has reorganized and made more accessible a collection of over 900 artist related material for research purposes. This collection primarily contains material on Native American artists, Southwest artists, and Inuit artists.

Finding aid available at http://swcenter.fortlewis.edu/finding_aids/artist_files.shtml

Fiber Celebrated 2011 now on exhibit

The Intermountain Weavers Conference hosts their juried exhibit Fiber Celebrated 2011 in the Center of Southwest Studies Gallery, July 22 - September 24. Special hours the exhibit will be open: Friday, July 22nd from 1:00-7:00pm and Saturday, July 23 from 12 noon-5:00pm.

The gallery's regular summer hours are Wednesday - Friday, 1:00-4:00pm. Please check back for fall hours, or call the main office 970-247-7456.

Celebrate the Summer Solstice on June 21st

The Center of Southwest Studies celebrates the beginning of summer with annual Solstice event

DURANGO, CO – JUNE 13, 2011 – The Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College celebrates the Summer Solstice on Tuesday, June 21, 2011, from 5:45AM till 7:00AM. At the dawn of the summer solstice, a spiral of sunlight makes its way across the gallery walls making for a dazzling display. Admission and parking are free. Light refreshments will be provided.

Situated in the upper northeast corner of the exhibit gallery, the Solstice Window is recessed into the wall. Created by Denver artist Scott Parsons as a part of Colorado’s Art in Public Places Program, the window was integrated into the building’s architecture. Parsons designed the window in tribute to the solstice markers of the Ancestral Puebloans of Southwest Colorado. The spiral cast by the Solstice Window is visible for several weeks before and after the summer solstice, but it is sharpest on solstice morning. Moving with the motion of the earth and sun, the spiral makes its journey across the gallery wall, fading as the sun rises higher in the sky.