Heard Museum to open exhibition on trading posts and Native artists

The Heard Museum in Phoenix plans to open Twilight: Trading Posts and Creative Legacies on October 25. The exhibition examines the relationship between trading posts and Native artists, with a focus on Navajo textiles from the museum's collection.

The museum says the early 20th-century relationship between trading posts and Native artists helped spur creativity, especially in finely woven textiles, while weavers' names and families were often overshadowed by the posts that sold their work. The exhibition follows how artists asserted their own visions and by the late 20th century reached markets beyond the reservation.

Among the works described by the museum are Dragonfly Dawn and Dusk (2023), a textile by Calvin Toney (Diné), and a pictorial textile of a trading post by Florence Riggs (Diné). Pottery, jewelry and photographs also appear. The museum's director of research, Ann Marshall, writes of “artists surmounting the difficulties of isolation and travel through a beautiful land.”

The museum has scheduled a members-only preview from 9 to 11 a.m. on opening day. The museum has not posted a closing date.