End Date: Wednesday, May 31, 2028
A new exhibit at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Coiling Kin: The Life of Pueblo Pottery, presents a comprehensive exploration of the Museum's permanent collection through Pueblo artists’ perspectives.
Pueblo peoples’ long habitation of the land is marked with the traces of pottery that record their deep histories in the Southwest and their current lives. Through the voices of 25 co-curators, this exhibition provides a multi-vocal experience of clay – a cherished offering of Mother Earth – from its raw to worked forms by means of their respectful use of it. The exhibit presents the materials and laborious processes entailed in making pottery infused with potters’ deep spiritual beliefs and dedication. Highlighting clay as a medium for protection and nurturance, the exhibit reveals pottery as an embodied expression of identity and integrity in and through time – an enduring, distinguished art form that remains part of everyday life.
Developing the exhibition was a three-year project. Curators first visited the Maxwell Museum to review the collection and make preliminary selections, then refined them and discussed their choice in video recordings. Throughout, they interacted with each other and Museum staff in small group and whole team meetings, convening collectively on the UNM campus to develop themes and content. Museum staff and a videographer then recorded them at work in their communities and at markets. A final team meeting at UNM completed the exhibit’s organization and content in preparation for its design by Curator of Exhibits Toni Gentilli. Frequent communication facilitated a remarkably smooth process and warm, respectful relationships in this expansive effort of relational curation.
Presented in the round and with extensive use of audio-visual materials, the exhibit introduces the curators and explores four primary themes: clay and its broader purpose in Pueblo Life; kin connections made through pottery in time and across generations within the Southwest; pottery making knowledge and processes; and the contemporary context and future possibilities for pottery. Through this exhibit visitors will experience the embodied language of Pueblo pottery in all its complexity.
OPENING EVENTS: Please join us on Saturday, June 6, 2026, from 2 pm to 4 pm for the opening reception. A panel of curators will discuss their roles in the exhibit, while others will provide small group tours of each of the four exhibit themes. Refreshments will be served.
To download a press release on the exhibition click here
Coiling Kin is one of four exhibitions celebrating Pueblo Pottery that will be in New Mexico over spring and summer 2026. To learn more click here
End Date: Saturday, December 5, 2026
Although microbes are the most abundant and diverse organisms on our planet, anthropology has paid little attention to the complex web of interactions between humans and these largely inconspicuous, yet influential living beings. Growing interest in the evolutionary dynamics of humans and microbes, advancements in research methodologies, and the emerging field of ethnomicrobiology are shedding new light on the symbiotic creativity of human and microbial cultures.
Perhaps the most visible and enduring manifestation of human-microbe relations is fermentation. A universally adopted technique, fermentation has been employed for millennia in the creation, enhancement, and preservation of all manner of foods and beverages. People across the world and throughout time have developed specialized tools, containers, facilities, and processes to make fermented products from local varieties of fruits, vegetables, tubers, legumes, grains, meats, seafood, and dairy. Countless human cultures have embraced traditional fermented foods and beverages as integral expressions of identity and kinship, and employ them in communal rituals, as social lubricants, healing elixirs, and conduits to the divine.
Drawing from the Maxwell Museum’s collections, Entangled Cultures presents diverse global examples of traditional vessels used in the creation and consumption of fermented foods and beverages. The exhibit begins with an overview of how fermentation likely served as a catalyst for human ancestors to develop smaller digestive systems, larger brains, and ultimately expand into new environments. It also retraces the origins of many now ubiquitous ferments, such as wine, beer, bread, and cheese. Reflections on the ever-changing nature of human-microbe relations are woven throughout the exhibit, which concludes with a peek into our fermented futures, including novel adaptations to climate change and possibilities for interspecies flourishing in the post-Anthropocene world.
Opening Reception: Please join us on Saturday, March 8, 2025, from 2 pm to 4 pm for the opening reception. A wide selection of fermented foods and beverages from local producers will be available to sample.
Contact: For media inquiries, please contact the Maxwell Museum’s Curator of Public Programs Julián Antonio Carrillo (jac123@unm.edu), or Curator of Exhibits, Toni Gentilli (tgentilli@unm.edu).
Share your fermentation recipes with us to create a community cookbook!
