What a fantastic opening day! And it’s all thanks to you. After many years of planning, building, and learning, the gratification we feel from seeing the public enjoy the space and the beautiful textiles is boundless.

The Hubbell-Joe Rug Exhibit and the Licher Collection of Historic Navajo Weavings are now officially open to the public!

Weaving Demonstrations

Weavers Gloria Begay and Jennie Slick joined us to do weaving demonstrations throughout the day and kept the crowd captivated by the process. They have graciously left us this loom on loan and will come back periodically to complete the weaving they started!

National Parks Service: Hubbell Historical Site

Thanks to interpretive ranger LaShanna, who recently gave me a tour of the historic Hubbell Trading post, we had three representatives join us to share information about the site, along with weaver Ilene Naegle who demonstrated how to spin wool. Many thanks to William, Alvis, LaShanna, and Ilene for adding to our event!

Future Sculpture Garden

In the lot in front of the Contemporary Gallery, we have future plans to install a lavender field with a sculpture garden. For this event, we created a temporary garden of rolling “sculpture” from creative director Lori Bentley Law and husband Brian Law’s Motor Palace Collection of Common Motorcycles, along with friend David Hartman’s Texaco truck–an appropriate exhibit considering La Posada and Affeldt Mion Museum sit on Route 66.

The Opening Program

We held the opening program in the Contemporary Gallery, surrounded by the beauty of the Licher Collection of Historic Weavings.

Two granddaughters of Julia Joe joined us and brought with them the batten and comb used to make the Hubbell-Joe rug. Many thanks to Virginia and Rosita (daughters of Helen) for sharing this with us.

Allan Affeldt

Allan spoke about how he and Tina found the rug and returned it to Winslow.

Tina and I first read about La Posada in 1994, when it was likely to be torn down. While researching the history of the town and property, I came across an old photo – of Navajo Dancers, in La Posada’s lobby, with a rug that filled the entire room. At that time it was known as the Hubbell Rug, and had not been seen for many decades – like so much of Winslow history, the rug was abandoned and forgotten.

He also talked about the challenges in creating an exhibit for such an extraordinary piece and the incredible work of artist John Suttman.

I took the rug layout ideas to my friend John Suttman. John agreed to figure out the details and build all the contraptions like a cantilevering wall and gears and pulleys and the beautiful cork floors and railings. This exhibit would not be possible without John’s brilliance.

Allan ended his presentation with these poignant words:

There is magic and beauty all around us, but finding it, and seeing it, often takes work. The magic of today is the work of Julia Joe and her family. You honor them with your presence. We hope we have honored them with our efforts.

Allan Affeldt

Mary Walker

Mary Walker of Weaving in Beauty in Gallup, New Mexico joined us to talk about the conservation plan for the rug. She inspected every inch of the textile and also put together a plan of care for us to follow. Over the last ten years, Dan Lutzick (La Posada and Snowdrift Art Space) has been caregiver to the rug, and will continue to do so, according to Mary’s report. As both Mary and Dan have said, the plan is not perfect, but it will evolve with time and we are grateful to them both for their passion and care of this masterwork.

Winslow Arts Trust

After Allan and Tina purchased the rug in 2012, they donated the textile to the Winslow Arts Trust. The Winslow Arts Trust is a public benefit nonprofit organization that enriches the historic community of Winslow Arizona, preserves Fred Harvey structures along Route 66, and supports artists inspired by these places and their histories. On hand for the program, Trustees Brian Law and Peggy Nelson, who spoke about the trust’s desire to support programming, and showed that support by presenting an honorarium to the weavers and the Winslow High School Native American club, Tribe of Many Feathers, who performed at the end of the program.

NPS Interpretive Ranger, William Yazzie

We were thrilled when William from the National Parks Service – Hubbell Trading Post Historic Site in Ganado contacted us about joining the program. He added a wonderful perspective to the event. As a Diné man, he was able to share thoughts on what having this rug on display means to the community and the complicated role traders played in Navajo history. He also shared more with us about the historic site and left brochures to share with our visitors.

Max Licher

In the Contemporary Gallery, we have on exhibit the Licher Collection of Historic Navajo Weavings. Max Licher was the architect who worked with Allan and Tina on the rehabilitation of the 1930 depot and the beautiful contemporary gallery where we held the opening event. The space has exquisite light and a wonderful open feel–the perfect place to display the extraordinary historic Navajo weaving collection of Max and his wife Clare, dating from 1910 to 1930. The Licher’s have been collecting for more than forty years, and are inspired by patterns, texture, geology, and biology. Max spoke of the unknown weavers who created these beautiful pieces, inspired by the botanical diversity in our region.

The woven tapestries speak to that knowledge too; the cornstalks, waterbugs, dragonflies, and feathers, from the perspective of a people whose lives were far more intimately tied to nature than ours. After all these years, they still point towards a beauty that is worth aspiring to in our contemporary creations.

Max Licher

Bennie Yazzie and the Tribe of Many Feathers

The program closed with a dance performance led by Bennie Yazzie, who is the director of the club Tribe of Many Feathers at Winslow High School. Bennie is passionate about teaching traditional Diné dancing to young people and takes his groups to pow-wows across the southwest. The Winslow Arts Trust was happy to support his efforts.

The dancers involved the audience as well, ending with a circle dance to celebrate and strengthen the community and encourage togetherness.

On the topic of community, we want to share a big thank you for the…

Admission Sponsorship!

Our good friends Paul Rushca of El Gran Garage and Appy and Susan Chandler kindly sponsored the opening day admission fee for all attendees (normally $5)! What a wonderful gesture and show of support for what Affeldt Mion Museum is doing. We appreciate you greatly for helping to make our grand opening event run so smoothly.

If you too would like to support the historic preservation efforts of AMM, please click the button below.

THANK YOU!

And finally, thank YOU for your enthusiasm, energy, and encouraging words. Putting together this exhibit has been an incredibly rewarding experience for all of us involved, and we appreciate each and every one of you. If you didn’t make it for the grand opening, please come and see us soon. We are so proud to share these two extraordinary exhibits.

Many thanks to Jim Buckley and Dan Lutzick for the pictures and to all who helped make this event a success! Dan also recorded this video!