From Heart to Hands: A Workshop with Basket Maker Jilli Oyenque

500 University Boulevard Northeast,Albuquerque NM 87106

06 May, 2023

Description

For more than twenty years, Jilli M. Oyenque has been making red willow baskets in the tradition of her Okhay Owingeh Pueblo (Santa Juan) community. Basket making is a practice that had almost been lost and, today, she is one of the few people currently weaving—taking found items in nature, and creating with them, as she says, “from heart to hands.” Join us in welcoming Jilli to the Maxwell Museum and learn directly from her about what it takes and means to collect the red willow while it is sleeping after a good hard frost in the winter. She will give a short presentation with images and video to contextualize her practice. Then, she will guide participants in their own process of making the base of a red willow basket. Materials will be provided free of charge. Her special visit and hands-on workshop is in celebration of the two temporary exhibits currently on display at the Maxwell Museum, “Conversing with the Land: Native North American Baskets of the Maxwell Museum Collection” as well as “We Were Basket Makers Before We Were Pueblo People.” We hope you’ll join us.