[{"ID":36026,"post_type":"programs","title":"Worlds In-Between: The Art of Charlie Willeto","content":"","status":"publish","date":"2026-04-08 22:28:08","name":"worlds-in-between-the-art-of-charlie-willeto","parent":0,"modified":"2026-04-09 02:34:34","series?":"Program","category":{"term_id":40,"name":"Discussions","slug":"discussions","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":40,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":18,"count":0,"filter":"raw"},"main_image":{"ID":36027,"id":36027,"title":"banner willeto-final","filename":"banner-willeto-final.jpg","filesize":113905,"url":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/banner-willeto-final.jpg","link":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/programs\/worlds-in-between-the-art-of-charlie-willeto\/banner-willeto-final\/","alt":"","author":"30","description":"","caption":"","name":"banner-willeto-final","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":36026,"date":"2026-04-08 22:24:38","modified":"2026-04-08 22:24:38","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/site\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1080,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/banner-willeto-final-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/banner-willeto-final-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/banner-willeto-final-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/banner-willeto-final.jpg","large-width":1920,"large-height":1080,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/banner-willeto-final-1536x864.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":864,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/banner-willeto-final.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1080}},"list_image":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/banner-willeto-cropped-final.jpg","headline":"Worlds In-Between: The Art of Charlie Willeto","di_date":"2026-07-01","excerpt":"

Join artist Patrick Dean Hubbell, historian Jennifer Nez Denetdale and curator Ninabah Reid Winton\u00a0 for a conversation on Charlie Willeto, a Din\u00e9 sculptor and medicine man. <\/span><\/p>\n","start_time":"1:00 pm","end_time":"2:30 pm","admission":"Virtual; free with registration","main_content":"

Charlie Willeto spent his life in <\/span>Din\u00e9 Bik\u00e9yah<\/span><\/i>, the homeland of the Din\u00e9 people (Navajo Nation). A <\/span>Hat\u00e1\u00e1\u0142ii<\/span><\/i> (medicine man), Willeto exchanged his hand-painted, doll-like wooden carvings for goods at trading posts neighboring his home in New Mexico. Drawing from Din\u00e9 ceremonial traditions (yet modifying forms and symbols for a secular Western context), his stylized sculptures speak to his experience as a healer, community member, and artist of profound vision and wit.<\/span><\/p>\n

The American Folk Art Museum invites you to a conversation celebrating Willeto\u2019s legacy, with artist <\/span>Patrick Dean Hubbell<\/strong>, <\/b>historian <\/span>Jennifer Nez Denetdale<\/strong> and curator <\/span>Ninabah Reid Winton<\/strong>. Together, they will examine Willeto\u2019s work, currently on view in the collection-based exhibitions <\/span>Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists<\/span><\/i><\/a> and<\/span> Folk Nation: Crafting Patriotism in the United States<\/span><\/i><\/a>, through the lens of Din\u00e9 history, philosophy and art.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This conversation offers a unique look at the intersections of artmaking, healing, and resistance within a Din\u00e9 context. It\u2019s an opportunity to learn how Willeto mediated his position as both artist and healer in mid-twentieth-century America, navigating the sacred and the secular, Din\u00e9 and settler value systems, as well as Native and Western aesthetic traditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

This program is organized by Mathilde Walker-Billaud, AFAM Curator of Programs and Engagement.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About the speakers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Patrick Dean Hubbell<\/b> <\/a>is originally from Navajo, New Mexico, located on the Navajo Nation, Southwest United States. He is a recent MFA graduate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. He currently lives and works on the Navajo Nation.\u00a0 His work is an exploration of his Dine\u2019 and Indigenous identity and journey within the contemporary moment. The foundation of his practice is inspired by cultural methodologies, references to traditional Indigenous art and philosophy and the abstractness of language, nature, time, and place. Incorporating a variety of mediums, including natural earth pigment collected from his Dine\u2019 homelands, and two-dimensional painting and drawing mediums, his work aims to challenge the imposition of categorizations and to amplify aspects of Indigenous identity within the western ideologies of contemporary art. The physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of his life are translated through a combination of intuitive, gestural mark making, automatic drawing, and design. Using both elements of traditional substrate and incorporating sculptural elements of display, the two dimensional surface format recontextualizes figurative entities of abstraction. By expanding the principles and aesthetics of the western canon, his work seeks to redefine the visibility of the Indigenous experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the first-ever Din\u00e9\/Navajo to earn a Ph.D. in history, <\/span>Dr. Jennifer Nez Denetdale<\/strong> is a strong advocate for Indigenous peoples and strives to foster academic excellence in the next generation of students devoted to supporting Indigenous nations and their claims to sovereignty. Denetdale is a Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico and teaches courses in Critical Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Feminisms & Gender, Indigenous Films, Din\u00e9 Studies, and Southwest Studies. Her book, <\/span>Reclaiming Din\u00e9 History: The Legacies of Navajo Chief Manuelito and Juanita<\/span><\/i>, was published by the University of Arizona Press in 2007 and set the standard for Din\u00e9 histories and methodologies. Her book for young adults, <\/span>The Long Walk: The Forced Exile of the Navajo<\/span><\/i>, was published by Chelsea House in 2007. She was appointed to the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission as a commissioner by the Navajo Nation Council and now serves as the Commission\u2019s chair. As a Din\u00e9 feminist, she is an advocate for Navajo women and the LGBTQI2S community. She has been recognized for her scholarship and service to her nation and community with several awards, including the Rainbow Naatsiilid True Colors for her support and advocacy on behalf of the Navajo LGBTQI2S and the UNM Faculty of Color Award for her teaching, research and service in the academy. In 2013, she was awarded the UNM Sarah Brown Belle award for service to her community. In the spring of 2015, she was recognized for Excellence in Din\u00e9 Studies by the Navajo Studies Conference, Inc. In 2017, she was awarded the UNM Presidential Award of Distinction. She is also very proud to have been selected to deliver the inaugural address before the 23rd Navajo Nation Council upon their inauguration in January 2015. She was recognized for her scholarly achievements and commitment to community service by Northern Arizona University with the Dwight Patterson Alumni of the Year Award and the NAU Cal Seciwa Award, both in 2022.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ninabah Reid Winton<\/strong> (Din\u00e9) <\/span>is an independent curator and scholar of contemporary art. Winton is a current MA Candidate in Art History at the Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts at Arizona State University and advisor to the ASU School of Art and Dreamscape Learn. Winton has served on the curatorial team of exhibitions including <\/span>Color Riot! How Color Changed Navajo Textiles <\/span><\/i>(Heard Museum, 2018), <\/span>Looking at Us: Examining Institutional Critique<\/span><\/i> (Idyllwild Arts Foundation, 2022), <\/span>Seral Bodies<\/span><\/i>, (Northlight Gallery, 2023), <\/span>Making Visible<\/span><\/i> (Arizona State University Art Museum, 2022), and curated<\/span> Everything is a Little Fuzzy<\/span><\/i> (Arizona State University Art Museum, 2023). Winton\u2019s research interests center on contemporary craft and design with an emphasis on material and craft economies, sound and audio art, as well as textile and fiber-based production. Winton lives and works in Phoenix, Arizona, working with collector and textile specialist Carol Ann Mackay and Ann Marshall, the Heard\u2019s Director of Research.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Images\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Left: Charlie Willeto (1897 or 1906\u20131964), Untitled, Near Chaco Canyon, Navajo Nation, New Mexico, 1961\u20131964. Paint and feather on cottonwood and pine with metal and rope. 26 1\/4 x 6 x 6 1\/4 in. American Folk Art Museum, New York, Gift of Audrey B. Heckler<\/span><\/p>\n

Center: Charlie Willeto (1897 or 1906\u20131964, Nageezi, Navajo Nation, New Mexico)<\/span><\/p>\n

Untitled, Near Chaco Canyon, Navajo Nation, New Mexico, 1961\u20131964. Paint and cotton on cottonwood and pine, 16 x 7 1\/2 x 2 3\/4 in. American Folk Art Museum, New York, Gift of Audrey B. Heckler<\/span><\/p>\n

Right: Patrick Dean Hubbell (1986, Navajo Nation, New Mexico) <\/span>You Guided Our Prayers For Generations, We Will Continue To Persevere<\/span><\/i>, 2025. Oil, Acrylic, Acrylic Dispersion, Enamel, Oil Stick, Oil Pastel, Charcoal, Sharpie, Marker, Pen and Ink, Enamel Spray, Natural Earth Pigment, Synthetic Polymer, Staples, Horse Hair, Leather, Buckskin, Commercial Tanned Deer Hide, Cut Seed Beads, Synthetic Textile, Paper, Sewing, Canvas,105 x 62 in. Courtesy of the artist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Registration<\/strong><\/p>\n

Space is limited; advance registration is required. Please consider making a donation when you register to support ongoing virtual programming.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instructions for joining with a Zoom link and password will be provided by email upon registration confirmation under \u201cAdditional Information.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Closed captioning will be provided in English.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For questions or to request accessibility accommodations, please email <\/span>publicprograms@folkartmuseum.org<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","show_in_past_programs":true,"reserve_text":"Register Here ","reserve_link":"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/e\/worlds-in-between-the-art-of-charlie-willeto-tickets-1986835462352?aff=oddtdtcreator","day":"01","month":"Jul","year":"2026","link":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/programs\/worlds-in-between-the-art-of-charlie-willeto\/"},{"ID":36031,"post_type":"programs","title":"Can Craft Save America?","content":"","status":"publish","date":"2026-04-08 22:34:10","name":"can-craft-save-america","parent":0,"modified":"2026-04-09 02:35:10","series?":"Program","category":{"term_id":40,"name":"Discussions","slug":"discussions","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":40,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":18,"count":0,"filter":"raw"},"main_image":{"ID":36032,"id":36032,"title":"banner design-Final","filename":"banner-design-Final.jpg","filesize":152628,"url":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/banner-design-Final.jpg","link":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/programs\/can-craft-save-america\/banner-design-final\/","alt":"","author":"30","description":"","caption":"","name":"banner-design-final","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":36031,"date":"2026-04-08 22:30:08","modified":"2026-04-08 22:30:08","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/site\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1080,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/banner-design-Final-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/banner-design-Final-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/banner-design-Final-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/banner-design-Final.jpg","large-width":1920,"large-height":1080,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/banner-design-Final-1536x864.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":864,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/banner-design-Final.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1080}},"list_image":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/banner-design-Final.jpg","headline":"Can Craft Save America? ","di_date":"2026-08-04","excerpt":"

Join Americanist and art historian Angela Miller, artist Sunny A. Smith, and craft educator and curator Namita Gupta Wiggers for a conversation on folk art, history, and nation-building. <\/span><\/p>\n","start_time":"1:00 pm","end_time":"2:30 pm","admission":"Virtual; free with registration","main_content":"

From weathervanes and trade signs to quilts, carvings, and painted portraiture, American folk art encompasses a wide range of handicraft practices dating back to the 17th century that symbolize ingenuity, independence, and pride, key values of American identity. The term, which emerged in the early twentieth century, has evolved over time, reflecting changes in the nation\u2019s idealized sense of self and its aspirations for the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

The program “Can Craft Save America?” looks closely at the intersections between the handmade and nation-building. It takes its name from Namita Gupta Wiggers\u2019 <\/span>2021 review<\/span><\/a> for the journal <\/span>Metropolis<\/span><\/i>, in which she noted a lack of historical and political depth in recent museum exhibitions connecting craft to national identity. At a time of institutional reckoning, when museums are increasingly called upon to advance diversity, equity, and justice, Wiggers invited us to expand our questioning of the handmade and think more critically about which objects are included, the stories they tell, and the people they represent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the occasion of the United States\u2019 semiquincentennial (250th anniversary) and the exhibition <\/span>Folk Nation: Crafting Patriotism in the United States<\/span><\/i><\/a> at the American Folk Art Museum, Wiggers will revisit this pressing question with Americanist and art historian Angela Miller and artist Sunny A. Smith. Together, they will trace the emergence of American folk art as both a heritage-collecting movement and an artistic category, highlighting the field\u2019s ability to both reflect and complicate our historical understanding of the American nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About the speakers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Angela Miller<\/strong> writes on the cultural histories of the arts in the U.S., with a focus on the 20<\/span>th<\/span> century. In 2008, she launched a team of five leading scholars in the field to produce <\/span>American Encounters<\/span><\/i>, a downloadable survey of the arts in the United States and its antecedents. Her essay \u201c\u2019The People Looks Upon Its Own Life\u2019: Self-Taught Art between the Wars\u201d (2022)\u2014looks at the role of self-taught art in building democracy during a decade that witnessed the rise of fascism in Europe and the U.S. She also contributed to public programming for the American Folk Art Museum\u2019s 2022-23 exhibition on Morris Hirshfield. Miller has just completed a book on the queer circle of artists and writers around Lincoln Kirstein–best known as the founder of the New York City Ballet–in the years around World War II. She is Professor Emerita (Fall 2025) at Washington University in St. Louis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sunny A. Smith<\/strong> is a queer, trans* nonbinary artist, educator, and institutional leader whose work investigates how history is constructed, remembered, and contested. Based in Yelamu and Huchiun (San Francisco Bay Area) on unceded Ohlone territory, Smith engages with craft, material culture, and collective storytelling to explore the power of objects in shaping historical narratives. Smith\u2019s work has been widely exhibited, including at P.S.1\/MoMA, SFMOMA, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, MASS MoCA, and Palais de Tokyo, and is included in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, UCLA Hammer Museum, and LACMA. <\/span><\/p>\n

As an educator and institutional leader, Smith has spent over 25 years shaping arts education to ensure that curricula, museums, and archives reflect a more expansive and inclusive vision of history. For seventeen years, they served as Professor and more recently as Dean of Fine Arts (2018 – 2025) at California College of the Arts. Smith recently transitioned from higher education to become the next Executive Director and CEO of Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/b>Namita Gupta Wiggers<\/strong> is a writer, educator, curator, and artist based in Portland, OR. She currently teaches in the MFA in Social Practice, Portland State University. Wiggers founded, directed and taught in the MA in Critical Craft Studies, Warren Wilson College, the first and only low residency program focused on critical craft histories and theory from 2017 – 2023. She was awarded a Senior Fellow, Smithsonian Institution in 2024, and a Paul J. Smith Fields of the Future Fellow at Bard Graduate Center, NYC in 2023 to support her research on contemporary craft museums in the 21st Century. Recent publications include a special issue of the Journal of Modern Craft focused on the MA in Critical Craft Studies (Vol. 17, Issue 1, 2024) with Tom Martin, and This is not a Retreat, co-edited with Ben Lignel for The MACR Papers. In 2026, Wiggers was voted into the College of Fellows, American Craft Council. Wiggers served on the Board of Trustees, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (2016-2025) and is currently on the Advisory Board, The Journal of Modern Craft. Wiggers directs and co-founded Critical Craft Forum (since 2008), and served as the Director and Chief Curator, Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland OR from 2004 – 2014. American-born of South Asian heritage, her work combines platform building roles with prior experiences as a museum educator, design researcher, and studio jeweler to understand craft and culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

This program is organized by Mathilde Walker-Billaud, AFAM Curator of Programs and Engagement.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Images\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Left: Uncle Sam Riding a Bicycle Whirligig, Probably New York State, 1880\u20131920. Paint on wood with metal, 37 x 55 1\/2 x 11 in.. American Folk Art Museum Collection, Gift of Dorothea and Leo Rabkin<\/span><\/p>\n

Center: Figured Doublecloth Coverlet, Possibly Dover, New York, 1829. Cotton and wool, 98 3\/4 x 73 in. American Folk Art Museum Collection, Gift of Birgit Lorentzen<\/span><\/p>\n

Right: Exhibition view of <\/span>Sunny A. Smith: The Compass Rose<\/span><\/i> at the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture\u00a0 (13 January – 12 March 2023). Photo credit Josef Jacques.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Registration<\/strong><\/p>\n

Space is limited; advance registration is required. Please consider making a donation when you register to support ongoing virtual programming.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instructions for joining with a Zoom link and password will be provided by email upon registration confirmation under \u201cAdditional Information.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Closed captioning will be provided in English.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For questions or to request accessibility accommodations, please email <\/span>publicprograms@folkartmuseum.org<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","reserve_text":"Register Here","reserve_link":"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/e\/can-craft-save-america-tickets-1986804814684?aff=oddtdtcreator","day":"04","month":"Aug","year":"2026","link":"https:\/\/folkartmuseum.org\/programs\/can-craft-save-america\/"}]