Lloyd's Treasure Chest
This open storage facility provides visitors with the opportunity to interact with works not on display in the gallery, providing a context for further appreciation and understanding of folk heritage, traditions, and aesthetics. Here, visitors have the opportunity to experience the behind-the-scenes museum activities and gain insight into aspects of preservation and conservation relating to the diverse works, and see videos about the collection.

During the holidays, a special display highlighting diverse celebrations such as Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa» and Chinese New Year.

Material World: Textiles & Dress from the Collection
In the Cotsen Gallery December 20, 2009 through
September 11, 2011
Material World presents a tantalizing glimpse into the Museum of International Folk Art's largest collection of textiles and costumes stored in 57 closets and numerous trunks and drawers. The 138 rarely-seen items in this exhibition highlight the remarkable breadth and depth of 20,000 objects ranging from everyday household articles to elaborately detailed ceremonial wear in the Museum's textile collection.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue authored by exhibition curator Bobbie Sumberg. The catalog divides the textile and costume collection into two categories, textiles and dress, and into several subcategories: Textiles for the bed; for the dwelling; for the church, temple, or ceremony; and, decorative pieces such as samplers. Dress is divided into headwear, outerwear, footwear, accessories, ceremonial, and complete ensembles. (Photo, above, left: Boots, leather, linen, metallic thread, tooled. Syria. Gift of Irene Fisher and Dr. Estella Warner. Photo by Addison Doty)

Curator Bobbie Sumberg says, "Making and embellishing textiles can be a powerful tool of socialization and a reflection of cultural values. By looking at the production and use of textiles, numerous aspects of history and culture become illuminated. For example, gender roles within a family and within a society or culture are usually played out when cloth is made and worn." The exhibition opens at the Museum of International Folk Art on December 20, 2009 in the Cotsen Gallery of the Neutrogena Wing.

See selections from the Neutrogena Collection»

Neutrogena Educational materials »

Explore New Mexico Textile Traditions»

More Textile Resources On-line»

PAST EXHIBITIONS FEATURING THE NEUTROGENA COLLECTION

The inaugural exhibition, The Extraordinary in the Ordinary, was co-curated by donor Lloyd Cotsen and independent curator Mary Hunt Kahlenberg. The exhibition and new wing opened in August 1998. A catalogue on the collection, The Extraordinary in the Ordinary has been published by Harry N. Abrams Inc. Essays focus on various aspects of world traditions in Africa, Asia and the Americas, with topics ranging from ceremonial cloths of the Congo, to court robes of China, and to Venetian gondola prows. (Photograph right by Kitty Leaken, installation of The Extraordinary in the Ordinary)

The second exhibition drawn from the collection opened in the Summer of 2000. Curiouser and Curiouser:
A Walk Through The Looking-Glass presents objects in a setting inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The Curator and Exhibition Designer collaborated to display objects in ways that challenged visitor's perceptions. For example, one room is a library of giant-sized books (photograph Curiouser & Curiouser exhibition by Paul Smutko, right) to invite visitors to leaf through textile "books". Innovative theatrical lighting and other techniques delighted children, and the young at heart. Museum educators collaborated with the Santa Fe Public Library in presenting summer reading programs, Read 'Round The World (Summer 2000) and Once Upon A Planet (Summer 2001). School age students participating in the program had art and writing workshops at the museum and at the libraries. The Summer Reading program was highlighted with Museum program with play & puppet performances, all ages art activities, and readings by the participants themselves. The exhibition closed March 30, 2002.

The third exhibition drawn exclusively from the collection was Gathering Threads: The Heart of the Neutrogena Collection. The exhibition showcased the variety and range of human ingenuity and ability, which extends across cultures and time, all within the medium of textiles. Textiles have the ability to connect us- they are the common ground upon which we all stand (or sleep under, or wrap ourselves in). When these connections become visible, we can begin to understand how we are all part of the global community, linked by a common thread.